trainmaster

It ended up being a server problem. This is the response I received from my host, Lunarpages.

The issue is due to the recent WordPress Update that requires connection to www.remarpro.com to only use the latest version of OpenSSL. Unfortunately, you are on CentOS 4 server and we cannot upgrade OpenSSL on CentOS 4 machine as the latest OpenSSL only support CentOS 6.

Lunarpages offered to move my site to one of their CentOS 6 machines.
After they did that, I was still having issues, so I had to contact them again because of fatal error messages when trying to update plug-ins.
Messages like
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 30720 bytes) in /home/---------/plugins/the-events-calendar/src/Tribe/Main.php on line 3515
so Lunarpages increased the php memory allocation for my account.
This, and switching to a newer theme resolved all the issues I was having.
I will say that the response time and communication from Lunarpages was excellent once I contacted them.

Host provider (Lunarpages) was very helpful in moving site to one of their CentOS 6 servers, and with increasing memory allocated to PHP.

I was using an outdated theme that would have required purchasing a new license to update, so I switched to a free theme.

I also went back to WP 4.3.1 for now.

Problems solved.

Host updated me to new openSSL server. Just tried to update plug-ins and get the exact same error that I started with. Also tried to install a new plug in – both give same error:
‘Download failed. error:0D0890A1:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_verify:unknown message digest algorithm’

Now this is getting frustrating. ??

Contacted my hosting provider (Lunarpages). I am sharing their response in case it may help someone else in the same boat:

The issue is due to the recent WordPress Update that requires connection to www.remarpro.com to only use the latest version of OpenSSL. Unfortunately, you are on CentOS 4 server and we cannot upgrade OpenSSL on CentOS 4 machine as the latest OpenSSL only support CentOS 6.

(They’ve offered to move my site to a server that can be upgraded.)
mc

Just tried to update plug-ins again and something interesting occured:

• Feedjit Live Traffic Feed updated successfully
• HandHeld updated successfully.
• Quotes Collection updated successfully.

Akismet, Captcha, Contact Form, Gallery, and The Event Calendar failed with the same error as in my original email.

Yes. Same error when installing a plug in I don’t already have – tried 2 different plug-ins.

Deleting and attempting to reinstall a plug-in (Ninja Forms) results in this exact same error for me. Get same error when I tried to install a completely new plug-in (Theme-Check). I have reservations about deleting any additional plug-ins.

Looks like I will wait for the 4.4.1 fix and hope that resolves my issues. Thanks for setting me straight on the current version. I’d read ticket 34976 and for some reason thought it had been closed and wp already updated to 4.4.1. I should’ve just given up and gone to bed. ??