Need help doing the large upgrade

[Captain X]

So I'm upgrading my forum from 1.1.13 to 2.0.18 and I can't seem to do the actual upgrade part.  I am rusty as hell, and I can't remember how to really do any of this, because it's been something like 8 years or so.

Anyway, I extracted all the files from the zip file I downloaded from here, and then uploaded those files to the smf directory I have for my forum.  Then, attempting to follow the directions from this page, I navigated to the "upgrade.php" address using my browser, and get a blank page.  Nothing else happens.  The index no longer works either, and instead all I get is

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Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_FUNCTION, expecting ')' in /home2/captainx/public_html/smf/index.php on line 114

[Kindred]

That's odd.

1- did you take a backup?
1a- if so, then restore it.

2- make sure you are using the UPGRADE archive, not the install archive.


Once you have restored your backup,  then do the following.

Delete all files and directories other than your avatars directory, your attachments directory and Settings.php.

Then upload the upgrade zip.
Extract the upgrade zip in place.

Then try running uograde.php

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Just to add a bit of explanation to the error, a syntax error after uploading a fresh file would suggest the file is broken, it wasn't uploaded completely for some reason or got corrupted in the process.

[Captain X]

That's odd.

1- did you take a backup?
1a- if so, then restore it.

2- make sure you are using the UPGRADE archive, not the install archive.


Once you have restored your backup,  then do the following.

Delete all files and directories other than your avatars directory, your attachments directory and Settings.php.

Then upload the upgrade zip.
Extract the upgrade zip in place.

Then try running uograde.php

I figured out that my FTP uploader just overwrites any files that are named the same, so I copied over the files from the backup I made.  The Upgrade page displays now, but it's telling me that it can't run because it found outdated files.  Do you happen to know which files specifically I'd have to grab from the upgrade archive?

ETA:  And now it's bugging me about my board directory ("home" vs. "home2").  I'm thinking something got duplicated and automatically renamed somewhere, and I don't know where to look for that.

ETA2:  I'm starting over from scratch again to see what I can do.

ETA3: And I'm back at the "home" vs. "home2" thing.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

The upgrade is meant to overwrite EVERYTHING. So your FTP did what was expected.
Errors like this can come up if you try to do the upgrade in a different location, or have old and new SMF files mixed together.

[Arantor]

Also what version of PHP is that? It might be too low for SMF 2.0 at this time.

[Captain X]

So I got it to run, or at least start, but it looks like it might be locking up or freezing only 4% into creating the backup.

[Steve]

Also what version of PHP is that? It might be too low for SMF 2.0 at this time.

[Captain X]

So I'm upgrading my forum from 1.1.13 to 2.0.18 and I can't seem to do the actual upgrade part. 

[shadav]

So I'm upgrading my forum from 1.1.13 to 2.0.18 and I can't seem to do the actual upgrade part. 

yes that's your smf version but what is your php version/level
you should be able to find it in your hosting account somewhere there should be something that says something about php
manage php
php settings
multi php
etc

[Captain X]

I forget what it was to make the forum still work, but it is now 7.4, and now it does not work.  Kind of the reason I'm doing the upgrade, actually. 

[Arantor]

The error you had previously would have been consistent with being on PHP below 5.3. You need to be somewhere above 5.4 for sure, and perhaps the upgrader needs a lower version?

The advice lately appears to have been to set PHP to 5.6 and run the upgrade that way, then switch to 7.4.

[Captain X]

Oh, well, that's no longer possible unfortunately.  The host did an upgrade and now the lowest I can go is 7.3.   

If this upgrade doesn't work, is it possible to do the new install and then use the backup I created from the forum software to restore all the posts and everything?

[Arantor]

Well, there's no reason I can immediately think of that would prevent an upgrade working if you feed it the 2.0.18 large upgrade (I'm just saying the advice lately was to do that, and the initial error was a hallmark of a PHP 5.2 or lower install)

Don't try to use backups and fudge new installs, the upgrade does some table changes that won't let you work from a reimport, it has to be done in place.

Thing is, you said it didn't work when you tried it with the newer PHP version... how did it not work? What were the symptoms?

[Captain X]

It locked at 4% when I tried having it do the backup first.  When I restarted it without doing that, it just generated an unknown error in the first script, and literally calls it that.

ETA: Oh, it's still complaining about the "home" vs "home2" thing, too, before I start.  I am rather confused about that one as I don't see any such directory.

ETA2:  Did you mean the old forum?  It just displays as a blank page in PHP 7.3 and 7.4.

ETA3:  And by backup, I am speaking of trying to restore the old posts and such by completing a fresh install, and then using the .sql.gz file generated by the original forum software by its admin tools, perhaps through importing it somehow?  I've never had to use any of those backups I've created that way, so I honestly don't know how to go about restoring a forum using them, or if it's even possible in this case.

[Captain X]

Well, I'm going to go ahead and attempt a new install of 2.0.18 and see if I can import the backup file using the forum software.  If nothing else, I can still go back and try upgrading from the original files again later.  wish me luck.

[Arantor]

Good luck with that, you'll have to go through every table and rename most of the columns by hand if you do that.

[Captain X]

I get through to step 5 running install.php in my browser, then get an error:

Code Select Expand

Unknown column 'member_name' in 'field list'

[Captain X]

Trying the upgrade again, by which I mean I deleted everything and re-uploaded the attachments and avatars directories and the Settings.php file before uploading the files and directories from the upgrade zip file.  Made it a bit further this time, but ran into an error while it was executing "updating ban system..." (12 of 19 of this script).  It generated an error code 1267.

[Doug Heffernan]

This error means that said field is missing from the database.

I get through to step 5 running install.php in my browser, then get an error:

Code Select Expand

Unknown column 'member_name' in 'field list'

WHereas this error points to illegal mix of collations. What collation is your database on?

Trying the upgrade again, by which I mean I deleted everything and re-uploaded the attachments and avatars directories and the Settings.php file before uploading the files and directories from the upgrade zip file.  Made it a bit further this time, but ran into an error while it was executing "updating ban system..." (12 of 19 of this script).  It generated an error code 1267.