Blank Page

[Sheda]

I haven't used my forum for years and at some point, I noticed that there is just a blank page when calling my website.
So I thought: "Hm, I guess the code must be too old, or the php version or something."
So I deleted everything and installed the newest version, also I raised the version of the php on my webspace from 5 to 8.
But still, even now, I just get a blank page. XD
The install.php worked perfectly and created the database and everything.
When I uploaded some random files, they also displayed normally.
But the forum, for some reason, doesn't work and simply stays an empty page.

What should I do/try? It's been a while since I worked with my webspace and I wasn't an expert back then either. u__û
If the code is up to date and the webspace otherwise works... Where could the problem be?
My friend said to look at the browser console and it said "[HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error 307ms].
Well, that doesn't really say anything more than that something went wrong on the server. Which I pretty much already knew, because otherwise I would get a page...

[@rjen]

What version of SMF did you install? 2.0.19 or 2.1 RC4?

2.0.19 does not support php 8. Try to switch php back to 7.4

[Sheda]

It's 2.1 RC4.
And well...

I've found a log file for php errors and it had this:

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[02-Feb-2022 20:28:59 Europe/Berlin] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught TypeError: array_keys(): Argument #1 ($array) must be of type array, null given in /home/X/html/X.de/forum/Sources/Load.php:3253
Stack trace:
#0 /home/X/html/X.de/forum/Sources/Load.php(3253): array_keys(NULL)
#1 /home/X/html/X.de/forum/Sources/Load.php(841): getLanguages()
#2 /home/X/html/X.de/forum/index.php(217): loadUserSettings()
#3 /home/X/html/X.de/forum/index.php(187): smf_main()
#4 {main}
  thrown in /home/X/html/X.de/forum/Sources/Load.php on line 3253
After changing the Php version to 7.0 instead, this error actually disappeared, but instead I'm getting the error that the theme directory wasn't found (just getting a text site) and a bunch of errors like:

Code Select Expand

Uncaught ReferenceError: getInnerHTML is not defined
So changing the php version certainly does something, but it just seems to change the type of error I get. :/

[@rjen]

Funky! I would think that your install failed somehow.

This was a clean install? No existing database used?
If so I would wipe it and try again...

I am not sure I understand what you did exactly. You said that you had an old forum. You did not try to use the old database?
Whatever you do, I hope you created a full database backup before you started ...

[Sheda]

Well, it was like this:

I downloaded my whole webspace to have a backup.
Deleted everything.
Left the old database alone.
Uploaded the newly downloaded and unzipped Smf 2.1.
Made a second database, which I used to install Smf.

When looking at the database in the control panel, everything seems to be where it should be.
There are lots of smf-related entries in it.

Looking at the webspace with FTP, the files also all seem to be where they should be and when I download and open them, I can't see anything wrong (although I don't really remember which code does what, it's been a long time since I used to mess with it XD).

Guess I can delete everything and reinstall again, but since the problems have persisted even with the new installation, I'm not optimistic.

[Kindred]

You do realize that you can not use a 2.0 database in a 2.1 installation?   You have to run upgrade.php to make all the necessary changes

[Sheda]

As I said, I didn't use the old database. I made a new one. =3=

And... after reinstalling, I'm getting the exact same bug as before, yay...

[Kindred]

which version of 2.1 RC4 did you install?   The one from our downloads here or the nightly from gitHub?

[Sheda]

The one from the Download.

I'm really wondering if it can be 2.1 which is at fault, because the old forum was 2.0 and it didn't load either.

At least now, I'm finally getting a proper error and not just a blank page. xD
"Unable to load Themes/default/index.template.php!"
Well, it is in the right place, though. I even put a picture in the folder and loaded that, to make sure the url is correct.

[Shades.]

Check file permissions?

Folders/set to 755
Files/ set to 644

[Sheda]

Check file permissions?

Folders/set to 755
Files/ set to 644

That's what they are already set to.
Everyone should be able to read them, so smf should be able to read them too...

[Doug Heffernan]

The one from the Download.

I'm really wondering if it can be 2.1 which is at fault, because the old forum was 2.0 and it didn't load either.

At least now, I'm finally getting a proper error and not just a blank page. xD
"Unable to load Themes/default/index.template.php!"
Well, it is in the right place, though. I even put a picture in the folder and loaded that, to make sure the url is correct.

So the file in the question is really present? What is its size? Can you open and see if it contains all content or is it empty?

[Sheda]

26,2kb

It's a pretty long file.
Now I'm starting to wonder if the server is just saying: "tl;dr~!" XDDD

[b4pjoe]

Try running repair_settings.php. You can download it from the downloads section here. Put it in your website where SMF is installed and then run it and make sure all of the paths are correct along with the correct database name.

https://download.simplemachines.org/index.php?tools

[Sheda]

Thank you, after messing around with the settings, urls and directories in there, I ended up getting it to work! Finally the forum is shown, with pictures and everything.
Hopefully it is fixed now.