Your session timed out while posting... [still unresolved]

[pkmnfrk]

Your session timed out while posting. Please try to re-submit your message.

On my forum (http://forum.finalfantasyq.com), I'm intermittantly getting this message when I try to post. It's not really timing out, AFAIK, since it'll happen randomly when I'm actively browing/posting. However, once it strikes, it keeps giving that message, even when I try to press submit again.

I can't log out and in again, as it says that "session verification failed" or some such thing when I try. I manage to circumvent the normal login/out by clearing the cookie set by the forum. Then, I can post again, until it randomly strikes again, ad infinitum.

I read some other posts about this message, most of which said to "turn on database sessions, or, if they're already on, turn them off". They were already on, so I turned them off, to no avail. Right now, they're still off.

It started about a week ago, but I haven't changed anything recently...

I don't know what to do, it's really irritating.

I'm running SMF 1.1b3.

[george from ohio]

hi
i had a similar issue at
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=43517.0

[pkmnfrk]

Hmm, I tried what [Unknown] suggested, and it seems to be working now, both in Firefox and Internet Explorer. But, I guess my sessions won't expire at all now...

[pkmnfrk]

Oops, spoke too soon. I got the "session timed out" message whilst trying to change an option in the control panel... *sigh*

Edit: Hmm, I just noticed something odd:

http://forum.finalfantasyq.com/index.php?action=logout;sesc=Array

That's the URL I tried to logout as (like, I clicked on log out, and that's the page with the error). I don't think that's right. Is an array being cast as a scalar somewhere?

[[Unknown]]

You're using an old theme with SMF 1.1.  Try the default theme:

http://forum.finalfantasyq.com/index.php?theme=1

-[Unknown]

[pkmnfrk]

Nope, still happens.

[[Unknown]]

This does?

http://forum.finalfantasyq.com/index.php?action=logout;sesc=Array

Very strange.  Do you have any other PHP scripts using sessions on the same site?

-[Unknown]

[pkmnfrk]

Nope. I use SSI for user management in the rest of the site, though.

[pkmnfrk]

Bump? 

[[Unknown]]

Are there any messages at all in your error log?

-[Unknown]

[pkmnfrk]

(Heh, would've replied sooner, but I had forgotten about the log, so I turned it in to collect some errors...)

Yes, roughly a zillion of these:

User: Mike Caron
Date: Today at 12:55:02 AM
IP: 209.183.20.23
Session ID: Array
URL: http://forum.finalfantasyq.com/index.php?action=viewErrorLog
Error:

8: Undefined index: memberCount
File: /home/finalfan/public_html/forum/Themes/default/Errors.template.php (eval?)
Line: 272

Now, a few notes:
1. That error is the latest one in my log (occurring just a few minutes ago). I checked the errors starting from when I came to my site, and the Session ID was always "Array"
2. This "Array" ID (i.e. an array being cast as a string somewhere) is likely at the root of this problem.
3. The URL and the "File:" in the error varies. A lot.
5. I filtered the "Array" session ID, and it's just me getting the "Array" session. However, all kinds of people are logging that error...
4. There's 13 pages of these, and I only enabled the error logging about 8 hours ago...

[Unknown], I can give you an admin account so you can check the log out yourself.

Hmm, something just ocurred to me. I'm the only admin on my site, and coincidentally, I'm the only one to get the error... Maybe it's an admin thing?

[[Unknown]]

Strange.  Can you try clearing all of your cookies?

Can you try changing your cookie name with repair_settings.php?  Anything but what it is currently.  What is repair_settings.php?

-[Unknown]

[pkmnfrk]

Still unresolved... Here's what I've tried since before:

1. I tried making another Admin, to see if that was the problem. Nope.
2. I tried disabling sub-domain independant cookies, but that broke the rest of my site (my site is at finalfantasyq.com, whereas my forum is located at forum.finalfantasyq.com)
3. I changed the name of the cookie through the admin panel. Nada.
0. I clear my (FFQ related) cookies whenever I want to post on my forum, so obviously that's not the problem.

This is vexing, it really is. I am a PHP programmer, and I tried debugging it, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I just know that somewhere, somehow, an array is being cast to a scalar, under very very specific circumstances.

I managed a (very unacceptable and kludgy) way to fix it, at least for me. I just blocked cookies from my website, which forces PHP to rewrite URLs to include the session. It seems to work for me, although I get logged out whenever I manually type in a URL...