While Updating PHP on Ubuntu I had a problem and jumped into trouble shooting mode. I was documenting my steps so I wouldn’t get lost or start trying random things, those steps turned into this blog post.
Troubleshooting is something that I just start doing when I have an issue with almost anything. I don’t think that was always the case for me however my time in the Navy “taught” me how to think. Many people that I have meet never developed a formal approach to troubleshooting or problem solving. My process varies depending on the issue and my knowledge of the subject however the basic steps are usually very similar.
- Define the problem
- Confirm the problem
- Think
- Formulate a plan
- Follow the plan
- Find the solution
- Confirm the solution
The following are the detailed steps I used to to switch my test website from PHP 7.1.33 to PHP 7.4.16
My Troubleshooting Steps:
- Define the problem:
- I upgraded to PHP 7.4 and the WordPress dashboard is giving me a warning that I am using PHP 7.1.33
- Confirm the problem:
- From the terminal the php -v command confirms that PHP 7.4.16 is installed
- I need to confirm that WordPress is not displaying an old error so I added WP PHP Version Display plugin to display this window in my dashboard:
- Review of what I already tried:
- Restarted Apache2 server
- Closed and reloaded the browser
- Rebooted the computer
- Generated a list of PHP versions installed
- karl@StanLee:~$ apt list –installed | grep “php*”
- Read the link with the warning
- There is a link in the warning message on to Learn More about updating PHP.
- Think and drink coffee:
- When I have an issue like this it hard for me to let it go. This is like the Rubik’s Cube I had when I was in the 6th grade. I didn’t want to put it down. Eventually my English teacher took it from me. Not surprisingly I lost access to the cube for a while because after going to the school to get it back my parents didn’t return it to me immediately. If I don’t figure this out now, I will be thinking about this while mowing the grass this afternoon, while walking the dog and everything else I do. I learned to try and let it go but be ready to make a note on my phone if something comes to me when I don’t have access to my computer.
- Recap what I know:
- PHP 7.4 is installed on the computer
- WordPress is not using the latest version
- The LAMP is between the computer and WordPress
- List possible solutions or random things to try next:
- Does Apache2 have a PHP configuration?
- Format the computer and start over.
- Remove old version of PHP.
- Does WordPress have a PHP configuration?
- Do nothing and move on?
- Evaluate the list and put it in a reasonable order:
- Apache2 configuration
- I am going to start here because I really think this is the most likely the problem. I did some quick searches but didn’t find anything yet.
- Check WordPress for a configuration
- This just occurred to me while creating the list so I didn’t research it. I doubt this is the case because I never had to change things on my hosted sites when PHP was upgraded.
- Remove old versions of PHP
- This holds some risk because it is working now and I don’t want to mess up the computer that I use for all my work. This is something I would try sooner if I was using a test machine that would not impact me as much if I crashed it.
- Do nothing and move on
- This is an option because I am I am doing this for fun right now. I will need to solve this problem eventually however it isn’t critical right now and I believe that just being aware of the issue will help me see the solution eventually because my brain will be processing this even if I am not actively working on it.
- Format the computer and start over
- Although this would solve the problem it isn’t an option. This is on the computer that I use everyday. Although I think everything is backed up and could be recovered if this computer crashed that would be a major disruption.
- Apache2 configuration
- Step though the list until the solution is found
- I am following these steps to configure apache2
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo apt install libapache2-mod-fcgid
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo apt install php7.4-fpm
- Just to test switching between 7.4 and 7.1 I ran the following command:
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo apt install php7.1-fpm
- The following shows what was installed:
- karl@StanLee:~$ lsLink will go here /var/run/php
- Here is the result:
- php7.1-fpm.pid
- php7.1-fpm.sock
- php7.4-fpm.pid
- php7.4-fpm.sock
- php-fpm.sock
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo a2enmod actions alias proxy_fcgi fcgid
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo service php7.4-fpm start
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo service php7.1-fpm start
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo systemctl restart apache2
- I added the following lines to my site.conf file in apache2 and restarted Apache2
- I am following these steps to configure apache2
<FilesMatch \.php> # Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
</FilesMatch> - This crashed my test site. I received a MySQL extension missing error.
- At least this was an easy fix.
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo aLink will go herept install php7.4-mysql
- karl@StanLee:~$ sudo systemctl restart apache2
- Refresh the site and check the php version
I now have WordPress running PHP7.4. To test this was able to change the site.conf file and restart Apache2 and switch between PHP7.1 and PHP7.4. Now I can set up a new site and test PHP8.0.3.
I don’t fully understand all the steps that got me to this point. I will look into those later when I have time or need to learn more.
Thank you for joining me on my learning adventure. Hopefully this was helpful. Please contact me with any questions or comments.
Notes:
I used this Article from PHP.Watch as a basis for my PHP upgrade.
This is the reference that I used to configure Apache2