Forum Errors

[iago]

So sometime last night, the forum crapped itself. I have no idea why, but the Settings.php file and Settings_bak.php files ended up empty. Don't ask me why the backup file is broken at the same time as the main one, there are some things that Man was not meant to know.

In any case, I did a fresh install of SMF and copied the settings file back, modified the DB stuff and, after I reset the DB password (how was I supposed to remember what it was? :) ), it seems almost perfect.

The only problem was that some of the categories moved a little. So I fixed that. So far I haven't noticed any other problems, but let me know if you do.

The DB seems to be unaffected, so that's a plus. The latest backup I have is yesterday morning so I didn't really want to roll it back.

If you see any problems, post it here and me (or one of the other leaders) will take care of it as quickly as possible!

[chuck]

Just out of curiosity, are you monitoring the server after this for suspicious activity? I doubt its that, its probably just php crashing when someone was setting the settings, but better safe than sorry...

[iago]

I used to, for educational reasons. Now I just back it up every day and pray :P

I don't think it was anything malicious, though, although I did do most of the forensic work at 6:30 this morning :)

[Sidoh]

Just out of curiosity, are you monitoring the server after this for suspicious activity? I doubt its that, its probably just php crashing when someone was setting the settings, but better safe than sorry...

Setting the settings, what?  I don't think SMF attempts to modify its Setting files outside of the installation process. :S

[iago]

If that were true, why did that file end up empty? 

I really don't know what happened, but whatever. Hopefully it won't happen again :)

[Sidoh]

If that were true, why did that file end up empty? 

I really don't know what happened, but whatever. Hopefully it won't happen again :)

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure the only times that Settings.php is modified is during the installation process and when you change something in the administration panel.  It went down at around 1:30 AM MST.  I know I wasn't doing anything then.  Can the other admins say the same?

I'm not saying chuck's hypothesis is conclusively incorrect.  I just don't think Settings.php is modified except in special situations.

[iago]

The only related incident I can think of is that the harddrive on the server was almost completely full. This is a result of my negligence, since I do a nightly backup and hadn't bothered deleting old ones in awhile.

But I don't see how that could affect it.

[chuck]

If that were true, why did that file end up empty? 

I really don't know what happened, but whatever. Hopefully it won't happen again :)

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure the only times that Settings.php is modified is during the installation process and when you change something in the administration panel.  It went down at around 1:30 AM MST.  I know I wasn't doing anything then.  Can the other admins say the same?

I'm not saying chuck's hypothesis is conclusively incorrect.  I just don't think Settings.php is modified except in special situations.

Its just a guess, I sometimes fiddle with scripts and find every way I can to break them. I've found when some scripts are terminated while writing to files, strange things happen. I'm not saying this happened, its just a possibility.

The only related incident I can think of is that the harddrive on the server was almost completely full. This is a result of my negligence, since I do a nightly backup and hadn't bothered deleting old ones in awhile.

But I don't see how that could affect it.

Linux sometimes does strange things to me when the hard-drive is near full. I've opened a web browser and got garbage all over the screen, and ctrl+alt+f1'ed and saw errors spitting out on the console about a full disk.

[Sidoh]

Its just a guess, I sometimes fiddle with scripts and find every way I can to break them. I've found when some scripts are terminated while writing to files, strange things happen. I'm not saying this happened, its just a possibility.

It's definitely a possibility.  I don't disagree at all there. :)

[Newby]

It appears the move dicked with the forum timezone. If you're having issues with your timestamps on posts, go to your Profile (click the button on the menu), go to Look and Layout Preferences, and have it auto-detect the offset. I just tested it, and that fixed it. :)

[Towelie]

It appears the move dicked with the forum timezone. If you're having issues with your timestamps on posts, go to your Profile (click the button on the menu), go to Look and Layout Preferences, and have it auto-detect the offset. I just tested it, and that fixed it. :)

its off by 10 mins for me now :P

[iago]

I have no idea why the clock was so far off on that server, it was likely due to testing stuff. I fixed it now, though, so change your timezone back to where it ought to be :)

[CrAz3D]

hmm, so is it still at your house?

[chuck]

You should install ntpdate, and make it sync the clock every few hours.

And you killed my avatar! *Goes hunting for it on his harddrive*

EDIT:
Ahh, this makes sense now.

Code Select Expand


An Error Has Occurred!
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.


[iago]

hmm, so is it still at your house?

Yes, until somebody provides better hosting it's going to live there. I just merged the two Web servers, which I didn't really want to do but was kinda forced into it.

You should install ntpdate, and make it sync the clock every few hours.

And you killed my avatar! *Goes hunting for it on his harddrive*

EDIT:
Ahh, this makes sense now.

Code Select Expand


An Error Has Occurred!
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.


I use ntpdate, it's set to run every night. To update the time to the proper one, I just ran it manually (/etc/cron.daily/updatetime.sh) and it worked fine, so I don't know what happened there.

I thought I made the folders writable by the Web user, but maybe I screwed up. Try again?

<edit> Better yet, why don't I fix the path to the one where the files actually are? Avatars fixed! :D