PHPBB 3.0.2 is "stable?" Yeah right...

DeathMagus

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I finally got one of the PHPBB forums I admin back up and running. Since we're between periods of heavy usage (it's a seasonal thing), I figured it'd be a good time to upgrade from 3.0.0 to 3.0.2. Since they don't have a direct patch between the two versions, I downloaded 3.0.0-3.0.1 to install first. It went great.

I then downloaded the 3.0.2 edition and installed it. Immediately, I found myself locked out of the admin control panel. I could log in, but when I would reconfirm my login to access the ACP, it'd tell me I'd been authenticated, then kick me straight back out to the re-authentication page. All I could really access this point was the SQL database. Thankfully, I had already made a PHPBB-compliant backup of the database. Since the forum had been thrown together last-minute, and included some very questionable style changes, I thought that the problem might have been a compatibility issue with the sketchy style and the new PHPBB version. Since I had the backup handy, I figured I'd do a clean reinstall.

So I downloaded the full version of 3.0.2, and installed it without problem. Immediately it told me that my admin account - the only account on the forum (except bots) - wasn't authorized to access the ACP. I figured "forget it," and reinstalled 3.0.0. I imported my SQL backup, and everything was working smoothly again. I did a file backup, because I wanted to try something else. Installed 3.0.1 - worked great. Installed 3.0.2. Instant-fail. Restore my file system from backup, and it's like I never touched a thing in the first place.

Here's the kicker. If you do a clean install of 3.0.0, and upgrade to 3.0.1, it does checks of all the files it changes to make sure they look as they should prior to the change. It cleared those checks perfectly. The checks for upgrading from 3.0.1 to 3.0.2, however, pull up all sorts of unexpected file discrepancies - from a 100% clean install/upgrade. :doh:

If anyone uses PHPBB, I don't recommend going above 3.0.1 at this time.
 

pgp_protector

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Interesting. I used PHPBB way back when it was still 1.x. There were so many problems then that I switched to VBulletin and haven't looked back.

Yea I know old thread :)

1) I'd love to use VBulletin, I just can't justify the cost right now :D

2) OP: someone didn't run their upgrade on a test server first :) :yellowcard:
 
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DeathMagus

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DeathMagus

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Why would it not be practical to test an upgrade before upgrading?

Edit: By the way, your first post is almost exactly one year removed from your most recent post. Creepy.

Testing is only practical if it's more work to restore the main server than to set up, maintain, and reset the test server, or if the main server is mission critical, which mine isn't.

My server only has to work a few weeks a year, so it would be a waste of time to build a test environment and reset it when things go wrong, rather than simply keeping regular backups and restoring the main server if something goes wrong.
 
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