Picture attachments stopped working.
 

I recently moved my forum from a shared hosting service to a virtual private server. Pretty much everything went OK, a few minor glitches but nothing serious.

One thing though did stop working, picture attachments in posts no longer works. The process itself works OK, you can select a pic from your PC and upload it but the thumbnail does not show. All you get is a little square where the thumbnail should be. No settings have been changed, I really can't figure out what is going on. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

Vers. 4.1.7

What is the path in the html for the missing image? (view the html source or right click it and get the info).

This is what I found:

<img src="http://www.australianbladeforums.com/vb4/attachment.php?attachmentid=2216&amp;d=1355390723& amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Name: LightHorsePainting.jpg
Views: 0
Size: 157 Bytes" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" title="Name: LightHorsePainting.jpg
Views: 0
Size: 157 Bytes">

Hmm...to be honest that didn't help me a lot (but it's my fault for asking). Do you have your forum set to save attachments in the database or the file system? And if it's the file system, did you copy over the directory they were being saved in?

Currently being stored in the database and always have been since I installed vB

What are the results from maintenance > diagnostics > upload?

This is the exact message when I run that:

No errors occurred while opening the uploaded file for reading.

It's bizarre, everything appears to be OK, it just doesn't work.

Is there a list of all appropriate/related PHP modules that might be needed for the thumbnail part to work? Maybe my new server is missing one or more.

That isn't all it says - it should give some php settings along with it. What are they?

Here is a screenshot:



Attachment 143037

What is in your error_logs (if you don't know where they are, ask your host)?

Also, have your host set up an upload_tmp_dir for you and make sure he enters the full path into the php.ini file.

I'll check those things, thanks.

When the forum was moved it was done by taking a full site backup via cpanel. Database, file structure, the lot. Well, hopefully that's what happened. Shouldn't the upload_tmp_dir and the php.ini have been copied as well? If so, great, if not it makes me think about what else might not have made it.

No, they would not have copied over the php.ini or upload_tmp_dir. The upload_tmp_dir is just a temporary directory for the image as it is uploaded. It can be anywhere, but it needs to be specified in the php.ini file.

OK, great, I'll have a chat with them about that.

I had an FTP problem with the host, their firewall was blocking me! Got that fixed up but the attachment issue is still there.

Can you tell me where I would find the php.ini file on my VPS? Is it something I should be able to access or is it likely only the host service can get to it?

Does the temp directory need to be in the forum root directory or somewhere above that?

Thanks.

You will need to ask your host where the php.ini file is and whether you are allowed to alter it.

Usually the /tmp dir is above the root.

OK, thanks.

I have never had this working , but am now following the directions. I had the host add the folder and edit the php,ini file, but I get this when I try to upload a small photo:

Could not create file system directory to hold your attachment.

What am I missing?

Thanks

I now have the attachments working, sort of.

I think the thumbnail issue was, maybe, because GD is not installed on the server. I've asked the host to look into that.

Second problem: I can upload and attach picture that are BELOW approximately 150 kB, anything bigger fails. I have set the size in the attachment manager to 200000

What else do I need to look at?

Did you ever say if the attachments were in the filesystem or the database? Depending on which, you need to look at these settings:

PHP Settings:
max_execution_time
memory_limit
post_max_size
upload_max_filesize
max_input_time

MySQL Settings:
max_allowed_packet
wait_timeout

They're stored in the database so I'm guessing I need to look at the last two.

Well, you actually will need to look at the php settings also since it is the php script that is 'talking' with mysql.

I'vve managed to sort out a few problem including where the php.ini file is and how I can edit it. Unfortunately I have never played with one of these before and I have no idea what settings should be in there that are relevant to vbulletin. I know that you can enter parameters like: this_thing=something
I just don't know what I need.

It would be extremely helpful if somebody could post an example of the contents of theirs.

I just need stuff like "upload_tmp_dir" and values for the PHP settings lynne has mentioned above. I would really appreciate it.

Also example values for the DB settings mentioned.

Thanks.

I would suggest posting in the Server Configuration forum on vbulletin.com for help with the settings because every server is going to need different settings.