I was running fine previously. I know the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But that never stopped me in the past, and I wasn’t going to let it stand in the way this time either.

So I utilized the (actually pretty cool) automatic upgrade feature of WP. That has worked in the past for minor upgrades, so had confidence it would work now. The first step is always, make a back-up. Sure, I’m sure I have a back-up, so I don’t want to waste time on that now. I probably didn’t skim the instructions since it is all “automatic”, why bother. I can always read them later if I have trouble.

Trouble I did have, too… The upgrade sputtered and stalled. I kept forging ahead, and trying a few times. Finally it seemed to work. Then there was the matter of plugins. There was some overlooked instruction (probably right after the ‘back-up first’ statement) that I failed to notice. Mind you, I don’t know if that was the culprit, but I think caching and other nuances may have been involved.

I struggled to upgrade the plugins, with the same spit and sputter as the core modules. Finally I gave in and closed the admin window, and attempted to start the blog. It was then I realized that I messed up, big time!

The blog was just a white screen when opened. There were no errors, but there was not a speck of content either. I pondered what could have gone wrong and struggled to back out. Finally I gave up in defeat and headed for bed.

This morning, I decided to try again. There was no way to login, no way to access administration or configuration pages. No errors, but nothing was displayed. I logged on remotely to the server. The files “looked” fine, but looks can be deceiving. I finally stopped wasting time, and decided to restore from my backup that I was sure would make everything whole.

I restored from a point, yesterday at 18:00. That was before I started monkeying around. Still no blog. I continued back in time to noon. Still nothing. I went back to midnight of the day before; absolutely nothing. Sure the files were there, but there was some deep underlying issue. I then attempted to use my SQL database backup that gets mailed to me every 12 hours. I went back to the morning before my upgrade (since nothing would have changed) and it still wouldn’t work after importing the DB.

After reading and looking for others who may have suffered the same as me (I found none, of course) I read detailed instructions for the installation / upgrade. I decided to take some drastic measures and deleted all WP files on the server, short of my content, files, photos, etc. I then SFTP’d the new software to the server. After playing with and adjusting permissions, it “seems” to work now. The version has been upgraded, and all the plugins as well.

I’m going to run a backup now. At least I have a site that appears to be functioning at the moment. I might run into an issue here and there, but for the most part, it seems to be running fine.

Leave a comment and let me know if you stumble on any broken parts or pieces.

The other item of note is that this post is from my new iPad.

I’ve had the device since Monday, and really haven’t played with it that much. I did try to get it setup, added or upgraded a few apps, watched a movie via Netflix, and looked around for tips and tricks as well as productivity apps.

Still have a ways to go, but I will admit now that this on-screen keyboard (in portrait mode here) really works quite well.

Lots more to explore, but two thumbs up (and maybe a high-five if this posts!). I’m sure I’ll post more thoughts as time goes on.

– Posted from my iPad…

Really stumped, I looked at the files in the WP directory.  Thought the site may have been hacked, but all looked fine (as far as I could tell.)  Thought about a PHP problem, and potential PHP or other cache issues.

I was exploring my options, and thinking through a restore from backup.  I hadn’t restarted in a long while, so decided to give that a try.  This isn’t a Windows box, and so it really pained me to admit the restart of the server brought the blog back to life.

Oh well, sometimes you do what you have to do.  What I have to do now, is keep watch to make sure there really isn’t a true underlying problem.

But, I do have different flavors of M$ Windows running under VMware on my Mac.  I’ve dedicated an external FW800 drive for the images of XP Pro, Vista Business (32-bit), Vista Ultimate (64-bit), the Windows 7 RC (still not sure I want to pay for an upgrade), and Ubuntu 9.10.

Today, I applied some upgrades I held off with installing for quite a while.  My XP installation is pretty lean, and only used for the applications listed above, as well as for Outlook to my work Exchange account.  Since I work in the Mac all the time, it’s just easy to use this Outlook, as opposed to running my Dell while at home solely for the purpose of staying connected with that email account.  I find that not loading it up with a bunch of junk doesn’t bog it down, and for the most part is pretty stable.

Anyway, I took some time to apply the latest updates, and included the Windows Live applications.  It will never be a Mac (although they make a half hearted attempt with these applications) but I was curious.  The thing that caught my attention was the blog writing software.

So here I am, giving it a test with Jim’s New World.  It didn’t like my theme, and probably has limited functionality as a result, but it might work in a pinch for an offline editor.  This post will serve as a test.

I’ve done a few Google searches, but it always leaves me reading reviews that are from 2007 or before.  As technology advances, “that was then and this is now…”  Some of the apps don’t even exist in the form that was reviewed, if at all.

So I found a post from 2009…  Trying Qumana.  We’ll see how this test goes.  If you have any suggestions, they are much appreciated.  Please leave a comment…

(Yes, I left the footer in place, not only to give credit, but to see what it looks like in actual use.)

Tags: blog, WordPress, software, offline, Qumana, Blog Manager

Powered by Qumana

But in searching Google (thanks to folks that really know SEO) I was able to figure out a few little snippets that will hopefully help.  The first is an optimization that totally corrects the (what I will call a blatant) deficiency in the default setup of WordPress.  It’s unfortunate they choose the Permalink format they do.  But, I wonder if this is at the request of the search giants?  Huh, could it be…?  To lessen the traffic, or some other nonsense which I certainly don’t understand?

Anyway, I really mucked things up.  Links to every page were broken.  I don’t know if I “fixed” them, but it does appear I have Permalinks working now.  This was totally due to searching (again, SEO ‘wonderful’ links.  I was finally able to figure out why my .htaccess files on my self hosted Mac OS X (Leopard) Server were not working.  Check out this link to properly change your permalinks on OS X Server.

I think with Dean Lee’s highly touted Dean’s Permalinks Migration Plugin Version 1.0 finally working, and a good understanding of how to “manipulate” the Apache config with .htaccess files, I might be a step closer.

Time will tell…

One thing is for certain; there is no end to the coverage about Michael Jackson.  They appear to have explored all angles or maybe have run out of things deemed newsworthy.    One of the comments to the blog indicated, “Ghost or not, this is the only interesting piece of Michael Jackson “news” I’ve seen in the last ten days…” I tend to agree.

Above all however… the fact that someone has some really keen eyes and power of observation to catch the fleeting “apparition” in a short, shaky, CNN news video.

So enough exploring the intricacies plugins, Google Ads, Webmaster tools, and the bowels of WordPress. It will be here when I get back.

In case you want to see if you can catch me in the backyard cutting the grass, take a peek at the cam.

I will admit that while the blog doesn’t look like much (would probably be more interesting if I ever had something to say) but it does allow me to waste time and play. There is something about the challenge of “getting it to work.”

The upgrade didn’t go smoothly (of course, my luck.) So much for their “5 minute install” or even easier “upgrade.” Sure I backed up my files and database. That was the easy part. It was just as easy to get rid of the old version and copy the new version in it’s place. And that, my friends, is where it stopped. As well as did the blog itself.

I tried to open the page and was met with a blank white page, with no errors. Cleared my cache, and all the other standard things, and found it was just plain broken. Thank goodness I had copied the entire “blog” directory, not just the content.

Put it all back the way it was, and version 2.7 worked fine, with no issues. So I decided to try again (after reading lots of helpful suggestions on the many forums and web sites around the ‘net.)

The second time, I took a more methodical approach. Well, it was the same approach, I just paid better attention to what I was doing.

It did work better the second time, I got the prompt to update my database, and all was set. Except… the plugins. I had five that indicated there were updates. The auto update just simply doesn’t work, whether it be the blog (WordPress) software itself, or the plugins. (Did you notice the seemingly manual installation referenced above???)

So I proceeded to update three of the five plugins, manually of course. However, the Cronless Postie still says it needs an update, but I do have the latest installed. The flash clock needs updated, and I hope that will fix the issue where it doesn’t display in FireFox. But I need to make sure I don’t lose my Sub in the process.

However, I am stumped (and the issue that “wasted” all of Saturday) by the fact that I can’t get WP-Cache to function. It was totally hosed during the upgrade. Had all sorts of permission errors, and after hours of searching and gnashing teeth, I found what seems to be an answer that works for me here, on the Omninoggin site. That wasn’t the way it was originally set up, but that’s the way it installs and runs now.

I say “runs” but it doesn’t cache. That’s the whole point, and after more attempts, I’ve finally decided to try and find something else. So, on a sunny Sunday, here I go… (But, I DO have to cut the grass today at some point!)