XF 1.1 Upgrade issues 1.1.3 to current

[Hackfall]

I have an old forum that I want to relaunch. It currently is stuck on Xenforo 1.1.3

My plan was to copy the installation onto a new VPS and upgrade that. Once I am ready I would then make this server live. My problem is that the new server is running Debian 11 and I'm struggling to find a version of PHP that will run on this distro that will also work with XF 1.1.3.

I've read other threads about upgrades from 1.1.3 but can't find anything that answers my issues. I've started this process before a couple of times but have ended up giving up as it all gets a bit too complicated with the various gotchas that happen because of software incompatibilities.

Ideally I would prefer to do a clean install of the latest Xenforo with an up to date Nginx server and PHP, fast-cgi etc. Then import the data from the old forum but I suspect that this is not possible because the database needs to be upgraded.

If I can't do that what is the best way to get from where I am with a forum locked into 1.1.3 to one that is completely up to date? I am anxious about getting to a cliff edge and being forced to jump off.

Thanks for your help. I think this time it is now or never.

Phil

 

[Chris D]

You might not be able to get the existing site running on the new VPS but once you have transferred the files and imported the database, the only steps you would need to take is to upload the latest XF files, and run the upgrade as normal.

If that doesn't work, which it should do, we'll need more information.

 

[Hackfall]

I have removed PHP 7.* and installed PHP 5.6 on the new VPS. I am now able to visit the home page in XF 1.1.3 on the new VPS. All links from that page are 404.

My .htaccess is in place. Pasted below.

I'm feeling pretty positive that I will now get this working. My one concern is that XF latest will not run with PHP 5.6 and not sure what to do about that.

Many thanks for your help. Once I have this sorted I'm going to keep up to date in future both on OS and XF installation.

Phil




# Mod_security can interfere with uploading of content such as attachments. If you
# cannot attach files, remove the "#" from the lines below.
#<IfModule mod_security.c>
# SecFilterEngine Off
# SecFilterScanPOST Off
#</IfModule>

ErrorDocument 401 default
ErrorDocument 403 default
ErrorDocument 404 default
ErrorDocument 500 default

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

# If you are having problems with the rewrite rules, remove the "#" from the
# line that begins "RewriteBase" below. You will also have to change the path
# of the rewrite to reflect the path to your XenForo installation.
RewriteBase /xenforo

# This line may be needed to enable WebDAV editing with PHP as a CGI.
#RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(data/|js/|styles/|install/|favicon\.ico|crossdomain\.xml|robots\.txt) - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]
</IfModule>

 

[Chris D]

You can switch off useFriendlyUrls for now and that will make everything work.

But worth noting you did mention you were going to set up an nginx server. If you did that then the htaccess won’t have any affect as that’s just an Apache thing.

We have a section in the manual about friendly URLs including the config required for nginx.

You’re correct about PHP still being an issue.

Once you’re ready to do the upgrade, follow these steps:

1. upgrade PHP to a minimum of 7.0
2. this will break the site
3. upload the XF 2.2 files
4. you can now perform the upgrade

 

[Hristo Avramov]

I upgraded my xenforo 1x forum to 2x locally. Then it's a matter of transferring it to the server and setting up some options.

 

[Chris D]

Yeah thats a good option too! Good luck.

 

[Hackfall]

You can switch off useFriendlyUrls for now and that will make everything work.

But worth noting you did mention you were going to set up an nginx server. If you did that then the htaccess won’t have any affect as that’s just an Apache thing.

We have a section in the manual about friendly URLs including the config required for nginx.

You’re correct about PHP still being an issue.

Once you’re ready to do the upgrade, follow these steps:

1. upgrade PHP to a minimum of 7.0
2. this will break the site
3. upload the XF 2.2 files
4. you can now perform the upgrade

Unfortunately my admin control panel is also not available.

 

[Chris D]

In XF1 or after upgrading to XF2? What actually happens?

 

[Hackfall]

In XF1

I enter my user and password as normal. I then click the Log In button and it takes me to

http::// IP /login/login and I see the standard Nginx 404 error page. I've not pointed a domain name at this VPS yet as I intend to do that once I have done the upgrade. I've bought and downloaded the upgrade but have not tried to install that on the new server yet. Should I try that even though I can't get XF1 running properly on this machine?

 

[Hackfall]

I've got in. I just went to http:// IP /admin.php and I'm in.

Now to upgrade.

 

[Hackfall]

I've followed the instructions and came to a page saying "Ooops we have run into some problems you already have bla delete the internal data/install lock.php file to reinstall. Which I did. I now have a shiny new but completely empty XF 2.* forum.

This is on a new server and the forum is still running on the old one so no panic but how do I get from where I am to where I need to be?

I'm happy to delete the whole web root and drop the database and start again if that is the way forward. Thanks for your help. I'm very pleased that I'm doing this somewhere that I can do no harm.

 

[Hackfall]

I've rm /var/www/html, made a new html directory and copied the old files back into there. Dropped the database, recreated it and reinstalled the backup. Then rather than SFTP the individual files and directories I put the XF 2.2.8 zip into my home directory, unzipped it and copied the whole contents over the files from the old install in /var/www/html.

No error messages this time and all of my data has been retained. I still need to make clean URLs work but feel like I've made a massive step forward.

 

[Chris D]

Great news!

In case you didn't find it yet, the following is the manual page about Nginx friendly URLs:

Options overview | Manual | XenForo

End-user documentation for XenForo

xenforo.com

If you struggle there's probably going to be various threads in this forum that may have some solutions or feel free to post a new thread.

 

[Hackfall]

This Nginx config seems to be working fine. Thank you very much for your prompt help. It is very much appreciated.

server {
server_name #########;
listen 80 default_server;
index index.php;
fastcgi_index index.php;
root /var/www/html;

location ~ \.php$ {
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}

location / {
index index.php index.html index.htm;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$uri&$args;
}

location /install/data/ {
internal;
}

location /install/templates/ {
internal;
}

location /internal_data/ {
internal;
}

location /library/ {
internal;
}

# xenforo 2 uncomment / remove hash from next 3 lines
location /src/ {
internal;
}
}