Category: ICT

Informatie -en communicatietechnologie, (web)ontwikkeling, software, …

phpBB upgrade 3.0.9 to 3.3 – 500 http errors fixed

I recently tried to upgrade a 4 year old phpBB forum to the latest version (3.3).

First: there is a lot of talk when you move from 3.0.x to 3.1/3.2. You need to download the support toolkit to clean up the existing board software because of major updates. So be sure the read those guidelines. For me this wasn’t an issue because my phpBB installation was one without any MODifications, special skins or additional language packs. I ran the support toolkit on my board anyway, but it didn’t do anything… So I skipped this part.

I took a shot at jumping from 3.0.9 straight ahead to the 3.3 installation, following the guide Upgrade from 3.0 to 3.2.

At step 12 problems started to occur when updating the database. The update program stopped multiple times at different stages. I solved this by deleting the install and production directory in the cache folder and running the update process again, and again, … and again, until it reached 100%.

At first glance the board seemed to function right away. But when browsing around, many 500 http errors were thrown. I tried deleting browser cache, removing production directory (cache folder) again, and again… but the problem persisted. I was unable to access the administration control area, etc…

I decided to take a look at the php error log and the one thing that kept popping up was:

Got error ‘PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught phpbb\exception\http_exception: Failure while aqcuiring locks. in /***/***/***/***/phpbb/lock/flock.php:106

When you have a look on the community board at phpBB customers from hosting company ‘STRATO’ run into the same problems. However, I’m not on STRATO hosting and from what I know my hosting also has a different setup.

The solution to fix is offered by IMC_ger: find in the file phpbb/lock/flock.php line 104.

Code

if (!@flock($this->lock_fp, LOCK_EX))

And replace:

if (!@flock($this->lock_fp, $mode == 'wb' ? LOCK_EX : LOCK_SH))

All 500 errors are gone now and the phpBB is fully operational.

2.5inch bay on HP Zbook 15 G6 too small to fit a hard drive

Recently I got a new laptop and I was surprised to find out the HP Zbook 15 G6 won’t fit a 2.5 sata/ssd drive. The bay is just too small because part of the motherboard takes up space in the bay which should accomodate a 2.5 inch drive.

No space, and no connector for Sata drives on the SKU 6VD99AV HP ZBOOK 15 G6 configuration.

I have had contact with HP and after a few ticket escalations I got the answer. If you order the HP Zbook 15 G6 with the NVIDIA® Quadro® RTX 3000 GPU there just isn’t enough space because of the size of the RTX 3000. That’s why the connector isn’t available either.

In this particular case it’s HP SKU 6VD99AV (i9 + RTX 3000). But there are other SKU’s which might have the same problem, like 6TU91EA (i7 + RTX 3000). According to HP: if you absolutely require the 2.5 inch bay to add a SATA drive you need to order NVIDIA® Quadro® T1000 or NVIDIA® Quadro® T2000 graphics options.

When I ordered the laptop I couldn’t find anything on the spec sheets indicating that the 2.5 inch SATA bay would become useless. It’s a very unpleasant surprise when opening up the laptop with an additional SSD ready to be added to the system.

HP refers to the second NVME / M.2 module. And yes… that’s the only way you can add additional (and more expensive) storage if you have the RTX 3000.

Update 20200224: HP released a customer advisory statement ZBook 15 G6 Mobile Workstations – May Not Have SATA Connector

Import Kaltura Capture Desktop Recorder files in Adobe Premiere CC

Last week I started working with the desktop/screen capture feature in Kaltura. Screen capturing is great with this tool but you’ll fall short when you want to go beyond simple edits/cuts. I like to do all my video editing in Adobe Premiere and you’ll notice when you import a Kaltura MP4 clip into Premiere, Adobe throws this error: “The importer reported a generic error.”

The solution is quite simple. You’ll have to change the extension of all your Kaltura .mp4 clips to .mts

With Total Commander you can batch rename a whole directory or a custom selection of files at once.

Best of luck with your stunning Premiere Productions!

Dell Precision and docking issues (E-Dock / WD15 / TB16)

I’ve been using my Dell Precision 7520 for quite a while now and have used it in combination with three different docking stations.

E-dock

The Precision series are still equipped with E-dock connection, which in my opinion is a major benefit, so there was no need upgrading to USB-C dock instantly.

I have used an E-dock for several months (with 1 Dell 1920*1200 monitor). Resulting in several Windows 10 crashes. Always had to shut down the device and (re)boot it. Coming out of sleep also resulted in crashes quite randomly. Had my motherboard replaced by Dell, changed hard drives, … no effect.

WD15

Then I started using a Dell WD15 dock (with 2 Dell 1920*1200 monitors) and I haven’t had any problems whatsoever. When connecting the USB-C cable, the laptop awakes from sleep without any problem. Sometimes external screens go dark for 2 seconds and light up again. But this hiccup only happens once in a while and you can continue work without further problems.

TB16

For a few weeks I had the opportunity to test the Dell Thunderbolt TB16 on my device (with 2 Dell 1920*1200 monitors) and the same problems as mentioned with the E-Dock emerged. Random crashes and not being able to connect to external monitors upon connecting the USB-C cable, resulting in a crash. Crash also occured when launching Photoshop. I  think it also boils down to a graphics problem?

Conclusion

So now I’m using the Dell WD15 again. Aside from a more limited graphic ability (amount / resolution of external monitors), the only downside is that power over USB (docking ports) only seem to work when the connected laptop is active.

Your thoughts?

Anyone having the same issues? Firmware upgrading never did the trick and advanced diagnostics never showed any problems.

Setting up PEAR mail on Scotch Box

You have Vagrant and Scotch Box installed. You still need to install Pear.

$ vagrant ssh
$ sudo apt-get -y install php-pear
$ sudo pear install mail_mime

In your PHP script

include_once('Mail.php');
include_once('Mail/mime.php');

Parameters to define SMTP Scotch Box

$params["host"] = "127.0.0.1";
$params["port"] = 1025;
$params["Date"] = date('r',time());
$mail = Mail::factory("smtp",$params);
...

Catch mails in Mailhog at http://192.168.33.10:8025

Add a date to a JPG in Lightroom

If you import JPG files or other images in Lightroom which haven’t been captured by a camera or lost EXIF and other timestamp data, you can add a capture time this way:

  1. Go to grid view
  2. Select one or more image thumbs
  3. Choose Metadata > Edit capture time…
    (there is also the option to automatically use the date when the file was created)
Logo taken from Wikipedia (Public Domain)

Pitfalls when moving your BOX cloud to another computer

Beware that BOX doesn’t sync dot files, and ignores some other filetypes.

At first you might not notice, and when you do it might be too late (when you don’t care for accurate backups). Then there’s another dangerous pitfall when you try to bypass the necessary first sync from the cloud.

Preparations

  1. Make sure all files are synched through the box sync app on your old computer
  2. Make a backup copy of the ENTIRE Box Sync folder on an external drive
    Typically under c:\Users\<username>\Box Sync\

Migrating to a new computer / installing on a secondary computer

1) Download and install the BOX app
2) Run the BOX app and login
3) Let BOX download everything from the cloud onto your computer. Do not copy the backup to your new computer! Chances are BOX sees these files as new ones and your sync will eventually end up with an unexpected amount of duplicate files!

Now you may wonder why you need the backup or the old copy of the Box Sync folder?

BOX does not support certain files, they are not synched, but you’ll find them in your existing backup.
If you use a MAC, if you are a webdeveloper, chances are that you have a lot of files that start with a dot.

.htaccess
.gitignore

but even all files ending with .bak are ignored, and many more like .PST and so on …

This is not a problem that is only related to BOX. Other cloud storage services have similar downsides. Stack also doesn’t .htaccess files to their cloud storage, although they recognize the need (especially for webdevelopers). There shouldn’t be a problem with folders starting with a dot.

All these files are considered ‘hidden’ by BOX, though they are not!
You need to copy those files manually to the new BOX location.

So that’s why BOX cannot be considered as a complete backup in the cloud!

How to deal with dozens of ignored files?

If you had a lot of dot files, it will be a burden to copy these files manually. But fortunately there are lots of applications which can make life easer for you. I use Total Commander (Commands > Synchronize dirs…) to make sure all these dot files are copied to their respective locations.

FileZilla als portable app installeren

Download het ZIP-bestand rechtstreeks van de FileZilla website (kies show all download options). Download niet via http://portableapps.com

Volg vervolgens de procedure op http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=84339#p84339

created settings sub-folder
renamed fzdefaults.xml.example file from docs sub-folder to fzdefaults.xml
edit fzdefaults.xml so the string $SOMEDIR/filezilla/ from Config Location line now reads settings
moved fzdefaults.xml from docs up one level (same as filezilla.exe)
run filezilla.exe

Getest met FileZilla_3.23.0.2_win64.zip op Windows 7 Enterprise.

Result: config files are saved in settings sub-folder, but the icons cache is still created in AppData.

Kiosk

If the “Kiosk mode” setting is set to 1, FileZilla will not write any
passwords to disk. If set to 2, FileZilla will not write to any
configuration file. The latter is useful if FileZilla gets executed from
read-only media.

Geen update checks

If the “Disable update check” setting is set to 1, the capability to
check for new FileZilla versions will be completely disabled.