cannot upgrade from 1.3.9h to 1.5.4 install page blank

1st off we noticed the site was not accessing the db an=d was down i discovered many folder groups were assigned wrong
fixing the groups and permissions did not bring the site back live
i uploaded the 1.5.4 files, the site showed up, with the main page (define page editor pages) as the defaults
to be expected but it said that i had to run the install db upgrade

going to zc_install i get a blank page
the front page says i can do the upgrade from within admin but trying to access admin i get

0 DB_ERROR_NOT_CONNECTED
in:
[select * from zen_project_version WHERE project_version_key = 'Zen-Cart Database' ]
If you were entering information, press the BACK button in your browser and re-check the information you had entered to be sure you left no blank fields.

so how do i get this site working again
:frusty:

Perhaps with a little more information/clarification.

Php version?
When you say you uploaded the ZC 1.5.4 files, did they go in a "new" directory or did they simply "overwrite" the existing?

Until the db upgrade is complete, accessing the admin won't work using ZC 1.5.x files on a 1.3.x database... If you had multiple profiles on your 1.3.x version, you may need to create a new temporary user through the guidance of the following, applying the 1.3.9 version of the fix: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?44

There are potentially other things to do, but more info is needed, in particular the remaining answers to the posting tips questions.

mc12345678:

Perhaps with a little more information/clarification.

Php version?
When you say you uploaded the ZC 1.5.4 files, did they go in a "new" directory or did they simply "overwrite" the existing?

Until the db upgrade is complete, accessing the admin won't work using ZC 1.5.x files on a 1.3.x database... If you had multiple profiles on your 1.3.x version, you may need to create a new temporary user through the guidance of the following, applying the 1.3.9 version of the fix: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?44

There are potentially other things to do, but more info is needed, in particular the remaining answers to the posting tips questions.

its the newest php version
'i know her other site was alreaddy upgraded so maybe 1.3.9 wasnt safe with this php?

ill try your steps and see

and yes i uploaded the new version over the iold since the old was not working correctly i figured reinstalling might fix it but i wasnt aware that i was upgrading i had assumed both sites were already upgraded not just the main 1

i could possible potentialy downgrade php temporarily

havin all sorts of trouble, any way to run the db upgrade through ssh?
since the php install files not working

soaringeagle:

havin all sorts of trouble, any way to run the db upgrade through ssh?
since the php install files not working

Hopefully you have a recent backup of your 1.3.9h DB and file system. If so, then I suggest to restore the site with this backup.

If not....... yes, you may be in trouble.

tried that from the 1st of the month it didnt work
but alot of the folders had the wrong group assignments
like user mail user nobody most were user user but several had wrong groups

i can try restoring after downgrading php
but not sure when this site went bad
i upgraded to mariadb awhile back and to litespeed more recently
the php version i upgraded to over a month ago

soaringeagle:

tried that from the 1st of the month it didnt work
but alot of the folders had the wrong group assignments
like user mail user nobody most were user user but several had wrong groups

i can try restoring after downgrading php
but not sure when this site went bad
i upgraded to mariadb awhile back and to litespeed more recently
the php version i upgraded to over a month ago

Ok, what was your PHP version whilst the site was still working perfectly?

Backup what you have now and put it in a safe place - make it identifiable (i.e. site_after_stuffup.zip).

Then if for argument's sake the PHP version was 5.2.x then downgrade to that version and try to restore your old (working) DB and file system - IOW put all back to where it was when the site was working 100%.

If that brings up the site as desired then create another backup on your local machine and try to restore that backup onto a local WAMP / XAMPP / LAMP environment... whatever you prefer.

I could go on but let's do these steps first and then please report back what has developed. Depending on your answers we can move on.

rebuilding apache as we speak

is mariadb 10.0.23 compatable with 1.3.9
i think thats the issue upgraded to mariadb 1.5.4 runs grea t on it i think 1.3.9 doesnt

any way to make the 1.3.9 dbb work on mariadb?
then i can do the upgrade

real confused now
a site running 1.5.4 works fine
trying to install fresh into a test subdomain the install script fails

soaringeagle:

real confused now
a site running 1.5.4 works fine
trying to install fresh into a test subdomain the install script fails

Who are you hosting with? Is it IMH?

Did you assign the correct user permissions for your mariadb? It would be similar to MySQL... me thinks.

From the ZC Docs:

4. Do you have access to your webhosting control panel to create a MySQL database and user?

BEFORE YOU PROCEED, make sure you have access to a MySQL database, and username/password to that database. You may need to create the database using your webhosting account's control panel. Contact your webhosting company for assistance. Zen Cart® cannot create the database for you.

(You need the following permissions on your MySQL user: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER, INDEX, DROP. On an hSphere host, this would be "dba" access, or at least read/write. )

And this is worth a look - MariaDB Docs:

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/grant/

frank18:

Who are you hosting with? Is it IMH? hivelocity.net yes whm

frank18:

Did you assign the correct user permissions for your mariadb? It would be similar to MySQL... me thinks.

From the ZC Docs:yes did all that and saw 1 dicussion say some serversdont like 777 so try 755
my last ditch efffort tomoro might be migrate to a shared host, upgrade to 1.5.4 then migrate back

frank18:

Did you assign the correct user permissions for your mariadb? It would be similar to MySQL... me thinks.

From the ZC Docs:

sorry thpught u meant folder permissions but yes i gave all permissions
plus was trying both woith an existing working db and a new fresh empty db
the site loads with old db and 1.5.4 uplosded over it but cant upgrade the db
the install script just refuses to run and i get a 500 error (in edge ff just blank screen)

soaringeagle:

sorry thpught u meant folder permissions but yes i gave all permissions
plus was trying both woith an existing working db and a new fresh empty db
the site loads with old db and 1.5.4 uplosded over it but cant upgrade the db
the install script just refuses to run and i get a 500 error (in edge ff just blank screen)

Had a similar issue some months ago when trying to upgrade a site for a client from 1.3.8a to 1.5.4 on Inmotion Hosting, constantly gave me the 500 error when trying to run the installer.

At the end I did something which I absolute hate doing: I used Softacoulos to get a working vanilla 1.5.4 installation in a separate directory..... funny enough, it worked without the dreaded 500 error.

From there it was plain sailing......

frank18:

Had a similar issue some months ago when trying to upgrade a site for a client from 1.3.8a to 1.5.4 on Inmotion Hosting, constantly gave me the 500 error when trying to run the installer.

At the end I did something which I absolute hate doing: I used Softacoulos to get a working vanilla 1.5.4 installation in a separate directory..... funny enough, it worked without the dreaded 500 error.

From there it was plain sailing......
dont got Softacoulos on there but thats why i was considering trying to migrate it to a free godaddy , just to upgrade and migrate back

well appreciate all the help, hopefuly tomoro ill make some progress
worse case scenario this shops the lower trafic one so dont really need a dedicated server i could just leave it on the free server if i just cant get it working right
but really think migrating upgrading and migrating back should do the trick

i did try an automated thing http://installatron.com/zencart/install
but it kept failing to conect to the db
thats why i suspect the install will only work with mysql even when the site works great after install on mariadb

all theoretical till i get it installed though its just a hunch till then

soaringeagle:

dont got Softacoulos on there but thats why i was considering trying to migrate it to a free godaddy , just to upgrade and migrate back

well appreciate all the help, hopefuly tomoro ill make some progress
worse case scenario this shops the lower trafic one so dont really need a dedicated server i could just leave it on the free server if i just cant get it working right
but really think migrating upgrading and migrating back should do the trick

i did try an automated thing http://installatron.com/zencart/install
but it kept failing to conect to the db
thats why i suspect the install will only work with mysql even when the site works great after install on mariadb

all theoretical till i get it installed though its just a hunch till then

You could do all of that with a local LAMP/WAMP/XAMPP server instead of going the GD way. Just a thought....