Wordpress wont update or add new plugins

Retired_member41 · Aug 10, 2014

Hi

can anyone help?

I went to update wordpress after seeing a post on acorn, and it asked for ftp details

So i entered them, but it says username and password incorrect, but they are correct obviously.

Had a look at google and there are all sorts of listed fixes but nothing works.

Could it be an ownership issue as I moved site? Although I did just do a full move, so thought all would be the same.

Main one looked like it was suphp needed, but when I change that from dsa sites stop working.

Any help appreciated.

Need to install plugin and cant.

dazc · Aug 10, 2014

On the update page it should give you the option to re-install.
Try that as you may have some core files missing?

Retired_member41 · Aug 10, 2014

Wordpress wont let me install anything, thats the problem, keeps going to a page asking for ftp details, and when entering it doesnt work.

Skinner · Aug 10, 2014

This is a permissions issue. I had this with a host a while ago. I can't remember what caused it, but I seem to remember it was the php install had a missing switch which meant it were unable to handle files.

The FTP option did work but it was laborious. I changed host in the end as I was getting nowhere with the hosting company.

Retired_member41 · Aug 10, 2014

Skinner said:
This is a permissions issue. I had this with a host a while ago. I can't remember what caused it, but I seem to remember it was the php install had a missing switch which meant it were unable to handle files.

The FTP option did work but it was laborious. I changed host in the end as I was getting nowhere with the hosting company.

So can I change permission via command line you think?

Skinner · Aug 10, 2014

It was sometime ago, but I seem to remember chmod didn't help altho the host insisted it were the problem. Help forums were suggesting php running as user which didn't have sufficient rights to access files owned by my account. The other option was php was rebuilt with a security feature which broke it. Either way the host wouldnt' talk about rebuilds, they were unable/unwilling to chown, so I never found out the true cause.

The Wordpress forum was the most helpful, but never solved it due it being shared hosting.

Retired_member41 · Aug 10, 2014

Skinner your a star, chown -R nobody:nobody somefolder just sorted it

Thanks Steven, dazc and Dunstan, cheque is in the post

boxfish · Aug 10, 2014

Caz said:
Skinner your a star, chown -R nobody:nobody somefolder just sorted it

Thanks Steven, dazc and Dunstan, cheque is in the post

Where did you run that command from Caz? I have a blog that does the exact same thing

Retired_member41 · Aug 10, 2014

I ran it using winscp and logging in, you will need shell access enabled thats all

Make sure you also add your host name by running chown -R nobody:hostname somefolder also

Adam H · Aug 10, 2014

Yeah would have been an ownership issue if you are running DSO, if your the sole person which has access to the server/vps then DSO is fine but it does leave you open should one of your scripts/accounts become compromised.

If you need to run DSO for the ability to run a caching agent like xcache then id highly recommend running Mod_ruid2 as well which will give you the same permission and ownership structure as Suphp but with the advantages of DSO's speed.

You will need to change all your accounts ownership to username:username rather than nobody:nobody though, this is good because if an account does get comprised the intruder can not go any further than that account, if the same happens under the "nobody" account you've basically given them open access to your entire server.

Running Mod_ruid2 with DSO also gives you the ability to run update scripts and use template editors etc with out having to enter FTP details every time too.