[SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

MickeyRat · 2015-12-31 18:07:05

A search turned up some similar problems but, not quite like this one and not recently. Before I start, I'll freely admit I'm no webmaster.

This is fresh install of Arch and it's strictly a Mythtv backend. The backend works and the frontends on other machines are working fine but, I can't get Mythweb to work.

Apache is set up with PHP and tested according to the wiki. Mythweb is also setup accoding to the wiki. The only error in the Apache error log is:

[lbmethod_heartbeat:notice] [pid 3741] AH02282: No slotmem from mod_heartmonitor

From what I've been able to find, that one can be safely ignored. The Apache access_log shows that it's doing something:

::1 - - [30/Dec/2015:16:46:24 -0500] "GET /mythweb HTTP/1.1" 301 233
::1 - - [30/Dec/2015:16:46:24 -0500] "GET /mythweb/ HTTP/1.1" 500 2746
::1 - - [30/Dec/2015:16:46:24 -0500] "GET /mythweb/js/prototip/prototip.css HTTP/1.1" 200 2715
::1 - - [30/Dec/2015:16:46:24 -0500] "GET /mythweb/js/dialog/dialog.css HTTP/1.1" 200 1336
::1 - - [30/Dec/2015:16:46:24 -0500] "GET /mythweb/skin_url/style.css HTTP/1.1" 500 2746
::1 - - [30/Dec/2015:16:46:24 -0500] "GET /mythweb/skin_url/header.css HTTP/1.1" 500 2746
::1 - - [30/Dec/2015:16:46:24 -0500] "GET /mythweb/skin_url/menus.css HTTP/1.1"

The browser just displays a blank page.

Versions:
mythtv 1:0.27.5-4
mythplugins-mythweb 1:0.27.5-2
apache 2.4.18-1
php 5.6.16-3
php-apache 5.6.16-3

Pastebin links to conf files:
httpd.conf
php.ini
mythweb.conf

I'm at a loss for where to go with this. Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by MickeyRat (2016-01-06 00:39:00)

karol · 2016-01-03 19:31:19

Is it related to php 7?
https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/a … 27683.html

QuimaxW · 2016-01-03 22:49:51

It shouldn't be PHP 7, as PHP 5.6 is listed. In my case with PHP 7, apache doesn't even start. I get an error: Cannot load modules/libphp5.so when starting httpd

My suggestion would be to stop the httpd service, and run "httpd" straight from a command line on the server. It usually tells me what isn't working. I've found mythweb to be finiky to configure, but it's nice to have when it's working!

MickeyRat · 2016-01-04 11:52:13

Thanks for the replies.

No it's not PHP 7.0. It hasn't been updated to 7 yet and due to the large number of bug reports on mythtv related to PHP versions over the years, I was going to delay that particular upgrade for a bit on this machine.

Running httpd from the command is a good idea. I should have thought of that. You aren't kidding about mythweb being nice. I run the Kodi PVR at the TV but, that has some scheduling limitations and the mythtv frontend is pretty confusing when it comes to scheduling. I can handle it but, my wife has a lot of trouble with it.

Unfortunately, I now have another problem that will delay me trying anything. This was a fresh install on a brand new Gigabyte Brix bare bones system and the box died. I have a replacement coming but, it probably won't get here for a couple days at the earliest. The disk appears to be intact and there's nothing in the journal to indicate a problem. So, when the replacement comes, I'm hoping it will boot right up and I can start trying things again.

QuimaxW · 2016-01-04 14:55:04

With PHP 7, I changed the config files to point to the PHP7 things, and then mythweb started showing a blank page. I downgraded back to PHP 5.6.16 (that last version I had) and it's working again.

There are 3 php packages installed on my server, it's worth checking that they are all at the right verison:

local/php 5.6.16-1
    An HTML-embedded scripting language
local/php-apache 5.6.16-1
    Apache SAPI for PHP
local/php-cgi 5.6.16-1
    CGI and FCGI SAPI for PHP

Hopefully, the new board works!

loris · 2016-01-04 15:54:30

I did a pacman -Suy a couple of days ago and it installed php7. You can get the httpd deamon running again by changing all the php5 references in httpd.conf to php7.
However, I can confirm that whilst my other web served function still works (including phpadmin), I too get blank mythweb pages.
Should I revert to php5, or just hang fire a couple of days hoping for a new mythweb package? (I'd be happy to help, but cant even find any error logs it's produced).

Pierre · 2016-01-04 16:30:57

Did anybody bother to report this issue upstream yet? It looks like PHP 4 code which hasn't been fully ported to version 5 yet. There are a few syntax errors but overall it shouldn't be too hard to make it work on PHP 7.

QuimaxW · 2016-01-04 18:10:13

loris - I simply reverted to 5.16

Pierre - I'm not seeing any tickets in the Arch Bugtracker or mythtv's ticket system. A couple are close, https://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/12262 I don't have the knowledge in php or Apache to piece together a proper ticket. Perhaps if I get some time tonight, I can try to get some error logs from my sever.

On a positive note...mythweb is going away in 0.28, replaced by WebFrontend

MickeyRat · 2016-01-04 23:25:37

QuimaxW Thanks for the tips. I don't recall installing php-cgi. It was a new build though. I installed a lot of things. If it's not installed, hopefully I can find a way to install the older version. I've never needed to do that before. Good to hear about WebFrontend. I'll be looking for that upgrade.

The replacement box is supposed to come in tomorrow. So, I should be able to make some progress then.

gregbert · 2016-01-05 03:03:10

I believe the problem is with a function called 'mysql_connect' which was removed in php 7. I had to enable mysql.so (not just mysqli.so) in php 5 in order to get mythweb to work. But i noticed in the default php.ini for v7 that extension no longer exists. then i found this:

http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-connect.php

i also did some debugging, and found the call in 'database.php' in mythweb is what is erroring out. no solution yet, but hopefully this helps.

edit: mysql_connect AND mysql_select_db need to be replaced by new mysqli('localhost', 'my_user', 'my_password', 'my_db'); - possibly other functions.. so i think we have to wait for the authors to update.. i am sure its in progress.

Last edited by gregbert (2016-01-05 03:11:20)

MickeyRat · 2016-01-06 00:38:28

I got the replacement box and as I hoped, once I got the disk and memory in it, it worked fine. I also now have mythweb working!!! I enabled mysqli.so but, I didn't enable mysql.so. That fixed it.

Many thanks to all that replied!!!

One more question. When I ran httpd from the command line, I wasn't able to get any output at the terminal. Is there a trick to that?

I hate to mark this one solved. I'd really like to continue the discussion on getting mythweb running in PHP 7.

QuimaxW · 2016-01-06 02:14:03

Someone may have to start another thread for PHP 7 and MythWeb, I suppose.

Glad to hear it's running!

MickeyRat · 2016-01-06 03:02:47

QuimaxW wrote:

Someone may have to start another thread for PHP 7 and MythWeb, I suppose.

From what I've seen on here, I suspect the best thing to do is to wait for a new version of Mythweb before upgrading PHP.

I'm not sure what the procedure is but, someone needs to add that mysql.so to the mythweb wiki. It's not there now.

QuimaxW · 2016-01-06 03:14:22

Looking at the history on the MythWeb Wiki Page revision history that quite a few entries have been modified or removed since December. Including quite a bit of the PHP configuration and the extension=mysql.so line.

I'm thinking, that perhaps it's been updated to reflect PHP 7. I may create a test virtual machine, install mythweb clean with PHP 7 and see what happens. It may just be old php 5 configuration settings in my system that are interfering with things working properly.

MickeyRat · 2016-01-06 11:26:10

I think I'll go ahead and set up a test virtual machine as well and just keep it mirroring my backend. That'll have to wait for the weekend. Besides after all the problems I've had both hardware and software, I'm a bit gunshy and my wife is starting to regret us cutting the cord. : )

QuimaxW · 2016-01-06 17:17:21

I'm pretty sure we had "through MythTV working and not" in our wedding vows.

And I just realized, I've been using MythTV for longer than I've been married, which is alsmost 11 years now!

cca · 2016-01-23 18:14:04

Currently Arch uses the 0.27.5 branch of mythweb. To get it working with php7 I did a couple of replacements of mysql_* to mysqli_* (and moved the params around accordingly). There was also only 2 instances of php4-ish code, which I cleaned up.

Have now got it working fine. I made a patch against 0.27.5 and hacked the package build to make a package. Installed ok.

The guidelines state that I should send the patch upstream, but they are well beyond the Arch version and so the patch doesn't apply cleanly (though they still use mysql_connect), so I imagine they won't want it.

The AUR guidelines also state that if a package is in mainstream, don't add a new package to AUR.

I don't know what to do now. Should I badger the mythplugins Arch maintainer or just wait for mythweb to release a new version?

I've put the patch and the package build on github if you wish to try it out: https://github.com/ccdale/mythweb-0.27-php7

zoran119 · 2016-01-26 10:19:03

cca wrote:

I've put the patch and the package build on github if you wish to try it out: https://github.com/ccdale/mythweb-0.27-php7

I used your patch to patch the installed version of mythweb but it is still giving me a blank page with the following error:

PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Call to a member function query_col() on null in /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/includes/utils.php:59\nStack trace:\n#0 /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/modules/_shared/tmpl/default/header.php(108): setting('recommend_enabl...', NULL)\n#1 /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/modules/_shared/tmpl/tmpl/header.php(16): require('/var/lib/mythtv...')\n#2 /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/modules/_shared/tmpl/_errors/error.php(19): include('/var/lib/mythtv...')\n#3 /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/includes/errordisplay.php(198): require_once('/var/lib/mythtv...')\n#4 /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/includes/database.php(15): custom_error('Please install ...')\n#5 /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/includes/init.php(43): require_once('/var/lib/mythtv...')\n#6 /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/mythweb.php(20): require_once('/var/lib/mythtv...')\n#7 {main}\n  thrown in /var/lib/mythtv/mythweb/includes/utils.php on line 59, referer: http://helios/mythweb/tv/list

Arch Linux

#1 2015-12-31 18:07:05

[SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#2 2016-01-03 19:31:19

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#3 2016-01-03 22:49:51

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#4 2016-01-04 11:52:13

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#5 2016-01-04 14:55:04

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#6 2016-01-04 15:54:30

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#7 2016-01-04 16:30:57

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#8 2016-01-04 18:10:13

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#9 2016-01-04 23:25:37

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#10 2016-01-05 03:03:10

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#11 2016-01-06 00:38:28

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#12 2016-01-06 02:14:03

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#13 2016-01-06 03:02:47

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#14 2016-01-06 03:14:22

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#15 2016-01-06 11:26:10

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#16 2016-01-06 17:17:21

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#17 2016-01-23 18:14:04

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

#18 2016-01-26 10:19:03

Re: [SOLVED] Mythweb just displays a blank page

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