Report board software problems here

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2008-04-16 07:40pm

I had that too. I'm hoping it's just the server acting up and telling Mike how much the mobo needs replacing. Although that really sounds more like software than hardware.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2008-04-16 09:00pm

It was a bugfix update that took the forums temporarily offline.

The Vortex Empire · Post by **The Vortex Empire** » 2008-04-18 09:18pm

Since the forum came back online I've been getting a

phpBB CRITICAL ERROR
Cannot connect to database

error message almost every time I click on something

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-04-18 09:21pm

The Vortex Empire wrote:Since the forum came back online I've been getting a

phpBB CRITICAL ERROR
Cannot connect to database

error message almost every time I click on something

I'm on it. It looks like that new mysqlmanager thing that they added recently. When I reinstalled the OS, it enabled it by default. I don't know exactly what that fucking thing does or why I should be using it, but I disabled it and the problem seems to be fixed.

PS. Actually, I'm not entirely sure I was able to disable the damned thing. I killed the process and restarted mysql without the "use-manager" option enabled, and it's back again! But we don't seem to be getting all of those errors. Strange ...

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-04-18 09:25pm

Looks like it's working normally from where I'm sitting. Those nasty messages just disappeared.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-04-18 09:26pm

All forums checked out correctly, all old DB threads work fined, and "useless hat fucker" provided plenty of matches with the working search function. Minus any unexpected fuck ups I declare the forum working again.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-04-18 09:28pm

I just got another one of these

phpBB : Critical Error
Could not connect to the database

...while trying to view HoS

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-04-18 09:32pm

Well, there's just no fast way to do a complete MB/CPU/RAM swap with OS upgrade. You can plan it out, but it's still going to take a long time and something's bound to go wrong.

A short list:

1) Had trouble getting the fan in properly. I'm not used to the way these new socket 775 fans are supposed to attach.

2) Discovered (too late) that the new board doesn't have a PS/2 keyboard port. This meant I had to run out to the computer store and buy a new keyboard, just so I could start it up and do a memory test.

3) Discovered that the version of memtest86 that I had on CD would hang on this board. I guess it's too old. So I had to find another working computer, download memtest86, burn it to CD, and then take it back to the server so I could run a memory test.

4) Confirmed that the OS wouldn't boot after the hardware changes. This was actually not a surprise. Had to reinstall the OS.

5) Discovered that the CPU temperature was too high for comfort. Strangely enough, it dropped from 60C to 48C after doing a BIOS update.

6) MySQL decided to act very strange upon restarting the machine, and kept refusing connections for some reason. This manifested itself as those "Could not connect to database server" errors some of you saw. I thought I solved the problem by killing the mysqlmanager process and restarting mysql without the mysqlmanager option enabled, but "ps -ef" shows that the mysqlmanager process restarted itself for some reason. Still, the errors seem to have gone away, so I have guarded optimism that it's OK now.

PS. Mind you, a lot of the time taken for this process was due to the memory test, so it wasn't as if I was messing around with the computer the whole time. I actually took some time off to eat dinner and get the bicycles out of storage, grease the chains, inflate the tires, and make sure they're OK because Rebecca wants to go riding tomorrow.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-04-18 10:00pm

Darth Wong wrote:3) Discovered that the version of memtest86 that I had on CD would hang on this board. I guess it's too old. So I had to find another working computer, download memtest86, burn it to CD, and then take it back to the server so I could run a memory test.

I don't know if you received my email I sent, but you might want to try memtest+ (memtest.org) in the future: it's updated much more often.

5) Discovered that the CPU temperature was too high for comfort. Strangely enough, it dropped from 60C to 48C after doing a BIOS update.

The BIOS was probably not reading the temperatures properly in your processor since it's a newer one.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-04-18 10:08pm

phongn wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:3) Discovered that the version of memtest86 that I had on CD would hang on this board. I guess it's too old. So I had to find another working computer, download memtest86, burn it to CD, and then take it back to the server so I could run a memory test.
I don't know if you received my email I sent, but you might want to try memtest+ (memtest.org) in the future: it's updated much more often.

5) Discovered that the CPU temperature was too high for comfort. Strangely enough, it dropped from 60C to 48C after doing a BIOS update.
The BIOS was probably not reading the temperatures properly in your processor since it's a newer one.

Yes, I got your E-mail. Thanks (and thanks to everyone else who E-mailed; it was actually quite reassuring to know that I probably wasn't burning out my new CPU while it ran Memtest). Having said that, my RAM got a clean bill of health from Memtest86, and while Memtest86+ might be better, I'm happy with that outcome for now (besides, I don't want to take the machine off-line for hours so I can test the RAM again).

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2008-04-18 10:16pm

Well we're just glad that this place is back.

DaveJB · Post by **DaveJB** » 2008-04-19 06:18am

It seems like the new setup might actually have fixed a problem I was experiencing - for the last few days threads have randomly been displaying corrupt and/or incomplete when I loaded them. Initially I put it down to my less than reliable Wi-Fi connection (although it seemed a bit odd that I wasn't seeing the same thing at any other forum), but since the new motherboard and processor have been installed I haven't seen the problem again. Might have been another sign that the old motherboard was about to die... or my connection might just be working better today. I'll keep my eye out for the next few days anyway.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2008-04-22 10:31am

Darth Wong wrote:That's stupid. There are plenty of websites out there which have mismatched security certificates, and not everyone wants to pay a yearly fee for a certificate that's been signed by Verisign or Thawte. It doesn't help that you need a separate certificate for every subdomain. Even certain servers on ISPs have this problem.

You can do wildcard ssl ceritifications. But buying any ssl cert is on the freaking expensive side for a single person.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2008-04-26 02:45pm

DNS fuckups. OpenDNS is intermittently saying that the server has failed: I suspect either DNS poisoning attempts or some lasting malaise from the recent upgrade.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-04-26 02:58pm

My server upgrade wouldn't have anything to do with DNS lookups.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-05-04 03:41am

Goddamned power failures.

I need a better UPS. Although I suppose it didn't help that I fell asleep around 8:00PM EST last night, which was right around the time that the power failure occurred.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2008-05-04 03:52am

Ah, so that's why I couldn't access the board.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2008-05-04 03:59am

Braedley wrote:Ah, so that's why I couldn't access the board.

you weren't the only one, I had like the twitches from withdrawl...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-05-21 02:20pm

Dammit. Network connection is slow as hell for some reason. I left a call with tech support.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2008-05-21 08:51pm

speaking about power glitches, my area of California was blacked out all day today.

[R_H] · Post by **[R_H]** » 2008-05-24 05:54am

The past two weekends my post count went down to ~630 posts (and then up again to ~650 by the end of the week). When I logged in this morning and posted in Venting, I saw that I had 633 posts, yesterday I had around 650. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2008-05-25 03:42am

I have a question: Of late I noticed a number of invalid sessions when I post. While this does not really pose a problem, I'm curious as to the cause. Is it a time issue? Or a browser? I'm using FireFox 3 RC1 by the way.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-05-25 03:49am

[R_H] wrote:The past two weekends my post count went down to ~630 posts (and then up again to ~650 by the end of the week). When I logged in this morning and posted in Venting, I saw that I had 633 posts, yesterday I had around 650. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

Do you post in Testing at all?

[R_H] · Post by **[R_H]** » 2008-05-25 05:47am

phongn wrote:
[R_H] wrote:The past two weekends my post count went down to ~630 posts (and then up again to ~650 by the end of the week). When I logged in this morning and posted in Venting, I saw that I had 633 posts, yesterday I had around 650. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?
Do you post in Testing at all?

I'm sure I didn't post in Testing at all last week. In the ten months I've been here I posted maybe once in Testing.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-06-07 01:58pm

I think there's something wrong with the avatar gallery; I attempted to go back to my normal avatar and it let me select it and showed it in my profile as my avatar, but when I clicked the Submit button, it went back to the one I had before. To get it back, I had to save a copy and then upload it from my computer.