Plesk 12.5.30 MU#27

[NatalyaF]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have released new microupdate - http://docs.plesk.com/release-notes/12.5/change-log/ or https://kb.plesk.com/en/128650
Please write in this sticky thread all problems with your Plesk servers which arose after applying this microupdate. And please be absolutely sure that reported problem is really caused by this microupdate!
We also welcome the positive reviews.

Several improvements were made in this microupdate. Please share your opinion how it was easy to get them.

Thanks.

 

[G J Piper]

Somehow a plugin I've been using for years now is throwing errors after the new update. All the Wordpress sites with the "Section Widget" plugin are affected. The installs give this error (but seem to be functioning), and the Wordpress settings in Plesk are all missing.
PHP 7.04 Wordpress Domain:

PHP 5.3 domains:


Main Wordpress Toolkit:



Another side effect: None of the Wordpress installs will show that Translator Updates are actually occuring, even though the actual updates say they were successful (from inside Wordpress sites). I haven't tried any plugin updates.

Attempting Synchronize a Wordpress Install does not fix it.

I'm not seeing any errors in the main apache & nginx server logs when people visit the sites. These errors must be originating in the Plesk UI.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi G J Piper,

please be aware, that Plesk is not responsible for any plugins, that you installed for a wordpress site. You should contact the provider of the plugin to get support for it ( https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/section-widget ).

If you still wish help with any investigations, please consider to include depending files from a possible error - message, so that people willing to help you don't have to guess ( in your case, for wordpress sites with PHP 5.3 AND PHP 7, it is the file "loader.php" from ".../plugins/section-widget/olt-checklist/" - line 64, which causes issues/problems/errors ), what might be the root cause.

 

[G J Piper]

Hi G J Piper,

please be aware, that Plesk is not responsible for any plugins, that you installed for a wordpress site. You should contact the provider of the plugin to get support for it ( https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/section-widget ).

If you still wish help with any investigations, please consider to include depending files from a possible error - message, so that people willing to help you don't have to guess ( in your case, for wordpress sites with PHP 5.3 AND PHP 7, it is the file "loader.php" from ".../plugins/section-widget/olt-checklist/" - line 64, which causes issues/problems/errors ), what might be the root cause.

The plugin seems to be working properly on the sites, and in WordPress itself. I only get this error in the WordPress Toolkit area when it tries to show the (missing) website settings. It has been working fine for years, but with this MU the Plesk WordPress Toolkit is throwing these errors.

I also tried this:

 

[UFHH01]

Hi G J Piper,

and you don't want to share the information, WHAT the line 64 contains at "loader.php"... well.... sorry to say that, but in this case, the suggestion will be to uninstall the plugin from your wordpress sites, because it is just not compatible with the Wordpress Toolkit.

 

[G J Piper]

Hi G J Piper,

and you don't want to share the information, WHAT the line 64 contains at "loader.php"... well.... sorry to say that, but in this case, the suggestion will be to uninstall the plugin from your wordpress sites, because it is just not compatible with the Wordpress Toolkit.

I'll share the whole plugin with you... it is working fine. I have no problems with it. the Plesk WordPress Toolkit is giving the errors. Here are the server logs for the plesk panel:


Attached is the file the strange error refers to, which is currently working properly and has been for at least 2 years with no updates.

Also, here is a screenshot of the file on the server, it was created in 2014 and as worked fine in PHP5.3 and PHP7.0x until this update:



Here is the offending plugin page: https://wordpress.org/plugins/section-widget/

It is not possible to remove the plugin, as it is functioning properly on the websites for one, and they are production domains used for sites that rely on this plugin. (and, the pluging is working properly -- did I mention that? ;-) )

I'm happy to give you any further info you wish... just let me know what you want me to post.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi G J Piper,

please note, that this specific plugin is declared to be compatible with wordpress installations from "3.6 or higher" to "3.8.13". Even if you stated quite a few times, that "it is working properly" on your sites, it can't be guaranted, that it works with the latest wordpress version 4.4.2. and as well with the latest Wordpress Toolkit. My suggestion is again: Please consider to contact the plugin distributor directly on the support site ( which I doubt, that it will succeed, because this plugin it outdated => "Last Updated: 2 years ago" ).

You will notice as well, that wordpress users already discussed incompatibilities, as for example at:

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/section-widget-with-wp-40-or-41?replies=3
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/423-update-breaks-display?replies=3
https://wordpress.org/support/topic...not-modify-header-of-section-widget?replies=1​

 

[G J Piper]

Ok I guess I'll have to get rid of the plugin. Thanks for the input.

 

[trialotto]

@G J Piper

To be more concrete, it is not exactly a relevant question whether the plugin mentioned is compatible with WP > 3.8.13 and/or WPT.

After all, there is just some bad code in the plugin.

In general, it is never good to use a plugin that is intended to augment WP with shortcodes and/or widgets.

That really is the "domain" of the WP theme, in the sense that the WP theme should include the shortcode and widget related code (if any is necessary).

In short, I strongly recommend to search for a good WP theme.

By the way, you can also use Visual Composer, but that is an entirely different story.

Regards.......

 

[G J Piper]

That really is the "domain" of the WP theme, in the sense that the WP theme should include the shortcode and widget related code (if any is necessary).In short, I strongly recommend to search for a good WP theme.

So you're saying don't use WP plugins that create widgets or do short codes? That's about 99% of all plugins.
And, I designed the theme myself for a client.

 

[trialotto]

@G J Piper

No, I am not saying "don't use WP plugins that create widgets or do short codes".

Normal plugins can contain shortcodes and widgets and, to make a clear distinction, specific plugins are available to allow for shortcodes and widgets.

Normal plugins are often fine, those specific plugins often are not.

In general, plugins are bad news, in the sense that

- plugins do what you can do yourself
- plugins often do a lot, that is not needed
- huge numbers of plugins means less performance
- every plugin can cause a whole WP instance to break down

and so on.

It often is better to just add some custom functions (and filters) in a custom-functions.php file and add a "require_once line" in the functions.php file.

Even the "better and more complex" plugins, like W3TC, can be completely replaced with a few lines of code, some minor Nginx configuration and/or some small actions.

In short, keep in mind that plugins are intended to make life of the end-user easy, whilst making the life of the sysadmin a hell.

Regards.......

 

[UFHH01]

back to "Plesk 12.5.30 MU#27":

The update/patch went smooth without any failures.

( Who ever voted with 2, please let us know, how the Plesk-Team and or people willing to help, are able to investigate possible issues/errors for you! ).

 

[G J Piper]

I will remove my "2" vote. However, I am disappointed that a Plesk user must now not only make sure all WordPress Plugins are fully compatible with WordPress at all times, but also are fully compatible with Plesk Control Panel as well. (I'm of the mindset that a control panel should be "compatible" with it's object of control, not the other way around.)

and, trialotto... please don't reply to this comment.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi G J Piper,

sorry, but your statement is misleading.
You really can't expect a working state "works as expected", when you use third party components, which are incompatible with the current wordpress site and the current Wordpress Toolkit. The result will certainly be issues/problems/errors and/or failures on your Plesk Control Panel, because your individual configuration doesn't meet the supported Plesk standard. It is impossible for Plesk to investigate and solve issues with all third party components, because the available amount of plugins and software is huge. If you insist using third party components on your server ( and therefore experience unnormal behaviour with Plesk and/or its additional components ) you can still open a support ticket at https://cscontact.plesk.com/form/32/?Product=Plesk and experienced Plesk server administrators will help you to solve your unique, individual issue, which is caused by your third party component.

 

[trialotto]

I will remove my "2" vote. However, I am disappointed that a Plesk user must now not only make sure all WordPress Plugins are fully compatible with WordPress at all times, but also are fully compatible with Plesk Control Panel as well. (I'm of the mindset that a control panel should be "compatible" with it's object of control, not the other way around.)

and, trialotto... please don't reply to this comment.

@G J Piper

Ok, I will not comment, since you asked, implying that I also do not have to mention that a lot of work is being done behind the scenes (by Plesk Team and/or me) to have WPT and WP and/or WP plugins being more compatible and less error-prone.

To be honest, I think that it can be safely stated that most persons are posting answers in the light of the general benefit of ALL forum members.

No need to worry that this reaction is specifically intended for you.

In general, the following applies

- ALL WP plugins are compatible with WordPress, but not all plugins are updated to support the latest versions (that is just a matter of patience, or selecting another WP Plugin)
- ALL WP plugins from the WordPress directory are compatible with one or more versions of WordPress
- ALL recent versions of WordPress are compatible with Plesk Panel and WPT
- WPT has some minor issues, that are being dealt with continuously

In short, no reason to worry, if one uses WordPress with the WordPress Toolkit on a Plesk instance.

Regards........

 

[Kingsley]

Hello;

I am not seeing the update and i have this error....

Failed to read product information from the file : Can't process products.inf3: Failed to download the package http://autoinstall.plesk.com/products.inf3:
couldn't connect to host

Can't process versions.inf3: Failed to download the package http://autoinstall.plesk.com/versions.inf3:
couldn't connect to host

I added this 199.115.104.31 pleskwin.download.swsoft.com download1.parallels.com autoinstall.plesk.com origin.autoinstall.plesk.com to my /etc/hosts file i dont know if that is the cause, because #26 installed when that was not added

 

[trialotto]

@Kingsley

Your /etc/hosts file should certainly not contain the "199.115.104.31 pleskwin.download.swsoft.com download1.parallels.com autoinstall.plesk.com origin.autoinstall.plesk.com" information in any way, please remove that and run the following command:

/opt/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller

(on CentOs, this should be /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller, if I am not mistaken).

Regards

 

[UFHH01]

Hi Kingsley,

please ignore trialotto's post and feel free to follow the Plesk Knowledge-Base article 113175:

Cannot download Plesk packages from autoinstaller.plesk.com ( Plesk Knowledge-Base article 113175 )
​

Even that the resolutions from the KB - article should solve your issue(s), you can still investigate possible issues with your server configuration. You would start with "/etc/resolv.conf" and probably would use the very stable Google server on top of your list

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
... additional nameservers ...

... and check the Plesk IPs/domains again for example with "dig" from the command line.

 

[Kingsley]

@Kingsley

Your /etc/hosts file should certainly not contain the "199.115.104.31 pleskwin.download.swsoft.com download1.parallels.com autoinstall.plesk.com origin.autoinstall.plesk.com" information in any way, please remove that and run the following command:

/opt/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller

(on CentOs, this should be /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller, if I am not mistaken).

Regards

I did that because let's encrypt extention won't install

 

[Kingsley]

Hi Kingsley,

please ignore trialotto's post and feel free to follow the Plesk Knowledge-Base article 113175:

Cannot download Plesk packages from autoinstaller.plesk.com ( Plesk Knowledge-Base article 113175 )
​

Even that the resolutions from the KB - article should solve your issue(s), you can still investigate possible issues with your server configuration. You would start with "/etc/resolv.conf" and probably would use the very stable Google server on top of your list

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
... additional nameservers ...

... and check the Plesk IPs/domains again for example with "dig" from the command line.

I should add Google dns server to /etc/resolv.conf?