Thread:Project:Support desk/Fatal error update to Mediawii 1.23: DatabaseBase::factory no viable database extension found for type 'mysql'/reply (4)

Hi!

Accessing your webserver with a browser and with a shell are two different things. When you access your webserver with a browser, you can see one PHP version, while on the shell you see another one.

In your case the command "php" executes PHP 5.2. This version is not compatible with MediaWiki 1.23. Solution: Execute the updater with PHP 5.3 or newer. All you need to know is the command to execute PHP 5.3 or newer on the shell. It might be (only guessing) php5 or php53. So try

php5 maintenance/update.php

or

php53 maintenance/update.php

to run the updater. However, what this command is depends on how your host configured the server - ask him!

A bit off-topic: Why does the questioner not get a helpful error message like "You are using PHP version x.y.z but MediaWiki needs PHP 5.3.2 or higher."? That message was what people got in the past - is that broken now?