Topic on Project:Support desk

I would like to update my MediaWiki 1.16 to the newest version in MoWeS Portable... but the Manual:Upgrading page is filled with confusing technobabble, and appears geared only toward upgrading MediaWiki on an actual online web server.  I have no experience with running web servers or any command-line system (and neither does anyone I know), and I don't know how (or where) to execute any of the commands listed in that manual.

Can someone who understands this stuff walk me through the process with an introductory "for dummies" level of complexity?  (I suppose a self-installer executable file for Windows XP would be asking too much...)

I currently have the newest software packaged by MoWeS:

• Apache2 (version 2.2.11)
• MySQL5 (version 5.5.8)
• PHP5 (version 5.3.5)
• ImageMagick (version 4.2.9)
• MediaWiki (version 1.16)

I'd like to update whatever can be updated, but especially MediaWiki.

Hi!

I have good news for you: With your software (Apache, PHP, MySQL) you do not have to do any additional updates. Updating only MediaWiki is enough.

Manual:Upgrading is mainly targeted at users with a Linux server; but you have Windows XP. So you have to adapt parts of the commands, which are presented there. E.g. you cannot just type "php update.php" on the Windows command prompt to run the script update.php with php.exe. Instead you would first have to change directory to the path in which you have update.php and call php.exe by typing the complete path to the exe.

In short to do the update you must do two things:

First replace the old MediaWiki files with the new ones and second update your database.

That means: Download the tar archive with the newest source code (version 1.19.2) and extract it on your PC. Check which files and folders you have there; these are the ones, which you have to replace in your MediaWiki installation. Move the old files and folders out of the way (maybe best do not delete them, but only move them to the dustbin, just in case something goes wrong) and put the new files and folders there.

Make sure your Apache server and MySQL are running. Now update the database. Two options: The easy one is to use your webbrowser. Visit the URL, which basically points to your wiki, but do not let it point to the MediaWiki mainscript index.php, but to mw-config/index.php. This is a web updater, which does the needed database updates, when you go it through. Second option would be to do the database updates by running the file maintenance/update.php on the Windows Command Prompt with PHP.

To run update.php via command prompt, if you have MediaWiki in C:\Mowes\MediaWiki, you would first cd to C:\Mowes\MediaWiki\maintenance. If you have php.exe in C:\Mowes\php\php.exe, you would then execute php.exe with C:\Mowes\php\php.exe update.php like so:

Microsoft Windows XP
Copyright Microsoft Corp. 1985 - 2001
C:\Documents\Terminator> cd C:\Mowes\MediaWiki\maintenance
C:\Mowes\MediaWiki\maintenance> C:\Mowes\php\php.exe update.php

Attempting to follow these instructions DELETED my entire database.

I've been able to partially restore it (drag & drop, overwriting the files), by using a zipped file that contained the entire contents of my Mowes directory... but it wasn't current, and I lost several weeks worth of very hard work.

Needless to say, I am PISSED at the above person.

Oh, and the "mw-config/index.php" does not exist, either.

I am sorry to hear that. However, please do not forget that you are responsible for what you do. Neither Manual:Upgrading nor my instructions, which are based on the very same page, tell you to delete your database. Additionally it was your decision not to create a backup (although Manual:Upgrading explicitly tells you to do so!); now don't blame others for your faults! And by the way: The folder "mw-config/index.php" does exist; if in your installation it doesn't, you again did something wrong.

You're certainly less than helpful.

And no, I didn't do anything wrong with the installation.  It came from a MoWeS package.  Again, it does not contain a "mw-config" folder.  There is a "config" folder though.

If you didn't do anything wrong, why have you then deleted your database? Why have you not tried out in a test install first? Why have you not made a backup?

I have helped you and as a thank you you have nothing better to do than to claim I would be "less than helpful"? Are you off your fucking rocker?!?! I have given you exactly the help you asked for and that more than extensively; what do you want? Don't blame me for your incompetence. If you are unable to do what you are told, that is not my problem. If you know exactly that you do not know how to do things, why don't you try out in a test install first?

It is not my fault, when you don't test things first. It is not my fault, when you do not create a backup. It is not my fault, when you delete your database. There are so many ways that would have prevented you from loosing all your oh so precious data; but when you are just too stupid to pick only one of them, then also I can't help.

I created the test install to try to make a backup and update.  Doing so deleted the database.  MoWeS can apparently only support a single installation.

Backup is also completely non-functional in MoWeS: when ordered to backup, it does nothing.  That's hardly my fault.  I have to copy everything into an archive file manually to make anything similar to a backup.

Get the fuck off my thread, you trolling asshole.  You have been no help whatsoever, so don't you claim otherwise.

And get a damn account.

Should I be able to smell that MoWeS is such a bad system? But do you know what I think? I am sure that, if used properly, MoWeS is not bad at all. Your real problem actually is that you absolutely cannot cope with MoWeS, but that does not matter here.

You carelessly don't check your backups and now you blame me? Testing if your backups are actually functional, is your job; not MoWeS', not mine, but yours. Had you not negligently missed testing your backups, you would in all likelihood have realized there is a problem, would have been able to fix it and would not have lost your so valuable data - at least a user with ordinary knowledge and intellect at your place would not have lost his data then; you would surely have found a way to loose it anyway.

However, I know what you will respond already: You have already proven that when you miss arguments, you rant and rave at people. Do you also beat people up in real life?

And btw I will decide myself when I no longer answer you.

88.130.64.0/18: I've warned Terminator484 for his personal attacks, and I ask that you too refrain from personal attacks.

The Image administration manual says MediaWiki 1.17 and higher requires "ImageMagick 6.5.6-2" or higher.  I only have 4.2.9, so how do I update that too?

The ImageMagick FTP server indicated in my version's readme doesn't seem to exist, so where do I get ImageMagick?

Most importantly... is there an installer executable for Windows XP?

Is that what you need?

I think so... but it's really quite weird.  I tried installing it, but MoWeS sorta half recognizes it, and only under certain conditions.  The webpage MoWeS opens when it starts the server makes a list of software running, and another for installed packages.  It still insists the only installed package is version 4.2.9.

Here's where it gets weirder... The new ImageMagick installed to a folder called "ImageMagick-6.8.0-Q16", and MoWeS can't recognize this folder, and just doesn't see it.  Renaming it to simply "ImageMagick" result in that MoWeS summary page displaying a message that version 6.8.0 is installed and works... yet the package listed is still only 4.2.9.

MoWeS seems pretty glitchy on the subject, so perhaps it's better to judge functionality by how it actually works in the wiki, and ignore what the MoWeS thing says.  That took some guesswork and modifying my LocalSettings.php file a little.  First, an explosion of errors regarding a bad path (despite correcting the paths) in thumbnail renders... but renaming the "ImageMagick" folder to "ImageMagick-6.8.0-Q16" again, and altering the path callouts in the LocalSettings.php file (to what it was looking for), cleaned up all the errors.  For the first time ever, my wiki supports SVGs!

But it's still a bit buggy.  Two of my test SVGs are strangely missing their colors... which I'll take to a more relevant thread for that topic.

Still don't know how to update the MediaWiki software though...