Upgrade from 2.5.24 to 3.3 Table ...postinstall_messages

[froehli]

I want to update a test system ( a copy from a production 2.5.24 system) to 3.x.

I tried the "automatic update", but it just wouldn't show me the 3.x versions (see my other post).

So I tried the "manual" upgrade along these steps:
1. Go into the administration interface of the existing Joomla 2.5.24 installation
2. Go to extensions -> install
3. Select the latest Upgrade package (http://joomlacode.org/gf/download/frsre ... ackage.zip as of the time of this writing)
4. Press "Upload & Install" and wait

Expected result: An upgraded Joomla.
Actual result:
A white page just showing the message:
Table 'myprefix_postinstall_messages' doesn't exist SQL=SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `myprefix_postinstall_messages`

Looks similar to http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=707&t=825422, but I'm
not sure, and I don't see any fixes or workarounds there.

The text there seems to suggest an extension com_postinstall is responsible for those messages, but checking in the myprefix_extensions table doesn't show such an extension, so I couldn't disable it, or can I just enter a new entry for it with enabled=0?

The frontend still worked fine after the upgrade. Only the backend showed the above message. As I saw some hint in some other thread to re-do the upgrade "more manually" (i.e. by uploading them via FTP). Doing that didn't really improve the situation though (a slight change in the backend, namely that the "fancy" error page with the blue header is now shown, but still with the same error message), but now even the frontend shows an error message (though an unrelated one, it's missing some files from an extension).

Some system information:
mysql: 5.5.31-1~dotdeb.0
database encoding: utf8_general_ci
PHP-Version: 5.4.25-1~dotdeb.0
Webserver: Apache/2.2.16 (Debian)
PHP-Interface for the Webserver: apache2handler
Joomla!-Version (before upgrade): Joomla! 2.5.24 Stable

Edit: Also what's mentioned here: http://www.joomlaportal.de/joomla-3-x-i ... rhaft.html (beware, it's in german) doesn't help; it states that administrator/components/com_admin/sql/updates folder somehow wouldn't have been uploaded properly during setup, but it is all there...

Manually creating the table doesn't really help either, by the way.
The backend is basically showing up (but scrambled), and on bottom, this message:
Table 'myprefix_tags' doesn't exist SQL=SELECT a.id, a.title, a.level, a.parent_id FROM new_tags AS a WHERE a.parent_id > 0 AND a.published IN (1) ORDER BY a.lft

After creating that table:
Error when loading component: com_tags, Component not found (translated from german text)

After trying to "check the database" on extensions page:
Table 'myprefix_content_types' doesn't exist SQL=SHOW COLUMNS IN `new_content_types` WHERE field = 'content_history_options'

That's when I give up for today.

So somehow the database upgrade seems to have gone completely wrong. Will try to continue it tomorrow; or start redo-ing it from a backup, not sure what will be faster, or if it would work any better the second time...

[sovainfo]

What does your logs/joomla_update.php say?

What is your setting for max_execution_time in php.ini?

The message says your update failed. I believe you should restore old environment and configure it so it updates without failure.

Some people believe in trying to `fix` the failed update. If you believe that too, you might want to run Extension manager->Discover and install the discovered extensions.
To avoid running into problems you might also run Extension manager->Database->Fix.
This will hide the update failure and maybe allow you to continue with both frontend and backend.
Please remember you hid the problem instead of fixing it next time something doesn't work as expected!

[froehli]

Unfortunately there is no joomla_update.log (and that might be part of the problem, could be there is some permission issue there).

The extensions -> database stuff won't work, as already mentioned above; when I try to access that, I just get yet another error message.
max_execution_time is indeed a bit low on that server I just noticed - just 30 seconds.

I'll probably do the migration/upgrade on another server where I have more control over the settings and then copy over the finished installation to the other environment...

[mishi]

I am having this exact same issue and there is no backup. My files were backed up but the db is gone.

[Per Yngve Berg]

max_execution_time is indeed a bit low on that server I just noticed - just 30 seconds.

It should be 300 to let the upgrade finish.

[mishi]

I was having the same issue and I finally got it! See if this will work for you. There were multiple issues but the main steps I took was logging into phpadmin and running the sql that I found on this site:

https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/bl ... .sql#L1501

My errors were telling me I did not have the tables postinstall_messages and content_types...so i ran the sql from this page to create them and I was finally able to get into the database----->fix on the joomla admin. Make sure when you run this script you replace your prefix if you have one. Ex. it shows #__postinstall_messages but mine was jos_postinstall_messages.

Good luck!

[sovainfo]

The number is depending on your infra. Advice to multiply by 10, restart apache to make effective try again or set it to 3000 the first time.

See also http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f ... 6#p3218866 regarding @mishi posting.

[froehli]

For me also the manual creation of missing tables worked; after creating three or four tables (and then removing the old upgrade scripts from com_admin updates subfolder), the "repair database" option started working... that basically got almost everything working, the only thing left to do was to go to the extensions -> check page and install missing extensions from there (e.g. the isis template was not yet installed). Now it looks like everything is working!

[sovainfo]

Wouldn't want my site running as a `repaired` upgrade!

Anytime you have an issue in the future you need to remind yourself the upgrade failed and was `repaired` to continue. Not the same thing as succesful upgrade!
Better to upgrade properly while you still have the backup. It is very unlikely future updates fix the `repaired` upgrade. They are to work for healthy environments, not broken ones. You might not detect it is broken now, that doesn't mean you are running a healthy system.