Migrating old Joomla 1.5 site to new host

[dagr]

Hello,

I'm swapping hosts and am trying to migrate an old Joomla 1.5 website that works well on the current host.

As far as I can work out, all I needed to do was to copy all the Joomla files, export then import the DB, and finally modify the configuration.php file to suit the new host's parameters (DB name, login and password).

Having done all of the above, I initially got a blank screen. I then changed the new host's PHP version from 7 back down to 5.4 (same as old host) and I'm now getting the following message:

Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL

Could someone please confirm the DB password parameter in the configuration.php file? Is it this one near the end of the file?

Code: Select all

var $password = '

I'm pretty sure the DB name and DB User are correct.

Thanks.

[toivo]

Could someone please confirm the DB password parameter in the configuration.php file? Is it this one near the end of the file?

That line contains the database password.

All the database parameters are important, including the type of the database driver, which probably was 'mysql' in Joomla 1.5:

Code: Select all

	public $dbtype = 'mysqli';

[Webdongle]

Use Akeeba to transfer the site or better still create a new site from a fresh install of J3.8.7. Create new Categories/Articles/menus (you can copy/paste the text into new Articles but do it via Notepad++ or use CTRL+SHIFT+V).

If you use a tool to upgrade/migrate you will still have to create menus and install new extensions. It is far quicker and cleaner to install a fresh J3.8.7

J1.5 has security issues ... there was an unofficial patch for a zero day exploit but security of a 1.5 site is questionable.

[dagr]

Thanks for the replies and confirming that there wasn't something else needing tweeking.

I want to avoid upgrading to a newer version of Joomla as I used an old component that doesn't have an upgrade path, plus I altered quite a bit of the component's PHP files. I'll keep the upgrade as a last resort.

The MySQL and PHP versions are the same between the old and new hosts. I'll double check all the parameters.
Thanks again.

[Webdongle]

Then use Akeeba to transfer the site https://www.akeebabackup.com/compatibility.html the installer packed in the backup file is verbose. It will probably tell where the problem is.

[dagr]

I tried installing an old, in theory compatible, version of AKEEBA, but the component didn't install. I'll try again tonight.

[dagr]

Update: Found out from my new host that the DBs have their own specific server address, i.e. xxxx.mysql.db and so replaced "localhost" with the DB address in configuration.php file and I got DB access. However, I now have an error that looks like a Joomla DB mismatch:

jtablesession::Store Failed
DB function failed with error number 1054
Unknown column 'client_id' in 'field list' SQL=INSERT INTO `jos_session` ( `session_id`,`time`,`username`,`gid`,`guest`,`client_id` ) VALUES ( '60ee6c751adcb231418d0aa3379fa0f2','1526396768','','0','1','0' )

The actual columns in the session table are:

username time session_id guest userid usertype gid

Any ideas?

[Webdongle]

What version of 1.5 do you have ?

[dagr]

It is version 1.5.26

[Webdongle]

It is version 1.5.26

EOL sep 2012 but there have been security patches since https://docs.joomla.org/Security_hotfix ... L_versions . If you are going to continue using it then consider the patches.

[dagr]

Many thanks. I'll look into that.