Upgrade to PHP 8.0 results in ERROR with white page Topic is solved

[Feldon]

I went into cPanel and updated from PHP 7.4 to 8.0. Afterwards, browsing to my domain OR the administrator area results in a white page with the word "ERROR". Any suggestions?

EDIT: Thanks for posting the FPA to a new reply for me.

[AMurray]

Assuming you're using Joomla 3.10 (if not, I would first suggest updating when you get a working site).

Secondly I suggest it's probably your third-party extensions (or template) that are causing the problem if they are not compatible with PHP 8.

Note the latest releases (17/8/2021) Joomla 3.10/4.0 works with PHP 8 (and indeed is the recommended version).

I would suggest, return to PHP 7.4 and see if the site works again. Then check your third-party extensions for updates and/or PHP 8 compatibility with the developer(s) of those extensions.

To get more details on the error, set the PHP error reporting on (Maximum) - in the Joomla configuration.php file (edit the file in Notepad or other text editor) and also in your server's php.ini file. (seek help from your host for that if needed).

In mean time, can you please post the FPA report results. Refer to https://forumpostassistant.github.io/docs/ for the script and instructions.

EDIT: I see the FPA - you need to just post it to a new reply.

[AMurray]

On behalf of the OP I have posted their FPA results:

[14-Sep-2021 21:05:31 UTC] PHP Warning: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/cpanel/php/sessions/ea-php56) in /home/graceuc/public_html/libraries/joomla/session/handler/native.php on line 260

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.10.2-Stable (Daraja) 12-September-2021
Joomla! Platform :: Joomla Platform 13.1.0-Stable (Curiosity) 24-Apr-2013
Joomla! Configured :: Yes | Read-Only (444) |
Configuration Options :: Offline: false | SEF: true | SEF Suffix: true | SEF ReWrite: true | .htaccess/web.config: Yes | GZip: true | Cache: true | CacheTime: 60 | CacheHandler: file | CachePlatformPrefix: false | FTP Layer: false | Proxy: false | LiveSite: Is Not Empty | Session lifetime: 15 | Session handler: database | Shared sessions: false | SSL: 2 | Error Reporting: default | Site Debug: false | Language Debug: false | Default Access: 1 | Unicode Slugs: false | dbConnection Type: mysqli | PHP Supports J! 3.10.2: Yes | Database Supports J! 3.10.2: Unknown | Database Credentials Present: Yes |

Host Configuration :: OS: Linux | OS Version: 3.10.0-962.3.2.lve1.5.24.8.el7.x86_64 | Technology: x86_64 | Web Server: Apache | Encoding: gzip, deflate, br | System TMP Writable: Yes | Free Disk Space : 28.96 GiB |

PHP Configuration :: Version: 8.0.10 | PHP API: cgi-fcgi | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: | Error Reporting: 22527 | Log Errors To: error_log | Last Known Error: 14th September 2021 21:05:31. | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Allow url fopen: 1 | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 32M | Max. POST Size: 64M | Max. Input Time: 60 | Max. Execution Time: 30 | Memory Limit: 128M

Database Configuration :: Connection Error: PHP function mysqli_connect not found.User Privileges : Unknown

PHP Extensions :: Core (8.0.10) | date (8.0.10) | libxml (8.0.10) | openssl (8.0.10) | pcre (8.0.10) | zlib (8.0.10) | bz2 (8.0.10) | calendar (8.0.10) | ctype (8.0.10) | curl (8.0.10) | hash (8.0.10) | filter (8.0.10) | ftp (8.0.10) | gettext (8.0.10) | gmp (8.0.10) | SPL (8.0.10) | iconv (8.0.10) | json (8.0.10) | pcntl (8.0.10) | readline (8.0.10) | Reflection (8.0.10) | session (8.0.10) | standard (8.0.10) | shmop (8.0.10) | SimpleXML (8.0.10) | mbstring (8.0.10) | tokenizer (8.0.10) | xml (8.0.10) | cgi-fcgi (8.0.10) | bcmath (8.0.10) | dom (20031129) | fileinfo (8.0.10) | gd (8.0.10) | imap (8.0.10) | intl (8.0.10) | exif (8.0.10) | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 8.0.10) | PDO (8.0.10) | pdo_sqlite (8.0.10) | Phar (8.0.10) | posix (8.0.10) | sockets (8.0.10) | xmlreader (8.0.10) | xmlwriter (8.0.10) | xsl (8.0.10) | Zend Engine (4.0.10) |
Potential Missing Extensions :: zip | mysqli | pdo_mysql |

Switch User Environment :: PHP CGI: Yes | Server SU: Yes | PHP SU: Yes | Potential Ownership Issues: No

Core Folders :: images/ (755) | components/ (755) | modules/ (755) | plugins/ (755) | language/ (755) | templates/ (755) | cache/ (755) | logs/ (755) | tmp/ (755) | administrator/components/ (755) | administrator/modules/ (755) | administrator/language/ (755) | administrator/templates/ (755) | administrator/logs/ (---) |

Elevated Permissions (First 10) :: theswell.ca/.TemporaryItems/ (777) |

Components :: Site ::
Core :: com_mailto (3.0.0) ? | com_wrapper (3.0.0) ? |
3rd Party::

Components :: Admin ::
Core :: com_actionlogs (3.9.0) ? | com_admin (3.0.0) ? | com_ajax (3.2.0) ? | com_associations (3.7.0) ? | com_banners (3.0.0) ? | com_cache (3.0.0) ? | com_categories (3.0.0) ? | com_checkin (3.0.0) ? | com_config (3.0.0) ? | com_content (3.0.0) ? | com_contenthistory (3.2.0) ? | com_cpanel (3.0.0) ? | com_fields (3.7.0) ? | com_finder (3.0.0) ? | com_installer (3.0.0) ? | com_joomlaupdate (3.10.1) ? | com_languages (3.0.0) ? | com_login (3.0.0) ? | com_media (3.0.0) ? | com_menus (3.0.0) ? | com_messages (3.0.0) ? | com_modules (3.0.0) ? | com_newsfeeds (3.0.0) ? | com_plugins (3.0.0) ? | com_postinstall (3.2.0) ? | com_privacy (3.9.0) ? | com_redirect (3.0.0) ? | com_search (3.0.0) ? | com_tags (3.1.0) ? | com_templates (3.0.0) ? | com_users (3.0.0) ? | com_weblinks (3.7.0) ? |
3rd Party:: com_jDownloads (3.9.8.1) ? | Slideshow CK (2.3.0) ? | com_slideshowck (2.3.0) ? |

Modules :: Site ::
Core :: mod_articles_archive (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_categories (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_category (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_latest (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_news (3.0.0) ? | mod_articles_popular (3.0.0) ? | mod_banners (3.0.0) ? | mod_breadcrumbs (3.0.0) ? | mod_custom (3.0.0) ? | mod_feed (3.0.0) ? | mod_finder (3.0.0) ? | mod_footer (3.0.0) ? | mod_languages (3.5.0) ? | mod_login (3.0.0) ? | mod_menu (3.0.0) ? | mod_random_image (3.0.0) ? | mod_related_items (3.0.0) ? | mod_search (3.0.0) ? | mod_stats (3.0.0) ? | mod_syndicate (3.0.0) ? | mod_tags_popular (3.1.0) ? | mod_tags_similar (3.1.0) ? | mod_users_latest (3.0.0) ? | mod_weblinks (3.7.0) ? | mod_whosonline (3.0.0) ? | mod_wrapper (3.0.0) ? |
3rd Party:: jDownloads Featured (3.9.8) ? | jDownloads Last Updated (3.9.8) ? | jDownloads Latest (3.9.8) ? | jDownloads Most Recently Downloaded (3.9.8) ? | jDownloads Rated (3.9.8) ? | jDownloads Related (3.9.8) ? | jDownloads Stats (3.9.3) ? | jDownloads Top (3.9.8) ? | jDownloads Tree (3.9.3) ? | jDownloads View Limits (3.9.0) ? | Slideshow CK (2.3.0) ? |

Modules :: Admin ::
Core :: mod_custom (3.0.0) ? | mod_feed (3.0.0) ? | mod_latest (3.0.0) ? | mod_latestactions (3.9.0) ? | mod_logged (3.0.0) ? | mod_login (3.0.0) ? | mod_menu (3.0.0) ? | mod_multilangstatus (3.0.0) ? | mod_popular (3.0.0) ? | mod_privacy_dashboard (3.9.0) ? | mod_quickicon (3.0.0) ? | mod_sampledata (3.8.0) ? | mod_stats_admin (3.0.0) ? | mod_status (3.0.0) ? | mod_submenu (3.0.0) ? | mod_title (3.0.0) ? | mod_toolbar (3.0.0) ? | mod_version (3.0.0) ? |
3rd Party:: mod_jdownloads_admin_stats (3.9.6) ? | mod_jdownloads_admin_monitoring (3.9.0) ? |

Libraries ::
Core ::
3rd Party::

Plugins ::
Core :: PLG_ACTIONLOG_JOOMLA (3.9.0) ? | plg_authentication_cookie (3.0.0) ? | plg_authentication_gmail (3.0.0) ? | plg_authentication_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_authentication_ldap (3.0.0) ? | plg_captcha_recaptcha (3.4.0) ? | plg_captcha_recaptcha_invisible (3.8) ? | plg_content_confirmconsent (3.9.0) ? | plg_content_emailcloak (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_content_finder (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_loadmodule (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_pagebreak (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_pagenavigation (3.0.0) ? | plg_content_vote (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_article (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_image (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_menu (3.7.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_module (3.5.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_pagebreak (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_readmore (3.0.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_weblink (3.7.0) ? | plg_extension_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_fields_calendar (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_checkboxes (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_color (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_editor (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_imagelist (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_integer (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_media (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_radio (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_repeatable (3.9.0) ? | plg_fields_sql (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_text (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_textarea (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_url (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_user (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_usergrouplist (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_list (3.7.0) ? | plg_finder_categories (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_contacts (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_content (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_newsfeeds (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_tags (3.0.0) ? | plg_finder_weblinks (3.7.0) ? | PLG_INSTALLER_FOLDERINSTALLER (3.6.0) ? | plg_installer_packageinstaller (3.6.0) ? | PLG_INSTALLER_URLINSTALLER (3.6.0) ? | plg_installer_webinstaller (2.1.2) ? | plg_privacy_actionlogs (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_consents (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_content (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_message (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_user (3.9.0) ? | plg_quickicon_extensionupdate (3.0.0) ? | plg_quickicon_joomlaupdate (3.0.0) ? | plg_quickicon_phpversioncheck (3.7.0) ? | plg_quickicon_privacycheck (3.9.0) ? | plg_quickicon_eos310 (3.10.0) ? | plg_search_categories (3.0.0) ? | plg_search_contacts (3.0.0) ? | plg_search_content (3.0.0) ? | plg_search_newsfeeds (3.0.0) ? | plg_search_tags (3.0.0) ? | plg_search_weblinks (3.7.0) ? | PLG_SYSTEM_ACTIONLOGS (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_cache (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_debug (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_system_highlight (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_languagecode (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_languagefilter (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_log (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_logout (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_logrotation (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_p3p (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_privacyconsent (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_redirect (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_remember (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_sef (3.0.0) ? | plg_system_sessiongc (3.8.6) ? | plg_system_stats (3.5.0) ? | plg_system_updatenotification (3.5.0) ? | plg_system_weblinks (3.7.0) ? | plg_twofactorauth_totp (3.2.0) ? | plg_twofactorauth_yubikey (3.2.0) ? | plg_user_contactcreator (3.0.0) ? | plg_user_joomla (3.0.0) ? | plg_user_profile (3.0.0) ? | plg_user_terms (3.9.0) ? |
3rd Party:: plg_content_jdownloads (3.9.8) ? | plg_content_jdownloads_tags_fix (3.9.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_jdownloads (3.9.0) ? | plg_editors_codemirror (5.60.0) ? | plg_editors_tinymce (4.5.12) ? | plg_finder_jdownloads (3.9.6) ? | plg_finder_folder (3.9.6) ? | plg_jdownloads_example (3.9.0) ? | plg_search_jdownloads (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_jdownloads (3.9.6) ? |

Templates :: Site :: beez3 (3.1.0) ? | protostar (1.0) ? |
Templates :: Admin :: hathor (3.0.0) ? | isis (1.0) ? |

[AMurray]

Lots of things going wrong here: most important, you need to turn on the mysqli driver (for PHP 8). That should be doable from the PHP settings in cPanel (or yes, ask your host to do that). Refer them to this post on the forum, they can see all the problems concerning the server config, and help you fix them.

In the "basic environment" and "PHP" sections, the issues are highlighted in Red and Orange print.

The "Live Site Not empty" is one you can fix; unless your server requires it that $_live_url variable in configuration.php should not contain a value.

[Feldon]

Lots of things going wrong here: most important, you need to turn on the mysqli driver (for PHP . That should be doable from the PHP settings in cPanel (or yes, ask your host to do that). Refer them to this post on the forum, they can see all the problems concerning the server config, and help you fix them.

In the "basic environment" and "PHP" sections, the issues are highlighted in Red and Orange print.

The "Live Site Not empty" is one you can fix; unless your server requires it that $_live_url variable in configuration.php should not contain a value.

Yes, I can easily revert to PHP 7.4 and everything works.

I've removed this from my configuration.php file and the site still works. I didn't see anything else with "live" in the variable name:

Code: Select all

public $live_site = 'http://www.graceucsarnia.com/';

In my cPanel, I notice that the PHP Selector tool for version 7.4 includes the extension "mysqli" enabled, whereas this extension doesn't even exist for version 8.0. Presumably that's the problem? I do see an "nd_mysqli" extension, which is not enabled by default. I may try that next.

When in PHP 8.0, with error reporting turned on, browsing to my domain returns this error:

Code: Select all

Warning: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/cpanel/php/sessions/ea-php56) in /home/graceuc/public_html/libraries/joomla/session/handler/native.php on line 260
Error: Failed to start application: Failed to start the session

[Feldon]

Ok, so in PHP 7.4 they had the extension "mysqli" enabled, but this did not exist in PHP 8.0. Manually enabling the extension "nd_mysqli" in PHP 8.0 did the trick.

[AMurray]

Glad to see you have it working.

My earlier comment about compatible extensions still stands, you may still run into future trouble with any third party extension you use with PHP 8.

[Feldon]

Yes. jDownloads is throwing errors, but I can work through that. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it.

[Chacapamac]

Just as info:
Joomla 3.10.4 on PHP 8.1 frontend work
Error in administration:

error-admin.jpg

In my PHP settings i got both mysqli & nd_mysqli PHP modules.
— You cannot put both On
— One or the other On — Frontend Work — Same error in Backend

Clone of that site work perfectly (Front & Back) on my MAMP PRO local server with PHP 8.0.8

Merry Christmas and an happy good one for evererybody...

[the apprentice]

Then check your third-party extensions for updates and/or PHP 8 compatibility with the developer(s) of those extensions.

So the 2 ways to check compatibility of extensions/modules/plugins with PHP 8 is to either contact the developer for each of them, or trial and error by disabling/enabling them? Thanks.

[toivo]

So the 2 ways to check compatibility of extensions/modules/plugins with PHP 8 is to either contact the developer for each of them, or trial and error by disabling/enabling them?

Testing is of course the proof of the pudding, but you do initial filtering by checking when the date of the last update to a third party extension from the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED).

Some developers of older Joomla 3.x extensions may not have updated their JED entries. Therefore it is best to check the website of the developer. If the support agreement of your PRO version has expired, download the latest free version or check at least its release notification if it supports PHP 8.

If the extension has not been updated after November 26, 2020, the chances are that the extension will have issues in PHP 8. You may still be able to use the extension if the error reporting in PHP has been turned off, which is the recommended setting for websites in live production.