Forum Admin page is blank... (new issue?)

New Member Joined: Jul 10, 2005 Posts: 4

Okay, before everyone jumps to conclusions, let me point out how frustrating this has been. This issue is happening on default installs of 7.6, 7.6 patched, 7.7, and 7.7 patched that I downloaded here and from phpnuke.org...

I'll run through a high level of my install:
1) copy all files to server
2) create database
3) browse to site and create god account (but check no to create normal account)
4) create normal account (email and registration work fine)
5) set preferences (site name, etc)
6) Click on Forum in the Admin panel

This brings me to a blank page....

I have turned on 'display_errors' in the config file, but get none.

Everything else seems to work perfectly... new user creation, news, messages, logging in as users and admin, everything. I just don't get it. What the heck am I missing? The same thing happens with all 4 versions of code.

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:21 pm

Okay, after digging through even more of the forums, I am realizing that the last few versions of nuke are buggy, at best. What version should I be running (completely new site) and what patches should I have. (In other words, where should I be instead of fighting with 7.6 and 7.7?)

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:24 am

7.6 and its 3.0 patch should be the ones to use, the blank page in the forum's admin section is often caused by loading BBtoNuke files over a patched site or using old versions of NukeSentinel, open modules/Forums/admin/pagestart.php and find one of these lines near the start:
define('FORUM_ADMIN', true);
or:
$forum_admin = 1;

If you only have the first one below it add the second one, if you can access the admin section your files need updating as $forum_admin is no longer used because it opens a vulnerability.

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:13 am

I did as you said and added the line, making that section of pagestart.php look like:

< clip >
define('IN_ADMIN', true);
define('FORUM_ADMIN', true);
$forum_admin = 1;
define("PHPBB_ROOT_PATH", $phpbb_root_path);
define("PHPBB_PHPEX", $phpEx);
include("../../../mainfile.php");
< /clip >

This did not help me access the forum admin page.

May I stress again, this is a DEFAULT install, no extra anything is being added. In the event I tried the 'patched' versions, I downloaded them that way (for example, the PHP-Nuke-7.7-patchedv3.0b.rar download off this site) and ran both the nuke.sql and upgradedb.sql on an empty database. I am making sure the database is empty before starting a fresh install.
I also have tried this with the base installs, no patches or addons. The forum admin just does not seem to work on my server, and it is bugging the heck out of me. If I could get an error out of it, it would be something to work from, but none are being generated and the rest of the install seems to work without a flaw.

Side question... Does anyone have a complete package list php-nuke requires to be installed? I have a feeling I am missing some little library as this was a secured (read as minimum install) server. The prerequisites page on phpnuke.org really sucks! For example, it does not say anywhere that you need to have the GD library installed, but I found that one out the hard way. What else is assumed to be installed? This may be the answer to why my forums don't work.

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:39 am

email me your ftp login data and i will check into it for you. Include the site url and admin login in the email.

chatserv at nukefixes dot com

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:59 pm

I just got done reinstalling the site, and had the same issue, so I started screwing around with the site and accidentally found the problem.

I, for security sake, move my config.php up 2 directories out of the web server directory. I replace it with a config.php with the following contents...

<?php include("../../saconfig.php"); ?>

I've found that the forums really don't like this. As soon as I moved the full file back, they started working without a problem.

Any way to fix this to be more secure?

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:08 pm

Sure thing, keep config.php where it is, no security risks will be added by leaving it there, Nuke's really outdated install file suggested that for older versions that stored everything that is now stored in the nuke_config table and at that time config.php had to be made world writable, these days even while the file still stores the db data it no longer needs to be chmod any higher than 644 and it can't be accessed through a web browser (give it a try).

New Member Joined: Jul 16, 2005 Posts: 5

chatserv wrote:

7.6 and its 3.0 patch should be the ones to use, the blank page in the forum's admin section is often caused by loading BBtoNuke files over a patched site or using old versions of NukeSentinel, open modules/Forums/admin/pagestart.php and find one of these lines near the start:
define('FORUM_ADMIN', true);
or:
$forum_admin = 1;

If you only have the first one below it add the second one, if you can access the admin section your files need updating as $forum_admin is no longer used because it opens a vulnerability.

I was doing a search on this problem and came across this... now i only had the bottom line and not the top. So i added that, and for kicks added 3 lines off the the clip that was posted that i didnt have in there...

it all works great now, thx