Can't get the upgrade from php7.2 to php7.4 to work

[smeijer]

Nextcloud version (eg, 18.0.2): 19.0.0
Operating system and version (eg, Ubuntu 20.04): Ubuntu 18.04.3
Apache or nginx version (eg, Apache 2.4.25): 2.4.43
PHP version (eg, 7.1): currently still 7.2, want to go to 7.4

The issue you are facing:

I want to have my nextcloud install use php7.4 instead of 7.2. Have searched a lot in the forum as well as other php upgrade related sites, but am not getting it to work.

I have installed php7.4 including the modules which are currently in the php7.2 installation (there are 3 more modules in the 7.4 installation. I can’t install the wddx module for 7.4 as this does not seem to exist.

php7.2 -m	php7.4 -m
[PHP Modules]	[PHP Modules]
bcmath	bcmath
bz2	bz2
calendar	calendar
Core	Core
ctype	ctype
curl	curl
date	date
dom	dom
exif	exif
	FFI
fileinfo	fileinfo
filter	filter
ftp	ftp
gd	gd
gettext	gettext
gmp	gmp
hash	hash
iconv	iconv
imap	imap
intl	intl
json	json
ldap	ldap
libsmbclient	libsmbclient
libxml	libxml
mbstring	mbstring
	mysqli
	mysqlnd
openssl	openssl
pcntl	pcntl
pcre	pcre
PDO	PDO
	pdo_mysql
pdo_pgsql	pdo_pgsql
pgsql	pgsql
Phar	Phar
posix	posix
readline	readline
Reflection	Reflection
session	session
shmop	shmop
SimpleXML	SimpleXML
smbclient	smbclient
soap	soap
sockets	sockets
sodium	sodium
SPL	SPL
standard	standard
sysvmsg	sysvmsg
sysvsem	sysvsem
sysvshm	sysvshm
tokenizer	tokenizer
wddx
xml	xml
xmlreader	xmlreader
xmlwriter	xmlwriter
xsl	xsl
Zend OPcache	Zend OPcache
zip	zip
zlib	zlib
[Zend Modules]	[Zend Modules]
Zend OPcache	Zend OPcache

I set the php version to php4 (alternative version).

php --version

I copied the file /etc/php/7.2/fpm/pool.d/nextcloud.conf to /etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d and modified the Handler.

The php7.4-fpm service is running (as well as the php7.2-fpm service).

To my knowledge, this should cover the php installation/configuration.

Onwards to Apache:

I disabled module php7.2 (a2dismod php7.2) and enabled php7.4-fpm (a2enconf php7.4-fpm).

In /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/nextcloud_ssl_domain_self_signed.conf I changed the line with the php version:

Afterwards restarted Apache. The only thing that I get is “Internal Server Error” and can’t find a logfile with a meaningful error message which might point me in a possible resolution.

Would appreciate a helpful hint a lot. I’m stuck

Thx!

[eehmke]

You copied the nextcloud.conf to /etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d. Did you modify it after copying? There are references to the php version in it. You also have to restart the php7.4-fpm service.

[smeijer]

I did modify nextcloud.conf (replaced 7.2 with 7.4) and restarted php7.4-fpm service aftwards.

[devnull]

I think the better way is to upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS . Then you get the new PHP version.

https://packages.ubuntu.com/php

I think Nextcloud 19 is the last version you can use with the php version. You have a few months to dist-upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or only change the php-version. You also can use Nextcloud 19 after release of 20 and 21.

[smeijer]

Today I upgraded my NC instance from Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04. I still have the issue, that I can’t switch to PHP 7.4.

For my Apache virtual server used for NC, I currently have the following handler set:

SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.nextcloud.sock|fcgi://localhost"

/etc/php/7.2/fpm/pool.d/nextcloud.conf the following is set

So far, so good, this is the configuration which is working, but would like to move to PHP 7.4.

I copied /etc/php/7.2/fpm/pool.d/nextcloud.conf to /etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d/nextcloud.conf and modified the “listen” entry to:

listen = /run/php/php"7.4"-fpm.nextcloud.sock

Restarted php7.4-fpm (systemctl restart php7.4-fpm.service).

Now, as soon as I change the SetHandler entry for the Apache virtual server for NC to

SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.nextcloud.sock|fcgi://localhost"

and restart Apache, I get the following:

The only I can get into my NC, is to revert back the Apache config to 7.2.

Would appreciate your help, am stuck.

Thx!

[smeijer]

Did some further analysis. When I replace index.php with a version to get PHP info, I do get the information, that PHP 7.4 is being used.

Which lead me to think I could get some more information from the original index.php file. I did find “my” error message in there (at the bottom):

require_once __DIR__ . '/lib/versioncheck.php';

try {
        require_once __DIR__ . '/lib/base.php';

        OC::handleRequest();
} catch (\OC\ServiceUnavailableException $ex) {
        \OC::$server->getLogger()->logException($ex, ['app' => 'index']);

        //show the user a detailed error page
        OC_Template::printExceptionErrorPage($ex, 503);
} catch (\OC\HintException $ex) {
        try {
                OC_Template::printErrorPage($ex->getMessage(), $ex->getHint(), 503);
        } catch (Exception $ex2) {
                try {
                        \OC::$server->getLogger()->logException($ex, ['app' => 'index']);
                        \OC::$server->getLogger()->logException($ex2, ['app' => 'index']);
                } catch (Throwable $e) {
                        // no way to log it properly - but to avoid a white page of death we try harder and ignore this one here
                }

                //show the user a detailed error page
                OC_Template::printExceptionErrorPage($ex, 500);
        }
} catch (\OC\User\LoginException $ex) {
        OC_Template::printErrorPage($ex->getMessage(), $ex->getMessage(), 403);
} catch (Exception $ex) {
        \OC::$server->getLogger()->logException($ex, ['app' => 'index']);

        //show the user a detailed error page
        OC_Template::printExceptionErrorPage($ex, 500);
} catch (Error $ex) {
        try {
                \OC::$server->getLogger()->logException($ex, ['app' => 'index']);
        } catch (Error $e) {
                http_response_code(500);
                header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');
                print("Internal Server Error\n\n");
                print("The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request.\n");
                print("Please contact the server administrator if this error reappears multiple times, please include the technical details below in your report.\n");
                print("More details can be found in the webserver log.\n");

                throw $ex;
        }
        OC_Template::printExceptionErrorPage($ex, 500);
}

Unfortunately my PHP knowledge is very limited. I do understand it checks a few things and throws an exception when a check fails. What I can’t read out of those lines, is at what kind of check it stumbles to give me the error message I see when I configure 7.4 for the site.

Could anybody give me a hint what it might be?

Thanks!

[smeijer]

Another day went by and one step forward was made!

I removed the following entries from config.php and restarted apache.

‘memcache.local’ => ‘\OC\Memcache\APCu’,
‘memcache.distributed’ => ‘\OC\Memcache\Redis’,
‘memcache.locking’ => ‘\OC\Memcache\Redis’,

I am now able to logon and the system page shows me PHP 7.4.8!

Ofcourse the overview page is now complaining now caching is activated, which I will not have to look at. But at least I was able to narrow down, where the issue is.

[smeijer]

With the problem area known, the solution was quite easy. I had to install two additional php packages (I compared the packages installed for 7.2 and 7.4 and these two did not popup for 7.2):

apt install php-redis
apt install php-apcu

After installation and restart von apache, all was fine. Ready for NC 20.

[devnull]

Sorry i use Debian GNU/Linux. But i never set the php-configuration in then apache2-configuration-file. But i always uses the standard-release with the standard-php-installation.

If you have dist-upgraded your Ubuntu-installation you can install
sudo apt-get install apt-show-versions

and test for old not-focal packages.

apt-show-versions |grep -v focal
(not tested, perhaps you can delete them)

There could be old php 7.2 - packages.
Perhaps with dist-upgrade to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS you can direct delete old packages.

[nso]

@smeijer

apt install php-redis
apt install php-apcu

and sometimes
apt-get install php7.4-redis
apt-get install php7.4-apcu

Thanks for reporting smeijer