Upgrade php 7.4 to 8.0 on Ubuntu

[msdos702]

this is what I mainly did:
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
sudo apt install php8.0 libapache2-mod-php8.0
sudo systemctl restart apache2
sudo apt update
sudo apt install php8.0-fpm libapache2-mod-fcgid
sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif
sudo a2enconf php8.0-fpm
a2disconf php7.4-fpm
systemctl restart apache2

[msdos702]

root@nextcloud:~# dpkg -l | awk ‘/^ii.php/ {print $2}’
libapache2-mod-php8.0
php-cli
php-common
php-pear
php7.4-bcmath
php7.4-bz2
php7.4-common
php7.4-curl
php7.4-dev
php7.4-gd
php7.4-gmp
php7.4-imap
php7.4-intl
php7.4-json
php7.4-ldap
php7.4-mbstring
php7.4-opcache
php7.4-pgsql
php7.4-readline
php7.4-soap
php7.4-xml
php7.4-zip
php8.0
php8.0-cli
php8.0-common
php8.0-fpm
php8.0-opcache
php8.0-readline
php8.2-common
php8.2-opcache
php8.2-readline
pkg-php-tools
root@nextcloud:~# apachectl -tD DUMP_INCLUDES | sed -n '/php.conf/ s#./([^/]).conf#\1#p’
php8.0
php8.0-fpm
root@nextcloud:~# update-alternatives --get-selections | grep -E “ph(ar|p)”
phar auto /usr/bin/phar.default
phar.phar auto /usr/bin/phar.phar.default
php auto /usr/bin/php.default
php-config auto /usr/bin/php-config7.4
php-fpm.sock auto /run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock
phpize auto /usr/bin/phpize7.4

[ernolf]

Some packages are missing. To install all packages you had with 7.4, run this command:

sudo apt install php8.0-{$(dpkg -l | awk -F "  |-" '/^ii.*php7.4/ {printf "%s,", $3} END {printf "\n"}' | sed 's/,$//')}

---

Then, you can only use libapache2-mod-php OR php-fpm. Both is not possible, and how it looks, you did it with libapache2-mod-php before. So you should deinstall the php8.0-fpm.

Then switch all php related alternatives manualy to 8.0. You’ll see them one by one with this command, and then choose 8.0 each time:

for linkgroup in `ls /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/ | grep -E "ph(ar|p)"`; do sudo update-alternatives --config $linkgroup; done

Then restart your webserver and look if it works. If not, don’t hesitate to ask for more help

[msdos702]

Maybe you can tell me how to do it right from the beginning? I have a snapshot and I can return everything to the way it was before.
I don’t want to fix the mistakes, but just do it right from the beginning.

[ernolf]

@msdos702

I don’t want to fix the mistakes

but that is the way you learn most. After fixing those mistakes, you are free to repeat the update as much times as you want with your snapshot, untill you understood it.

I’m not responsible for your whims, whether you want to fix ‘mistakes’ or repeat everything until it’s right, as the result is exactly the same, I’m mostly interested in whether my steps solved the problem or not?

[ernolf]

@msdos702

but just do it right from the beginning.

You can do the update with the php-updater script like I described here in this post

Therefore you should roll back with your snapshot to your previous state

[msdos702]

I agree with you, mistakes always develop knowledge. But it is useful when you understand more than nothing in what you do :). So at this point of my level of knowledge, I’m looking for a way to get it right, and learn in the process. I do roll back several times, the result is not better, so I want to do once right, as more updates are still to come.
Thanks for the tip, I will try to do it

[ernolf]

@msdos702

But it is useful when you understand more than nothing in what you do

OK, this is a usefull knowledge:

The automatic update from one to the next php-version is done by so called “dependency-packages” like ‘php ’ and other packages with names like php-{module} (without the version String) Those packages allways depend on the latest version (which is 8.2 at the moment) and can almost all safely be removed, what will give you back the control over your php-version. When you try to deinstall such a package, you will see if it is a dependency for one or more php8.1-* modules (like php-common which is allways needed). All other packages that don’t meet any dependencies can and should be removed.
A package as ‘php8.1 ’ is a so caled “meta-package” and can be removed as well.

Then you should only install the packages WITH version string (php8.1-{module} instead of php-{module}).

Then you should do the update-alternatives as I described in #18 of this thread.

[msdos702]

The script did not work properly. It crashed with an error. What can I do about it and where should I look?

Reading state information… Done
The php8.1-json package is a virtual package provided by:
php8.1-phpdbg 8.1.18-1+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
php8.1-fpm 8.1.18-1+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
php8.1-cli 8.1.18-1+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
php8.1-cgi 8.1.18-1+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
libphp8.1-embed 8.1.18-1+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
libapache2-mod-php8.1 8.1.18-1+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
You have to explicitly select one of them to install.

E: The ‘php8.1-json’ package is not a candidate for installation

The return code for the last step is 100
something went wrong, exit

[ernolf]

@msdos702

What can I do about it and where should I look?

Thank you verry much for your feedback, it helps me to improve the script.

I changed the script, so that it does not stop because of this message (which is in fact not an error message but an information).

Please execute the following command to get back to the original state before calling the script:

apt-get remove --purge *php8.1*

Run the script again, it will offer an update. Now it should work.

[msdos702]

Hi.
Thank you for edituing script, now it worked, there was also a message, but the work did not stop.
I think I did everything as described in the post with the script. But there you also stopped and did not suggest further steps for nextcloud to know which php it should work with now .

[ernolf]

@msdos702

for nextcloud to know which php it should work with now

OK. So now you updated your php. Fine.

You need to know now, how your php comunicates with your apache2.

There are two posibilties:

• libapache2-mod-php
• php-fpm

The latter is the “fast process manager” and has http2 support (my recommendation).
But what you used before the update also plays a role for you.

This way you can find out, which sapi versions are installed on your system:

for version in 7.4 8.1; do echo "sapi of version $version: $(echo "$(find /etc/php/$version -name "php.ini" -type f 2>/dev/null)" | cut -d'/' -f5 | sort -u | grep -vE 'cli|phpdbg')"; done

You should now see either apache2 or fpm. Don’t try to activate a sapi that is not shown here!

Steps to activate php-fpm:

(first line is to disable an eventualy apache2-mod-php first)

sudo a2dismod php7.4 php8.1 mpm_prefork
sudo a2enmod mpm_event proxy_fcgi setenvif
sudo a2disconf php7.4-fpm
sudo a2enconf php8.1-fpm

(restart your webserver)

and if you do NOT want to use php-fpm but libapache2-mod-php instead:

Steps to activate libapache2-mod-php:

The latest apache2-module already should be activated, as far as it is installed or if not deactivated by the former step.
These steps can be taken to ensure it is activated.
(first 2 lines are to disable an eventaly installed php-fpm):

sudo a2disconf php7.4-fpm php8.1-fpm
sudo a2dismod mpm-event
sudo a2dismod php7.4
sudo a2enmod mpm_prefork php8.1

(restart your webserver)

Many of these steps will echo that it is already set. It doesn’t matter, you can’t set anything twice, so it is safe.

---

So read carefully, you should only activate one of both.

---

As a final step, you can (should) switch all php alternatives to manual mode to 8.1 to prevent unattended upgrades to another version without your knowledge.

Therefor call this command which switches all alternatives from auto to manual to the 8.1 version:

sudo update-alternatives --get-selections | grep -E "ph(ar|p)" | sed 's/auto/manual/;s/[78].[124]/8.1/' | sudo update-alternatives --set-selections

Now you should control it step by step with this command and adjust - if you want it later - this way:

for linkgroup in `ls /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/ | grep -E "ph(ar|p)"`; do sudo update-alternatives --config $linkgroup; done

Much luck

[msdos702]

Thanks for the tips.
But I must be doing something wrong anyway, because nextcloud thinks I have php 7.4.3 running.

As far as I understand I am using php-fpm:
root@nextcloud:/etc/php# for version in 7.4 8.1; do echo “sapi of version $version: $(echo “$(find /etc/php/$version -name “php.ini” -type f 2>/dev/null)” | cut -d’/’ -f5 | sort -u | grep -vE ‘cli|phpdbg’)”; done
sapi of version 7.4: fpm
sapi of version 8.1: fpm

All alternatives are in manual mode, nothing automatic.

and after the upgrade, something went wrong with cron.php I’m not so good to figure out what’s wrong and why the background job isn’t running
what’s wrong with my nextcloud or me…

[ernolf]

@msdos702

But I must be doing something wrong anyway, because nextcloud thinks I have php 7.4.3 running.

Did you follow the steps to activate php-fpm from my previous answer?
(including restarting the webserver):

sudo systemctl stop php7.4-fpm
sudo systemctl restart apache2 php8.1-fpm

Do you even have a server install or some docker/snap/image/aio/?

[msdos702]

Yes, what was in the previous post I did. I didn’t see those two commands, I did them now, and the server went down. There was a message saying that Servise unavailable. After I completely rebooted the server, the site is up but it still gives out that php 7.4.3 is in use.
As far about what is installed, this is a VM downloaded through a nextcloud.com with a link to a third party company. Just because I have extremely little experience in deploying such systems from the begining I took a virtual machine. At that moment, I thought it was a good idea. Now I realize that I should have done more research and tried to do things differently.

[ernolf]

@msdos702

this is a VM downloaded through a nextcloud.com with a link to a third party company

Now you’ve kept me busy here for hours and you’re only now coming with this message?
It’s a completely different case! I can’t help you there, you have to stick to the supplied scripts and if that doesn’t work, buy commercial support from that third party company.
Was it hansson IT?

This forum thread have just be moved, so now you should change the kategory/sub category to “VM” and wait, until someone is willing to help you but you have to give all information and not just telling half of the story.

I’m out.

[msdos702]

I’m sorry I wasted your time.
But I said from the beginning that I am a beginner, I do not know what matters and what does not, you asked questions I answered them.
Yes it was this company, but to buy their support I have no way. When it all started, it was free.

[tflidd]

@msdos702

But I said from the beginning that I am a beginner, I do not know what matters and what does not,

If you start a new topic, you have a small template where can go through a list just to not forget about some details. Problem that you posted under an old topic that was partly related (yes it was Ubuntu but not the vm version).
Since you are not the only one with the vm:

Upgradding Hansson IT VM from 23.0.12 -> 25 (latest)

Agree that it does this, but I want to stop at 25. I don’t trust 26.x yet, it’s just been released and several apps do not yet support it. In my case the upgrade script would get me to 23.latest, but not go to 24.latest. I think this is because 23 is unsupported because I waited to long.

and there is a documentation:
https://docs.hanssonit.se/s/W6fMouPiqQz3_Mog/virtual-machines-vm/d/W7Du9uPiqQz3_Mr1/nextcloud-vm-machine-configuration?currentPageId=W7D3quPiqQz3_MsE

For your comfort, they already wrote some small scripts for such procedures that ernolf was giving you manually. Under the hood, there is still a Ubuntu system. From this post:

Cannot upgrade to NC 26 due to PHP 7.4

I appreciate everyone’s suggestions, however I wasn’t able to make it work. Not sure if it’s the specific VM I had but the commands were producing failures, and I couldn’t properly update PHP. On the other hand, I did contact Hansson IT and he was very good and updated PHP and the server very quickly, so hats off to him! Apparently, I need to brush up on my Linux skills. Thanks again for everyone’s insight

I suppose that their support does the upgrade of php manually as you did as well.

[ledavis]

Here is a video that helped me understand the PHP upgrade process. I found this very helpful.

The only difference for me was I upgraded to PHP 8.1 as that was what Nextcloud listed as recommended version when I looked.

(1) Upgrading to PHP 8.2 (Ubuntu with Apache) - YouTube

[dhrto]

I’ve been dealing with the same issue with the VM version and only recently managed to successfully update to PHP 8.1, thanks to the pointers in this thread and https://help.nextcloud.com/t/cannot-upgrade-to-nc-26-due-to-php-7-4/158523
Especially the detailed instructions of ernolf helped a lot.

No guarantees, but hopefully these steps will also work for you, see https://help.nextcloud.com/t/cannot-upgrade-to-nc-26-due-to-php-7-4/158523/21?u=dhrto