Changes

*Fix [[<haloacl-inclusion-denied>|Terms of Service]] on sign up page...

It seems that the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend Extension:MobileFrontend] isn't working properly.

First check the apache version:

So everything seems fine (the extension it is listed as loaded in Special:Version), but the interface still has obvious issues.

From Special:Version

And it looks like my version of mediawiki is too old to support [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Minerva_Neue Minerva Neue]

Essentially, follow instructions in [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Upgrading Manual:Upgrading]:

I just moved everything to a different directory, backed off the dbase, and started again.

mysqldump --user=root --password=password > dbase.sql

Get a new version, put it in /var/lib/mediawiki (leaving the old shortcuts pointing there), then copy in the files.

php update.php

Get the bulk of them...

Line 29: if ( $path && @file_exists( $path ) ) {

Check pre-reqs are good for Scribuntu.

service apache2 restart

I tried various methods to get MathML to work and always failed. It looks like the community bet on Mathoid working out, but there's been no development on it for 5 months now, and it looks dead. The good news, if that MathJax works just fine right out of the box:

Note: the last line lets you demark math with LaTeX-like syntax. I disabled it, as I use $ signs way to much in other contexts.

PDFEmbed was the extension that I never knew that I always wanted!

wfLoadExtension( 'PDFEmbed' );

IntraACL (http://wiki.4intra.net/IntraACL) doesn't work with Mediawiki 1.34, so it's out. I also wasn't wild about its patch-based approach.

<nowiki>{{#set: Visible to=whitelist|Visible to group::team}}</nowiki>

The BibTeX extension doesn't work anymore. Though it never really worked, so it's not much of a loss. I should probably build a replacement but I don't have the time right now.

Although the Upload multiple files extension installed fine, it is unmaintained and seems to have an issue. I removed its line from LocalSettings.php and deleted its extension directory.

I had previously added Special:MultiUpload|Upload multiple files to http://www.edegan.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Sidebar. I replaced it with a link to [[Special:BatchUpload]].

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Image_administration#SVG. Essentially, add svg to $wgFileExtensions, then install and designate an image converter. I went with rsvg:

$wgSVGConverter = 'rsvg';

wget https://extdist.wmflabs.org/dist/extensions/HitCounters-REL1_34-48dd6cb.tar.gz

php update.php

I tried 'rename' the dbase, creating a dedicated dbase user that has access to just the wiki's dbase, and resetting its password.

</files>

Importing the Robelbox, or other, templates on mediawiki is tricky [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/678626/where-can-i-get-templates-for-mediawiki], at least the first time that you do it. Once you've got everything up and running to support templates (see above):

I did this for the [https://ts.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Robelbox Robelbox template], which I got from https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Special:Export, however, it wasn't useable and I couldn't work out why. I ultimately deleted Robelbox, having found better boxes (see below) but I expect that my process for fixing the later issues would have sorted out the problems here too.

I got Template:Box-round from mediawiki.org: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template:Box-round. It required installation of TemplateStyles, which in turn might need JsonConfig:

The Mass edit page contains several examples, two of which show "Undefined Control Sequence" errors. These examples use backslashed square brackets (I can't even write them on the wiki using nowiki tags), which have issues because of Extension:SimpleMathjax. Regardless, the extension seems to work just fine!

Get the system up to date:

But I should really do a full backup and everything first, so that isn't going to happen today.

Rather than trying to update wordpress, I think it best to install the latest version and use the old dbase. This will likely cause problems with images... but we made several suboptimal choices when we built the last version, including using a non-standard theme and customizing it in a way that prevented updates.

Outside of the defaults, [https://wordpress.org/themes/oceanwp/ OceanWP] is eCommerce oriented but looks good and is very popular. [https://wordpress.org/themes/neve/ Neve] sits between OceanWP and [https://wordpress.org/themes/generatepress/ GeneratePress], which has a more magazine/news focus, and all three take advantage of the new block editor ([https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ Gutenberg]), which was introduced in WPv5 (initial release in 2018).

Check PHP and MySQL. I need PHP >=7.3 and MySQL >=5.6 but:

I might be able to upgrade my version of PhP without upgrading Ubuntu (see https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-php-on-ubuntu-18-04/). However, it is probably a good idea to just fix everything...

So it turns out that I shouldn't have done that last update... I do have an Xwindows Server on the box, running Gnome, and now I can't log in using the GUI on the box itself (it loops back to the login screen). This box doesn't contain the GPUs, just the database server, so the GUI isn't key, but it would be nice to have it working again. Hopefully, an upgrade will fix that, as well as other issues.

First, mount the USB drive. Find what's mounted and what the dev is:

umount /media/usb

Run:

I let it replace postgres10 but it still gave me an "Obsolete Major Version" warning on postgres (I said ok).

The first casualty of the upgrade was the networking configuration. You'd think that developers would have figured that one out, as remote upgrades would leave boxes DOA until someone could get physical access. Nevertheless, the fix is straight forward.

All my extensions report back.

Remove redundant user accounts:

while [ 1 ] ; do echo -en "$(date +%T)\r" ; sleep 1; done

I kept the old versions of mediawiki and wordpress and moved them to /bulk/retired (using yyymmdd dates)

mv /var/www/html/blog20200809 /bulk/retired/

First, move the old folder to a new name, so that it is there for backup and then get the new install and unpack it.

</RequireAny>

Then set up the dbase by editing wp-config.php (it's easiest to modify the sample).

Ironically, it then recommends that I upgrade to PHP7.4... but that would just give issues for mediawiki. On the other hand, everything is now green and just 4 groups of recommendations remain.

See [[Wordpress Blog Site (Tool)]] for the McNair Center's build.

*Twitter embedding: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-display-recent-tweets-in-wordpress-with-twitter-widgets/

I hardened the wordpress installation: https://wordpress.org/support/article/hardening-wordpress/

define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);

I built a [[Branding]] palette, to standardize the colors. And I installed the Twentig plugin, to give extra configuration options.

*I might add back '''coblocks''', '''Advanced Gutenberg''' and '''Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg'''

To set up HTTPS using Let's Encrypt, see https://linuxize.com/post/secure-apache-with-let-s-encrypt-on-ubuntu-20-04/

Tests the renewal!

Enabling and requiring HTTPS causes an issue with PDFEmbed on mediawiki, where you get a blank frame. The PDF is still there, other images load fine, but the PDF frame won't render the PDF. The problem is actually that the PDF is served with HTTP and the rest of the page is served with HTTPS, and Chrome (and perhaps other browsers) don't render the insecure content as a consequence (see [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Uhgnq0wbmzfurbj0] for a description of the symptoms, but not the solution.).

This is mentioned in a comment on a topic page, though presumably for an earlier version: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Syxow0why4c0cvvm

With the security restrictions on wordpress, I now need an FTP server to get files for themes, plugins, etc. I like VSFTPD, as its simple, secure, and has a nice standalone config. Old documentation on an earlier install on the old [[Wordpress Blog Site (Tool)]] page. Instructions are here: https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-setup-ftp-server-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux