Update.php runs fine, but the homepage shows 7 errors, all like this:

Notice: Undefined index: module in _field_info_prepare_instance_display() (line 385 of /home/classicy/public_html/backdrop/core/modules/field/field.info.inc).

Otherwise, site pages are there and look ok. But when I try to login (adding /user to the site url) I get a blank screen. Source shows nothing at all for the login page. (update_free-access is set to 'TRUE')

I've searched all over to see if anyone else has reported such an issue and can't find any.  At this point I'm inclined to start fresh and copy and paste pages over. But before I do that I thought I'd ask here -- maybe I'm missing something simple??  Thanks for any help you can give!

Comments

klonos's picture

Hello ,

There are a few things you can try. But lets try to see what's really going on with that blank page...

Let's start by editing your system.core.json file, and changing "error_level" to "all", and then trying to access the user login page again. There should hopefully be some more helpful errors now, rather than a WSOD. Please post the output here, and we'll take it from there.

Cheers

Thanks for the quick response Klonos!  I made the change as you suggest, but still get the WSOD. No error messages. (Tried it in a different browser too, to make sure it wasn't cached.)

klonos's picture

OK, at least we gave it a go 😅

...please keep that setting to "all" for now, as it will help with troubleshooting other things. Once the upgrade to Backdrop has completed, and you are happy with how the site looks/works, you can turn it of at any later point, by visiting the "Logging and errors" admin page under /admin/config/development/logging 😉

klonos's picture

...as for the "Undefined index: module ..." error you've been getting, it may not be related to what is causing the WSOD in the user login page.

I believe that it might be https://www.drupal.org/node/1001060 (or some other flavor/variant of the same issue). Curious to know what version of D7 you tried to update from. Was the site updated to the latest 7.69, and have all pending Drupal updates been completed before attempting to move to Backdrop?

Thanks. Yes, I've been thinking if I can just get logged in I can probably correct whatever is causing the Undefined Index error.  But, yes, the site is on 7.69 and all modules are up-to-date.

 

Try the suggestions on this page for debugging the WSOD: https://www.drupal.org/node/158043

Also, if you have Drush installed on your server you can run drush uli to login to your site (but the WSOD may continue regardless.

Thanks for the tip BWPanda -- I'll be away for a day, but will take a look at those suggestions when I return. Looks like a lot of possibilities there!  ( and no, I don't have Drush.)

The command drush ws --tail should will output the recent logs aka watchdog logs so you can troubleshoot further without GUI authentication. 

klonos's picture

Hey @Pmbd,

As a follow-up to this VUG meeting that happened earlier today (recording available here), we are having a 3hr office hours session tomorrow (please refer to the link for times specific to your timezone).

If you are happy with it, one of us may be able to have a look at the site, and see if we can help you figure out what may be wrong 😉

Cheers

That was a very helpful presentation on Upgrading from D7.  I especially appreciated Jen's spreadsheet approach, and I've downloaded a copy which I will use.  It was interesting to see that some modules that were moved into core were marked "nothing to do" while others were marked to "disable/uninstall". Maybe a spreadsheet listing could be made for the top 100 D7 modules with comments for each one about any special treatment that may be needed, or comments about why some should be disabled and uninstalled and others just left alone.

My site had a lot of baggage from functions that are not needed in the conversion.  In fact there's really only one content type I need to keep. This is for a non-profit organization of people with collections of antique vessels (boats.) The site used to handle membership records, forum postings, news postings, etc.  All of those functions have been moved to a paid membership management provider (Wild Apricot.) The only thing we need to keep from the old website are records of all the boats (about 500 of them.) The boat content type includes a lot of custom fields and multiple photos.

I am just a volunteer, and have been using Drupal since version 5, but am by no means a professional.  I dive into things in spurts when needed, and then am away from it for long periods, so it can be hard to remember all the ins and outs, and why certain modules are even there.

Anyway, the other interesting take-away from Jen's presentation was her comment in response to a question, that for a site where the only thing needed might be just blog posts for example, and otherwise they are ok with re-building the site, then an ETL (extract/translate/load) process may make more sense. 

Well, that's where I am! All I really need is one content type with 500 records, multiple custom fields in each record. I had a few days time available to work on it, but have now spun my wheels, frustrated because all my content came over just fine (I can see them all, including custom fields and images), but I just can't get logged in to do anything with the site. 

So now I'm out of time, and it will be another month or more before I can get back to it.  But at that point, my plan will be to simply build my new site in Backdrop and use feeds to transfer the content I need. If I had used Jen's approach of starting with just the core first and gradually adding modules, maybe I would have fared better.  But I had upgraded two other simpler sites with no issues, so assumed this one would go the same.

Again though I'm out of time now, so thank you very much for the quick and helpful responses to my request.  As a part time site builder, I experimented with D8 -- a complete and utter disaster!! I felt like all the time spent becoming proficient at Drupal over the years was a waste until I got on to Backdrop! Huge thanks to all who have made it possible!!