Retro Software website down

[lurkio]

The archived website for Retro Software seems to be down.

“[6946d79a] 2018-12-25 23:15:06: Fatal exception of type MWException”:

• http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk

[tricky]

Same here.

[sydney]

We know about it but at present no one is maintaining retrosoftware so it may be a while before we get it back up. If anyone wants to volunteer help then please get in touch.

[richardtoohey]

Google tells me that might be a Media Wiki error (MW).

Looks like a PHP-driven site so I might be able to get it back going.

Is it related to the STH issues (that looks like it might be a PHP upgrade issue)?

Looks like they are both on the same IP: 82.148.229.200

[Arcadian]

Hi Richard, have emailed you login info for the Retro Software site! Let us know how you get on! Thanks!

[richardtoohey]

Thanks; looks like my assumptions correct; older version of Media Wiki that doesn't like PHP 7 that is now on the server. So will have to figure out how to upgrade the version of Media Wiki on the server ...

[richardtoohey]

Right, done that, so that's the good news ...

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/index.php

Upgraded to the PHP 7-friendly Media Wiki 1.31.1

BUT what I didn't realise before putting my hand up was that there are actually THREE PHP sites here ...

wiki/ mediawiki
forum/ a phpBB forum
mantis/ a bug tracker

I've only looked at the wiki/ sub-directory.

I didn't really use retrosoftware.co.uk much, so not sure how much is missing, how much used, etc?

Looks like the phpBB part is used for authentication, so logging-in probably won't work.

Anything with forum/ in the URL won't work. The discussions tabs seem to want to do something with phpBB (maybe check you are logged-in?) so they don't work.

A good start ... I don't really want to have to tackle an open-ended project - so any of you know what CORE functionality is missing and really needs to be looked at to make the site(s) worthwhile?

I'll see about the phpBB forum ... *. itself was upgraded so it might need something similar ...

[danielj]

The forum is basically defunct and no longer used. It should probably be removed?

d.

[richardtoohey]

Thanks; I've fudged the forum code enough so that it goes so you can at least see the content that was in there.

Unfortunately because the /wiki/ stuff depends on the phpBB stuff (well at least the logins?) I don't think that easy to ditch completely.

To make the forum code go - I just changed

config.php - changed mysql to mysqli

$dbms = 'mysqli';

includes/bbcode.php

(Nasty fudge ahead, just to hide a warning!)

112 $message = @preg_replace(
... and ...
483 $tpl = @preg_replace(

Put the leading @ in there to make the warnings go away ...

[sydney]

Thanks for the great work Richard.

The forum is basically defunct and no longer used. It should probably be removed?

d.

I'd tend to agree but would like to keep it as there is probably some useful information there. Would it be possible to take it offline until we can find someone to take over maintenance of the site. I'm not saying I would want to bring the RS forums back into use just keep them as a reference source.

Would it also be possible to change the forum link on the main page to point to the retrosoftware section of stardot?

Code: Select all

https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=52

Thanks again Richard.

[lurkio]

The forum is basically defunct and no longer used. It should probably be removed?

Hang on! There’s loads of really interesting and useful info on those RS forums, and I’m not sure it’s replicated elsewhere. I don’t think they should be removed. Just keep them online but as read-only webpages.

[sydney]

The problem is even leaving it as is will need maintenance of some kind over time. If no one is willing to do the job it'll have to go one way or another.

[lurkio]

The problem is even leaving it as is will need maintenance of some kind over time. If no one is willing to do the job it'll have to go one way or another.

As a sort of immediate stopgap solution, can the forum’s robots.txt file be altered to allow archive.org to do a crawl of the forums in their final state?

(I know that some or all of the forums were saved by archive.org in 2015, but it would be good if one final pass over the whole forum could be done now, just to be on the safe side, for the sake of preserving all the knowledge that’s on there.)

[1024MAK]

There are forums about on the Internet that have been discontinued as active forums, but have been retained online as reference only sites, or incorporated as reference sections in larger sites. In all such cases, there is no longer any log-in access at all, so maintenance should be minimal as long as the server software updates don’t mess things up.

Is the Wiki still being updated by users?

Mark

[Andrew_Waite]

Thank you for restoring this site.

I have been using the material here ( http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/ind ... are_access ) to convert some of the BASIC in the game loop of Planet Nubium to Assembler.

[richardtoohey]

The issue is older versions of PHP software will have security issues.

So the longer you leave a site unmaintained (i.e. don't keep upgrading it) the more likely it is that one day you'll be unlucky.

Even if you turn off logins, uploads, registration etc. etc. if there's a security issue in "some_page.php" ... you might be exposed.

I've fixed the mantis page so it at least shows the login page rather than a blank page.

I'm happy to tweak what's there to make it go, but don't want to try and upgrade and keep-up-to-date Media Wiki and phpBB and Mantis. (I don't want to volunteer to do more than that in case I have another crazy year and go quiet for a bit - don't want to over-promise and under-deliver!)

Don't think there's any rush here, though - http://php.net/supported-versions.php - PHP 7.2 has 2 years of support (and hopefully 7.3 doesn't have any major issues that will cause more grief, they are meant to leave BC-breaking changes to major releases.)

So - if anyone is using the site and finds an important page not working - let me know and I'll do my best to fix it.

Think "we" can leave it band-aided for a while and let it be archived etc.

[ctr]

Thank you for fixing this. I started scraping the site with a view to making a static copy of the forum but unfortunately there are quite a lot of posts in the forum threads that appear blank. For example, in here, here, here and here.

From the context it appears to be any post with a code block (or maybe any bbcode?). Hopefully a single fix would sort them all out.

[richardtoohey]

OK, I'll have a look at that - rather important that the code shows!

From my earlier message it will be this:

includes/bbcode.php

(Nasty fudge ahead, just to hide a warning!)

112 $message = @preg_replace(
... and ...
483 $tpl = @preg_replace(

Put the leading @ in there to make the warnings go away ...

I found a specific posting about the issue but there didn't seem to be any nice quick & clean solutions and I wasn't sure how I could see if my changes were working or not (but now I have some specific cases to look at, I can see if any changes are improving things or not).

https://www.ryadel.com/en/php-fix-warni ... rror-php7/

I'll try the step 2

[richardtoohey]

Ugh ... the code from "the internet" doesn't quite work as advertised.

The phpBB code is written to build & then execute PHP, and that PHP can be stored in the database (so it needs to work again.)

Each fudge I do works for one thing (e.g. code block) but then not another (quote or url).

Retrosoftware site has phpBB 3.0, long EOL, there's a PHP 3.1 (also EOL) and the current is 3.2 ... quite a lot to upgrade to get from old to new but that might be the "best" path but going to take a while ...

[richardtoohey]

The upgrade is pretty smooth so that will (a) fix the security issues of staying a (very!) older version and (b) fix all the BBCode issues without needing crude hacks and (c) make future upgrades a bit easier.

BUT

It means any extensions/modifications/styles etc. have reverted to the phpBB defaults, so it looks like *. forums. I think that is OK - it's the content that really matters? (I can try and get rid of the phpbb icon but that's about as far as my skills go!)

So screenshot below is a local copy after all the upgrades (3.0.x to latest, then to 3.1, then to 3.2.5 - latest & greatest).

So will give it a day or two for feedback and objections, and if I don't hear, I'll go ahead. I think it's a improvement ...

[BigEd]

Sounds good to me. I always like to see things preserved, but the format isn't a big deal.

Thanks for digging in!

[ctr]

That is good news. An upgrade from such an old version could have been a royal pain in the bum. Losing the theme is a shame but I'd rather have the content. Thanks again.

[sydney]

The theme is absolutely expendable, it's the content that is valuable.

[richardtoohey]

OK, that's done (which is great from a security point-of-view as well).

So Media Wiki (wiki directory) is latest version, phpBB (forum directory) is latest version, and Mantis bug-tracker (mantis directory) is just hacked to display the login page (needs more work or upgrading).

Theming looks like a bit of work (and web design/CSS not my cup of tea) - so it's going but if anyone wants a different colour scheme etc. they'll have to clone the prosilver theme files and edit the clone.

Doing the actual upgrades didn't take too long (lots of files to FTP upload though) - most time on R&D.

I wasn't sure if a 3.0.x to 3.2.x upgrade in one "jump" would work so did it slowly ...

3.0.11 -> 3.0.14
3.0.14 -> 3.1.12
3.1.12 -> 3.2.5

For each step - download the "all files zip" - phpBB-3.0.14.zip phpBB-3.1.12.zip phpBB-3.2.5.zip.

Extract the zip files, remove config.php, files/ and images/ then upload to forum/ directory on server using FTP.

Visit (in web browser) the forum/install/xxx.php update page and follow any instructions.

Using FTP rename or remove the install/ sub-directory (the site won't function normally if an install directory exists).

[1024MAK]

Thank you Richard for all your work. Much appreciated

Mark

[BigEd]

Thank you Richard for all your work. Much appreciated =D> =D> =D>

Mark

Seconded! This kind of thing is simple in principle but tedious and stressful in practice. But very worthwhile to preserve some history.

[MartinB]

Nice one Richard....

I used to post a lot on RS and there’s a mine of great programming tips so if nothing else, it’s a great reference source when tinkering.

So just thanks!

[davidb]

Thanks for getting it working again, Richard!

I have a few posts in the forums on there and spent a lot of time writing wiki pages, so it's good to see it get some attention.

[richardtoohey]

Thank you for all the "thank yous", they are appreciated.

[ctr]

Thank you! It is a useful reference.