php 5.4 - 500 internal server error

My host upgraded from php 5.3 to 5.4 Monday morning and now my opencart and vbulletin programs are not working.

I was using opencart 1.5.3.1 in a sub directory. My home page for my website works fine, which is only html based, but when you click to go to my shopping cart, i receive a 500 internal server error.

I tried updating the opencart to 1.5.6.4. Once uploaded, i went to to upgrade i get a 500 internal server error. Next, i deleted opencart and vbulletin from my website and then installed a fresh copy of 1.5.6.4 to my website. When i try to go to the directory and install it gives me 500 internal server error.

My web host claims that everything is working fine on their end. The only error that was showing on my cpanel error log was:
PHP crashed on opline 82 of autoload() at /home/cc4132/public_html/forum/vb/vb.php:221. vb is for vbulletin, which I deleted from the website, but it didn't fix the problem, only stopped the error message from showing in cpanel error log.

Now my error log shows:
[Tue Dec 09 00:38:26 2014] [error] [client 68.180.228.183] File does not exist: /home/cc4132/public_html/404.shtml
[Tue Dec 09 00:38:26 2014] [error] [client 68.180.228.183] File does not exist: /home/cc4132/public_html/opencart
[Tue Dec 09 00:38:26 2014] [error] [client 68.180.228.183] File does not exist: /home/cc4132/public_html/404.shtml
[Tue Dec 09 00:38:26 2014] [error] [client 68.180.228.183] File does not exist: /home/cc4132/public_html/robots.txt

(I only tried 1.5.6.4 since some of the extensions i use for checkout only show that they support up to that version.)


Next, I also tried to install 1.5.3.1 on GoDaddy.com in a new domain that i haven't been using. Once uploaded, I can get past step 1 and step 2 (which has all green check marks and writable status showing), but when i click continue from step 2, i get a 500 internal server error. Nothing else is loaded on this domain, so i can't move my shopping cart to another domain.

Nothing is showing up in the GoDaddy error log, even though i have added the PHP error code to the php.ini file that cPanel says i need to have to view errors.

I have orders stuck in my opencart database that i can't access, it is 2 weeks until Christmas and my shopping cart is dead. Any help would be appreciated.

Scott.

Hi,
What does your opencart error_log file say, this can be found in you main opencart directory which you can access via ftp.

Also check if your .htaccess file and rename to .htaccessold to see if that helps, if not rename it back to .htaccess

If you can't find the cause push your host to give you the cause, they can get this from the server error logs.

Normally a minor php release does not cause issues, I am running opencart on php 5.4.30

good luck

WIth opencart deleted on my website, i have phpinffo.php in my root directory. The file only has 1 line of code, which is:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

When i try to run the file, I receive a 500 internal server error. There are no other php files in the rood directory, or any php.ini files currently on my website.

sounds like an issue with the host.
try this line of code instead as some servers block php info

<?php Print "Hello, World!"; ?>

make sure permissions are 644 on the file and not higher like 777 as this can cause internal server errors under suphp

mikec wrote:sounds like an issue with the host.
try this line of code instead as some servers block php info

<?php Print "Hello, World!"; ?>

make sure permissions are 644 on the file and not higher like 777 as this can cause internal server errors under suphp

My host got the php info file to work by changing the file extension to .php5. The php version that they are running is 5.4.35.

mikec wrote:Hi,
What does your opencart error_log file say, this can be found in you main opencart directory which you can access via ftp.

Also check if your .htaccess file and rename to .htaccessold to see if that helps, if not rename it back to .htaccess

If you can't find the cause push your host to give you the cause, they can get this from the server error logs.

Normally a minor php release does not cause issues, I am running opencart on php 5.4.30

good luck

Nothing is showing up in the opencart error_log.

I renamed .htaccess, but i still receive the 500 server error. I will lean harder on my host for the server error logs.

not really sure what to suggest, your host should fix this for you. All I can think of is add an .htaccess file with the following lines:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php4

Try temporarily deleting the php.ini above or in the store and it should work. A full fledged 5.3 version of php.ini will 500 error when using 5.4 php.

If that works, find the main php.ini for the server and use that as a template near/in store level instead of the old 5.3 one. Make sure you check all locations the php.ini could be -- some hosts recurse them into all apps folders.

It looks like my host did something in the background to fix the problem. I haven't been able to find a solution, but Opencart started working again.

Thank you for all of the suggestions.