Upgrading from 4.0.1 to 4.5.0, but MBStrings not available

[clint]

I got this private message asking for help today, so I thought I would share my response with everyone. Any further details are much appreciated. I plan to turn this into a Wiki article next week.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dmk
I am running version 4.0.1c and would like to upgrade; however, I get the MBStrings error. I believe that I need to get PHP5 with MBStrings compiled in, correct? How do I get that and will that solve my problem?


Hi DMK -

Yes, you need the MBStrings module for PHP. How are you running PHP in your environment? With Apache or IIS? Do you completely control the machine or is it in a shared/hosting environment?

The php distributions available at php.net contain the mbstrings module, but it is turned off by default in the php.ini file. Typically all you need to do is uncomment the mbstring extension and restart your web server.

In a Windows installation, the line in php.ini looks like this:
extension=php_mbstring.dll

Note: Be sure the extension_dir directive in your php.ini actually points to the directory that contains the extensions libraries.

Another method would be to use the Bitrock installers we provide that include Apache, PHP and MySQL with all the correct settings and configurations for SugarCRM.

First step would be to take a backup of your existing system. The simplest method is to zip or tar up your Sugar 4.0.1 installation directory. Then use mysqldump command line utility to back up your database. Be sure to use the "-e" switch on that command as that makes everything a lot faster. You know have a backup of your Sugar installation and database.

Now uninstall PHP, MySQL and your web server.

Then download the installer for your platform (Windows, Linux or Mac) from here. Then install the system using the installer. This will also give you a fresh installation of Sugar 4.5, but you won't be using that install.

Now unzip your 4.0.1 system into the new htdocs directory in your Bitrock installation and load up your Sugar 4.0.1 database into the new MySQL installation.

Then run the 4.0.1 to 4.5.0 upgrade.

On a related note, we will be releasing 4.5.0 patch D today which addresses a couple upgrade issues. I highly recommend waiting for 4.5.0 patch D.

Regards,
Clint

[dmk]

I uncommented the mbstring EXTENSION in my PHP.INI file and restarted SugarCRM. Upon startup I got the following error:


PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library './php_mbstring.dll' - The specified module could not be found.

[clint]

Check the extension_dir value in your php.ini file. Does it point to a valid directory on your system?

Here's what my extension_dir directive looks like:

 extension_dir = "C:\Program Files\sugarcrm-4.2.1a\php\extensions\" 
  

Then you need to make sure you actually have the php_mbstring.dll file in that directory. If you don't have that file on your file system, download the php files that match your installation version from http://www.php.net/downloads.php, find the php_mbstring.dll file and put it into your extension_dir.

Clint

[dmk]

Mine says:


; Directory in which the loadable extensions (modules) reside.
extension_dir = "./"

I changed it to point to my PHP5 dir that have the DLL's.

extension_dir = "c:\program files\SugarCRM\php5\"

I downloaded the DLL from the PHP website and unzip PHP_MBSTRING.DLL from the Windows Binary version 5.1.6; howver, I am running PHP 5.0.4. Don't know if that makes a difference.

I receive the same error:

"The specified module could not be found."

[mgreis]

I'm actually trying to do a new install on a LINUX system (Fedora Core 5 with PHP 5.1.4).

I get the "unsupported PHP version" message, but it's in green, so presumably that's OK.

I get the

Not found: SugarCRM will not be able to process multi-byte characters. This will impact receiving emails in character sets other than UTF-8.


message in red, which is clearly not OK. I have MBstrings lines in my php.ini file, but I can't tell what would actually need to be uncommented/changed. How do I either enable what needs to be enabled in a LINUX environment or get around this check?

Thanks!

Michael

[dmk]

How do I restore the database from the MYSQLDUMP?


Thanks,


DMK

I got this private message asking for help today, so I thought I would share my response with everyone. Any further details are much appreciated. I plan to turn this into a Wiki article next week.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dmk
I am running version 4.0.1c and would like to upgrade; however, I get the MBStrings error. I believe that I need to get PHP5 with MBStrings compiled in, correct? How do I get that and will that solve my problem?


Hi DMK -

Yes, you need the MBStrings module for PHP. How are you running PHP in your environment? With Apache or IIS? Do you completely control the machine or is it in a shared/hosting environment?

The php distributions available at php.net contain the mbstrings module, but it is turned off by default in the php.ini file. Typically all you need to do is uncomment the mbstring extension and restart your web server.

In a Windows installation, the line in php.ini looks like this:
extension=php_mbstring.dll

Note: Be sure the extension_dir directive in your php.ini actually points to the directory that contains the extensions libraries.

Another method would be to use the Bitrock installers we provide that include Apache, PHP and MySQL with all the correct settings and configurations for SugarCRM.

First step would be to take a backup of your existing system. The simplest method is to zip or tar up your Sugar 4.0.1 installation directory. Then use mysqldump command line utility to back up your database. Be sure to use the "-e" switch on that command as that makes everything a lot faster. You know have a backup of your Sugar installation and database.

Now uninstall PHP, MySQL and your web server.

Then download the installer for your platform (Windows, Linux or Mac) from here. Then install the system using the installer. This will also give you a fresh installation of Sugar 4.5, but you won't be using that install.

Now unzip your 4.0.1 system into the new htdocs directory in your Bitrock installation and load up your Sugar 4.0.1 database into the new MySQL installation.

Then run the 4.0.1 to 4.5.0 upgrade.

On a related note, we will be releasing 4.5.0 patch D today which addresses a couple upgrade issues. I highly recommend waiting for 4.5.0 patch D.

Regards,
Clint

[clint]

I downloaded the DLL from the PHP website and unzip PHP_MBSTRING.DLL from the Windows Binary version 5.1.6; howver, I am running PHP 5.0.4. Don't know if that makes a difference.

I receive the same error:

"The specified module could not be found."

That will very likely not work. The PHP 5.0 and 5.1 branches are fairly different. In fact, we have found PHP 5.0 to be fairly problematic with Sugar as our code has exposed several bugs in PHP 5.0. This is why we can't support PHP 5.0.5.

If at all possible, I would highly encourage you to upgrade to PHP 5.1. This is where the PHP team is spending the majority of its time stabilizing and improving PHP 5.

Clint

[clint]

How do I restore the database from the MYSQLDUMP?

From command line, you can do the following:

mysql -u [username] -p -e "create database [sugardb]"
  
  mysql -u [username] -p sugardb < [my_sugar_db_backup].sql

Be sure to replace everything in brackets with the correct values for your environment.

Clint