Archive
Fix: WordPress not detecting updates, wp_options table corruption
I have been trying recently to troubleshoot a WordPress website that was not detecting available core and plugin updates. So I installed WordPress Debug Bar plugin and after enabling WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php I could open the Debug menu from the WordPress admin bar and see some errors being logged.
At the wp-content/wp-debug.log file that I had enabled to log wordpress errors, I could see entries like the following (in mixed Greek/English):
[26-Jan-2021 13:15:10 UTC] Σφάλμα Duplicate entry ‘113343’ for key ‘wp_options.PRIMARY’ βάσης δεδομένων WordPress για αίτηση INSERT INTO `wp_options` (`option_name`, `option_value`, `autoload`) VALUES (‘wt_cli_start_date’, ‘1611666910’, ‘yes’) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `option_name` = VALUES(`option_name`), `option_value` = VALUES(`option_value`), `autoload` = VALUES(`autoload`) από require(‘wp-load.php’), require_once(‘wp-config.php’), require_once(‘wp-settings.php’), include_once(‘/plugins/cookie-law-info/cookie-law-info.php’), run_cookie_law_info, Cookie_Law_Info->__construct, Cookie_Law_Info->load_dependencies, require_once(‘/plugins/cookie-law-info/includes/class-cookie-law-info-review_request.php’), Cookie_Law_Info_Review_Request->__construct, Cookie_Law_Info_Review_Request->check_condition, Cookie_Law_Info_Review_Request->reset_start_date, update_option, add_option
Checking the wp_options table with phpMyAdmin I didn’t see it having an option_id with such a value so I opened up the definition for that table from the sidebar and it seems PRIMARY is an index on that table, while the key is option_id as I originally though.
Did a new search on it and found this article
from a guy I already trusted due to other nice articles on databases. It was as it seems a database corruption (guess the index is corrupted) and running
REPAIRTABLEwp_options
was enough to fix it.
So via phpMyAdmin’s SQL Code tab I executed that simple SQL command and suddenly Wordpess could find core and plugin updates again:
HowTo: Use DISM and SFC tools to check+fix your Windows installation
If you’re having issues with your Windows 7 or newer, you should consider whether its installation has become corrupted (due to malicious software or hard drive errors).
After doing a disk check (say by right clicking the appropriate drive under my computer and selecting Properties, then Tools tab and Error checking) and a complete virus scan (on Win10 you can click the shield icon of Windows defender in the taskbar tray and at scanning options choose to do a full scan – or if you have installed some third-party antivirus double-click its icon in the taskbar tray and when its GUI opens up opt to do a full scan), then try the following steps to repair your Windows installation:
1. Press WIN+R to open Run dialog
2. Type in:
CMD
Hold down CTRL+SHIFT keys and click OK to open the command line window in Administrator mode (do press Yes at the User Account Control prompt)
A (usually) black text-based console window will open up and you’ll be greated with something like:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.720]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
and then a prompt like:
C:\Windows\system32>
3. Type in the following and press the ENTER key:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
and press ENTER to execute the DISM tool with the option to check the windows image health and wait patiently for it to complete
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1Image Version: 10.0.18363.720
[==========================100.0%==========================] The component store is repairable.
The operation completed successfully.
4. In case you see a message that the component store is repairable, then when greeted with the C:\Windows\system32> prompt again, type in the following and press ENTER:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth
to repair the Windows image:
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1Image Version: 10.0.18363.720
[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.
If RestoreHealth fails and you’re on Windows 10, then you should checkout this article:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
on how to do an in place upgrade of Windows 10, opting to keep your settings and apps
5. If all goes well you’ll see that the restore operation completed successfully and you’ll be taken again to the command-line prompt C:\Windows\system32>
Now that the windows image is checked and fine, you should check your Windows installation against that image, giving the following command and pressing ENTER:
sfc /scannow
Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
After any automatic repairs you should see the prompt C:\Windows\system32> again. Now repeat the same step till you see no more errors found and repaired.
sfc /scannow
Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
When back at the C:\Windows\system32> prompt with no errors found and repaired, just close the console window or type in the following and press ENTER:
exit
Fix: Invalid Firmware Image at Dell Inspiron 3537 BIOS update
For some time now I was trying to update the BIOS of an older Dell Inspiron 3537 laptop from inside Windows (with the InsydeFlash application that the respective Dell update package employs), only to get a blue screen saying Invalid Firmware Image upon reboot and the BIOS update was skipped every time.
Since that update was fixing a critical security issue (Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00115 – CVE-2018-3639 & CVE-2018-3640), I decided to do some more research on it. I eventually came to the conclusion that since I had A9 BIOS version, I needed to install BIOS version A10 first (which addresses CVE-2017-5715 and associated Intel Reboot issue), then try the BIOS version A11 update that the Dell Support online was offering.
Luckily there was a Dell BIOS update guide that was suggesting to visit Dell downloads catalog to find older updates, from where I found all Dell Inspiron 3537 updates and was able to locate the A10 BIOS update.
Updating the BIOS from version A9 (the version I had, as displayed at “Current BIOS” field on the InsydeFlash UI) to A10 and then after reboot from A10 to A11 with the respective update executables worked fine. Can confirm the update is done by launching the update once more and then just Cancel.
Fix: Windows Update 0x8e5e03fa, 0x800703fa errors
Sometime ago, I was receiving errors 0x8e5e03fa and 0x800703fa on several pending updates at Windows 10’s Update pane (found at Settings / Updates & Security / Windows Update from the Start menu).
The updates history wasn’t showing many more details, but could see Knowldege Base article numbers (KBxx) for some pending cummulative updates.
Trying to update some graphics drivers from the Device Manager (can access that by right clicking the Start menu button and selecting “Device Manager” from the popup menu shown on Windows 10), by right-clicking respective devices and selecting to update their drivers, was also failing.
So it did look like a systematic issue, not some issue with some specific update item.
Looked up the error code 0x8e5e03fa via Google and found this article mentioning a JET (database engine) error. That’s the same engine used in Access if I remember well, interesting that it’s getting used by Windows Update too (probably to maintain some private database).
The suggested fix didn’t work since the file mentioned in that article was not existing, but at that folder (%windir%\system32\catroot2) I found a dberr.txt file that obviously was holding some error log.
Printing out that file (can use TYPE dberr.txt | more to wait after each “page”), I couldn’t help but notice that it was writing JET error all over it.
I renamed that file (think it was then recreated again automatically) and also renamed the two folders there (using the move command – e.g. can type move, press TAB till the name of the folder appears and then add a minus sign and press TAB again till the same folder name appears and press ENTER). Did that while having the cryptsvc service stopped (using net stop cryptsvc command) as that article suggested. Then started the service again (using net start cryptsvc).
After doing this, all failing updates (some extra driver updates had been found using DriverBooster, but were also failing to install) eventually installed fine and Windows 10 started bringing more updates:
Fix: Windows Phone update error 80072f8f
I was setting up a new Lumia phone (with Windows Phone 8.1) and neither phone update, nor the (Here) maps downloads were working. When trying Settings / Phone Update, it was showing error 80072f8f and was pointing to http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp8/basics/solutions-to-update-issues to read more info. However that error code wasn’t listed there. Wonder if there is any page listing all the possible error codes. I find it silly if they have error codes that aren’t documented anywhere officially.
I looked it up on Google (sorry Bing!) and found http://www.techanges.com/fix-windows-phone-error-80072f8f/, which was saying this was related to time/date discrepancy between the phone and the windows update server. Obviously the maps also get their updates via the same system, although the maps update was showing the misleading message that it couldn’t connect to the maps library at that moment.
Although I had set correct timezone, it had wrong date/time, it was set to autoupdate date/time, but forgot that it had no SIM card in it yet. Obviously it doesn’t get these updates from a time server, but from the mobile phone connection provider. Hope Windows 10 phone fixes that and gets the date/time from time server like the one from NIST or from Microsoft that Windows uses on the desktop.
HowTo: Reinstall a new Windows 10 build after reverting to older build
At http://www.askvg.com/fix-windows-10-insider-preview-build-10240-not-appearing-on-windows-update/ it writes:
NOTE:
If you previously had a new Windows 10 build installed in your computer and then reverted back to an older build, you’ll lose access to the new build and it’ll no longer be offered as an upgrade option. Deleting the number for that build from the list at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\Applicability\RecoveredFrom key in Registry Editor seems to restore the ability to upgrade. Thanks to our reader "thedicemaster" for this info…
This is useful to know and unfortunately it means that some users may get stuck to an older Windows 10 version. Unless Microsoft has it set like that so that they’ll get automatically the next Windows build (ship the one they were trying to install hoping it fixed the issue they were having). Of course this will work if Microsoft keeps on pushing new builds often, not if they end up updating the OS build once a year or more rare in the future as Windows 10 matures.
To open Registry Editor you can click the Search icon (next to the Windows Start menu icon) at the Windows 10 Taskbar and write RegEdit.exe, then it should offer you a result that says “Run command” that you can click to launch it.
After that, expand the respective tree nodes (that is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SOFTWARE, then Microsoft, then Windows, then WindowsSelfHost) from the side pane and right click and delete the “RecoveredFrom” node.
Then try Windows Update again from State menu / Settings / Update & Security and tell it again to check for updates. In case it still doesn’t offer the updates, wait for 1-2 days and try again.
Fix: VSIX installer error – SignatureDescription could not be created
This is my answer at:
to the question on why some extensions fail to install at RC (Release Candidate) versions of Visual Studio 2015, showing error “SignatureDescription could not be created for the signature algorithm supplied”.
Not sure if Microsoft fixed this on purpose or by accident, but this is very useful for people who don’t have the time (and courage) to uninstall the RC version and reinstall the final one and all extensions they were using.
Speaking of reinstalling everything by hand, it would be nice if you could export an XML document containing a list of installed Visual Studio extensions and then be able to reimport it to install them all at an other Visual Studio installation (should also be able to edit that XML document to remove some if you wish, or at export see a checkbox list to deselect ones you don’t want exported in the resulting list).
To keep it short, the answer is:
Try installing http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=619615 (found from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2015/07/29/building-apps-for-windows-10-with-visual-studio-2015.aspx)
I used Custom installation option and selected everything. It upgraded Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise RC to Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise automatically and now those extensions that had started recently to not install, are installing fine. That way you’ll avoid the trouble of reinstalling everything.
Note that after installation finishes it shows a button to Launch Visual Studio, which will launch the Enterprise edition (or Professional in the case I guess one had Professional RC installed). However your Windows taskbar shortcuts for Visual Studio 2015 and Blend 2015 will be now broken and you have to fix them by right-clicking them and selecting Properties, then setting them to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe and C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\blend.exe respectively, assuming you use an 64-bit OS – else remove the “ (x86)” part – and had installed Visual Studio on C: disk. You may wish to also add those links to the Start menu, under the respective folder (named Visual Studio 2015) if you also miss them from there.
HowTo: Display version information on WinForm title
This is my contribution to
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7178725/version-number-in-winform-form-text
I’m using the following at the WinForm of the WebCapture tool I’m making for ClipFlair:
public MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
Version version = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;
Text = Text + " " + version.Major + "." + version.Minor +
" (build " + version.Build + ")"; //change form title
}Not showing revision number to the user, build number is enough technical info
Make sure your AssemblyInfo.cs ends in the following (remove the version it has there by default) for VisualStudio to autoincrement build and revision number. You have to update major and minor versions yourself at every release (update major version for new features, minor version when you do just fixes):
// Version information for an assembly consists of the following four values:
//
// Major Version
// Minor Version
// Build Number
// Revision
//
// You can specify all the values or you can default the Build
// and Revision Number by using the '*' as shown below:
// [assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]
Update: Since now WebCapture is ClickOnce-deployed from the web (also has nice autoupdate support thanks to ClickOnce) and I want to avoid user confusion by showing the published version of the app (as the ClickOnce installation page does) on the WinForm titlebar, I now use the following code instead, based on a relevant post I found on the web:
public MainForm()
{InitializeComponent();
ShowVersion();
}
private void ShowVersion()
{Version version = (ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed)?
ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.CurrentVersion :Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;
//if network deployed show published version (as the web install page)
Text = Text + " " + version.Major + "." + version.Minor + "."+ version.Build + "." + version.Revision;
//change form title
}
BTW, speaking of ClickOnce, I noticed that if at the autoupdate dialog shown when you launch the app from its desktop shortcut (and there’s a new version available) you press “Skip”, it won’t offer you this update anymore when you launch an app (I hope that when an even newer update is there it will prompt you), but you can override that behaviour by going to the installation page for your ClickOnce app (where you installed it from in the first place) and press the “Install” button there.
HowTo: Check your web browser and plugins for needed updates
Qualys BrowserCheck will perform a security analysis of your browser and its plugins to identify any security issues. You can install it at https://browsercheck.qualys.com/
Another useful quick online tool (needs no installation) for checking that you do have the latest in web browser technology is Browse Happy, at http://www.BrowseHappy.com
George Birbilis @zoomicon 