I came across an old post on my blog the other day that was getting a lot of hits. When I viewed the page I decided that the code snippet in the article could do with an increase in text size to make it more readable.

I went into the admin panel and added an in-line style attribute to the code tag in question. When I saved the page WordPress reported that the post had been updated, however the text in the editor screen reverted back to what it had been prior to my change. I tried numerous times to save and tried different browsers but try as I might, the change just wouldn’t “stick”.

I usually consider myself pretty adept at solving WordPress related issues but this one was stumping me so I did what all developers do when they are in a tight spot and I googled it. Most posts turned up were completely unrelated, but one article suggested that the issue may be symptomatic of a corrupted table.

A quick command as the MySQL root user had my answer and effected the fix into the bargain

[kieran@www:~/public_html]$ mysqlcheck --check --databases wordpress --tables wp_posts -u root -p
Enter password:
wordpress.wp_posts
warning : Table is marked as crashed
error : Key in wrong position at page 132096
error : Corrupt

I re-ran the same command to make sure it had effected a fix (it isn’t clear from the output)

[kieran@www:~/public_html]$ mysqlcheck --check --databases wordpress --tables wp_posts -u root -p
Enter password:
wordpress.wp_posts OK

Now updating the offending post works first time without issue. I suspect, although can’t be sure, that the corruption occurred during a recent upgrade of the server when not all the services, MySQL included, got shut down gracefully.

When carrying out a recent upgrade of suPHP I encountered the following error in my apache error logs and PHP pages were not being served.

SecurityException in Application.cpp:511: Unknown Interpreter: php

Turns out the fix is a simple one; the syntax of the config file has change between versions and it’s simple a case of replacing the following lines:

[handlers]
;Handler for php-scripts
x-httpd-php=php:/usr/bin/php-cgi

;Handler for CGI-scripts
x-suphp-cgi=execute:!self

With the following (note the addition of double quotes)

[handlers]
;Handler for php-scripts
x-httpd-php="php:/usr/bin/php-cgi"

;Handler for CGI-scripts
x-suphp-cgi="execute:!self"

A quick bounce of apache and you should be back and kicking

When I recently upgraded an OpenVZ container in-situ over SSH, I had a few issues with the upgrade path. One of these was that the upgrade process called for the installation of a new kernel, however a container doesn’t need one and in my case couldn’t handle installing one either and thus caused the upgrade process to error out.

The fix was to force remove the kernel, both from the dpkg directory structure (in this case I copied the files to /tmp/ just in case) and using dpkg it’s self. The following commands as root:

mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-3.2.0-58-generic.* /tmp/
dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq linux-image-3.2.0-58-generic

Resuming the dist-upgrade after this process was a success

Family Christmas 2013

A collection of snaps from yet another fun-filled family ChristmasLast update: 02 January 2017

A collection of snaps from yet another fun-filled family Christmas

On a recent trip to Japan we were very nearly caught out by a timetabling anomaly for the Narita Express airport train service from Shinjuku so I thought I’d share it on the blog to save others some of the anxiety of arriving so close to check in closure time!

Basically the frequency of the service depends on the time of day. Up to and including 8am, the service runs almost every 20 minutes (great). After 10am it’s roughly every hour until nearly 8pm (not so great but manageable with planning). However from 8am there is nearly a 2 hour gap until the next service at 9:40am! This means that if your flight is at 11am or earlier, you must catch the 8am train or resort to other means of getting to the airport (including taking the Yamanote line to Tokyo and picking up the express from there where services are more frequent).

In short, either check the timetable carefully for your chosen boarding point taking into account your flight time or elect to always travel from Tokyo station rather than any of the other possible starting points as there are always regular services from this station.

A cursory search on Hyperdia would also seem to indicate that taking the Skyliner service from Nippori, accessed from Shinjuku via the Yamanote line, is quicker than the Narita Express anyway, and more frequent, providing an almost consistent 20 minute interval departure time throughout the day with an end to end journey time of just over an hour, compared with the express which is over an hour and a half door to door.

Screens are getting bigger, but specifically they are getting wider. This realisation has, over time, been nagging at me and got me thinking about the idea of a serious overhaul for this site. Despite trying a number of different options over the past month I decided that perhaps it wasn’t the radical that was required, but the more practical.

Behold then, the same fundamental design but sporting wider pages, more flowing text, larger images and more tweaks to come. Those with wide screens or even just plain old rectangular ones should be rather pleased – do let me know your thoughts in comments.

Venice

A short summer jaunt to the picturesque Italian city of VeniceLast update: 08 November 2015

A short summer jaunt to the picturesque Italian city of Venice

Romania

A flying visit to Romania, taking in some of the sights in and around BucharestLast update: 08 November 2015