Cannot access WordPress general settings - no data received (Chrome) or server reset (Firefox)

February 28, 2015 4.2k views
lotsasmile
By:
lotsasmile

I am running Ubuntu 14.04 with Apache and WordPress 4.1.1. In wp-admin I can access all settings except the general settings. When I try to navigate to the general settings I get “no data received” when using Chrome, “server reset” with Firefox or “This page can’t be displayed” with Internet Explorer. How do I go about trouble shooting and fixing this issue.

3 comments
  • sierracircle February 28, 2015

    you could try disabling your plugins to see if that solves it.

    if so, re-enable them one by one to fine the culprit.

    If plugins are not the problem, try changing themes

  • lotsasmile February 28, 2015

    I disabled all plugins and tried different themes, but that had no effect on the issue.

  • lotsasmile March 1, 2015

    I edited the options-general.php file to find out what could be causing the page not to load. Taking this one line out of the wp_dropdown_languages array allows the page to load:

    'show available_translations' => ( ! is_multisite() || is_super_admin() ) && wp_can_install_language_pack(),

    However, I am not savvy enough to understand why the server resets when this line is in the file.

Log In to Comment
1 Answer
suls March 7, 2015

Had the same issue, is linked to adding the secure ssh user i believe in the digitalocean hardening instructions

Patching libssh2-php worked for me

apt-get source libssh2-php
cd php-ssh2-0.12/
wget https://launchpadlibrarian.net/193989033/fix-segfault.patch
apt-get build-dep php-ssh2
apt-get install build-essential fakeroot devscripts
patch -p1 < fix-segfault.patch 
rm fix-segfault.patch 
debchange -i
dpkg-buildpackage -b
debi
Reply
Have another answer? Share your knowledge.