WordPress no longer working after Ubuntu upgrade

Question

Hi, in anticipation of the current patching done to the machines to handle the Meltdown and Spectre issues, I upgraded my Ubuntu from 14 to 17.10. Now the WordPress site no longer works.

The article at seemed to be the same issue.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/upgraded-ubuntu-on-droplet-now-wordpress-site-is-blank

I followed the first step and my script…

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Doesn’t do anything.

What do I need to do to get my WordPress site back again?

Answer 1

RichardWolfVI January 26, 2019

Hey, found your question while having the same issue (when upgrading to Ubuntu 18.04.1).

In my case, it seems the PHP module was not enabled in Apache, so the following command had to be run:

sudo a2enmod php7.2

After that, restart the Apache2 service:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

That would be it. I hope it works for you!

Reply Report

csalmeida January 26, 2019

This has worked for me. I had a blank page on one of my Wordpress sites after upgrading to Ubuntu 18.04. Solved now, thank you!
Reply Report
boss1001 July 7, 2019

This solved the issue for me. Thank you!
Reply Report
dpames April 2, 2020

Such a simple solution but so nice to have it spelled out and it works too. Thanks…
Reply Report

Answer 2

csalmeida January 26, 2019

This has worked for me. I had a blank page on one of my Wordpress sites after upgrading to Ubuntu 18.04. Solved now, thank you!
Reply Report
boss1001 July 7, 2019

This solved the issue for me. Thank you!
Reply Report
dpames April 2, 2020

Such a simple solution but so nice to have it spelled out and it works too. Thanks…
Reply Report

Answer 3

jonleibowitz January 29, 2018

Revert your droplet to the snapshot you had performed before your in-place OS upgrade.

Reply Report

jlivermore January 30, 2018

Thank you. I restored the snapshot, and all is working again. However, don’t I need to upgrade my Ubuntu to get the benefits of this patch? And, assuming so, how do I upgrade the OS without destroying the WordPress site?
Reply Report
- jonleibowitz January 30, 2018
  
  An in-place upgrade of Ubuntu is not a process to take lightly - it should be done with a good amount of testing in order to catch dependency or configuration issues.
  
  I’d advise reading these tutorials regarding mitigating the Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities, and how you would upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04 LTS:
  
  https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-protect-your-server-against-the-meltdown-and-spectre-vulnerabilities
  
  https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-upgrade-to-ubuntu-16-04-lts
  
  I would not use any non-LTS releases for a server, however your mileage with these may vary. Please note that non-LTS releases have very short lifecycles and will go EOL within a short timeframe:
  
  https://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life
  
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
  
  How To Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  by Brennen Bearnes
  Ubuntu's next Long Term Support release, version 16.04 (Xenial Xerus), is due to be released on April 21, 2016. This guide explains the upgrade process for systems including (but not limited to) DigitalOcean Droplets running Ubuntu 15.10.
  
  Reply Report
  
  jlivermore February 5, 2018
  
  My current version is Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS. So with this, do I need to even upgrade it? Based on the article about Meltdown and Spectre it seems I don’t need to do anything since I am already at 14.04.
  
  Reply Report

Answer 4

jlivermore January 30, 2018

Thank you. I restored the snapshot, and all is working again. However, don’t I need to upgrade my Ubuntu to get the benefits of this patch? And, assuming so, how do I upgrade the OS without destroying the WordPress site?
Reply Report
- jonleibowitz January 30, 2018
  
  An in-place upgrade of Ubuntu is not a process to take lightly - it should be done with a good amount of testing in order to catch dependency or configuration issues.
  
  I’d advise reading these tutorials regarding mitigating the Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities, and how you would upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04 LTS:
  
  https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-protect-your-server-against-the-meltdown-and-spectre-vulnerabilities
  
  https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-upgrade-to-ubuntu-16-04-lts
  
  I would not use any non-LTS releases for a server, however your mileage with these may vary. Please note that non-LTS releases have very short lifecycles and will go EOL within a short timeframe:
  
  https://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life
  
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
  
  How To Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  by Brennen Bearnes
  Ubuntu's next Long Term Support release, version 16.04 (Xenial Xerus), is due to be released on April 21, 2016. This guide explains the upgrade process for systems including (but not limited to) DigitalOcean Droplets running Ubuntu 15.10.
  
  Reply Report
  
  jlivermore February 5, 2018
  
  My current version is Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS. So with this, do I need to even upgrade it? Based on the article about Meltdown and Spectre it seems I don’t need to do anything since I am already at 14.04.
  
  Reply Report

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