Why has my MT weblog died? Can it be fixed?

October 11, 2005 3:55 PM

My website is hosted by Dreamhost. It primarily consists of a Movable Type weblog that I keep for family and friends. A few others have weblogs on my MT installation. I use the Berkely DB option and MT 2.661 (for licensing reasons). Suddenly today I am unable to login. Comments result in an odd error. When I attempt to recover my password, I get an 'invalid username' error. To me, it appears the database has become corrupt. HELP! Can the database be saved? Does anyone have experience with a similar blogtastrophe?
posted by jdroth to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

the BerkeleyDB is really buggy in my experience, but you might want to try converting the database you have to mysql using MT's tools.
posted by mathowie at 3:58 PM on October 11, 2005

You really should try the MT Knowledge Base and user forums for MT problems.

Coincidentally, I had a Berkely DB installation go belly up just last week: they upgraded Debian and, with it, the version of Berkely. Here's the MT knowledge base solution for you. If those options fail (as they did for me), you can email Dreamhost Support (as I did) and they can convert the DB files for you.

After that, convert thee to MySQL!
posted by rhapsodie at 3:59 PM on October 11, 2005

Also: Converting Berkely DB files to new version and MT Recover HTML script will be of use to you.
posted by rhapsodie at 4:01 PM on October 11, 2005

Response by poster: You really should try the MT Knowledge Base and user forums for MT problems.

I've already posted a help request in the MT user forums, and submitted a support ticket to Dreamhost. I'm just trying to get as much help from as many sources as possible.

I suspect my problem is going to be identical to yours, rhapsodie, and probably require the same fix.
posted by jdroth at 4:08 PM on October 11, 2005

(I didn't mention it, but I, too, am with Dreamhost. Fear not, for all is not lost.)
posted by rhapsodie at 4:10 PM on October 11, 2005

Response by poster: It's actually not the end of the world if all is lost — Lord knows I could use a fresh start. (And I've recovered the text all my past entries, which is nearly five years of writing...)

I've tried MT-Medic from the knowledge base solution you linked to, but, as I suspected, it doesn't recognize any existing weblogs or authors.

I'll try any and all suggestions you folks provide.
posted by jdroth at 4:20 PM on October 11, 2005

From my situation last week, someone at Dreamhost Support converted all my DB files to the newest version just over 24 hours after opening the ticket and all worked fine after that (I had problems with converting them myself through SSH). It took me another 20 minutes to convert it to MySQL though.
posted by rhapsodie at 4:26 PM on October 11, 2005

Response by poster: For what it's worth, now MT-Medic does show existing weblogs and authors, though no weblogs are associated with any authors. Also, the error I receive when attempting to comment on an entry has changed. If I'm lucky, then Dreamhost is working to repair something and this will have just been a panicky waste of my weekly question!
posted by jdroth at 4:32 PM on October 11, 2005

I don't want to stray too far off the topic, but you might be interested: if the licensing reasons you mention involve the # of blogs you can have on one installation, MT 3.2 allows you to have unlimited blogs again.
posted by statolith at 5:21 PM on October 11, 2005

In my experience, it's not the number of blogs, but the number of authors that is prohibiting some (including myself) from updating to the newest MT. Good luck J.D. Call me if you need anything.
posted by smithmac_99 at 6:22 PM on October 11, 2005

JD, Smithmac, feel free to get in touch with me at anil at sixapart dot com and I can connect you to folks on our licensing team. There's a million reasons (performance, security, features) to get on the current version of MT and we'll help you do that.

Dreamhost will be happier with you if you do that, too. Either way, you should definitely switch from BDB to the more-reliable MySQL.
posted by anildash at 10:34 PM on October 11, 2005

I've been offline for a bit and have returned to the same problem (reason why I love the internet #34,726 -- search terms "dreamhost" "movable" "type" "password" "issues" returns this AskMeta thread).
posted by heather at 10:35 PM on October 13, 2005

So... anyone leaving DreamHost after this debacle? I've been unable to update my site for about a week now because of this, DH's suggested fixes haven't worked, their customer service is taking two to three days to respond to any support request, and their responses have been sorely inadequate. If anyone can suggest an inexpensive host with better customer support, I'd really appreciate it.
posted by apollonia6 at 12:58 PM on October 18, 2005

I had this exact problem myself, and here's a detailed post on how I fixed it:

Database Resurrection - just in case anyone else has this problem.

I found all the "usual" web answers and made some easily repeatable mistakes; so if you're still banging your head, check this out.

I've had problems in the past with some other things breaking on Dreamhost after an update; I've found that using the packages associated with their "one-click installs" tends to mitigate this, especially since they're mostly the packages I prefer anyway. (e.g. WordPress). Otherwise, I've found their offerings too good to consider migrating to a new host where I'd just have to reconfigure all my stuff.
posted by mikewas at 4:19 PM on December 19, 2005