Sequestered from my humble (by global standards) DSL connection in the heart of the Cradle of Humankind I desperately try to get online with the few bars of GPRS signal that I have. It’ll be expensive, but I’ve not checked my mail, Slashdot, or miscellaneous forums in over 16 hours… Violent withdrawal was moments away and it’s never pretty.
Here’s the short of it for those that don’t want to read my whole epic.
While trying to upgrade from WordPress 2.1 to 2.6 I was presented with the database upgrade page when trying to get to the backend (/wp-admin). Upon clicking the Upgrade button/link a half-ream long list of “Table doesn’t exist” errors were displayed.
WordPress failed database upgrade - Table doesnt exist error messages.
The reason WordPress can’t find the tables is because it fails to create them during the database upgrade. For the full reason behind why this happens you’ll have to read the whole post. If you’re only interested in what to do to get it working the next three paragraphs and two code samples should explain all.
In WordPress 2.2 two new settings were introduced in the wp-config.php file namely DB_CHARSET and DB_COLLATE. By default, that is in the wp-config-sample.php file, it sets these variables to ‘utf8′ and ‘utf8-general’ respectively.
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
define('DB_COLLATE', 'utf8-general-ci');
If you added the DB_COLLATE option to your old wp-config.php file and retained the default option as given in the sample file then it is highly likely you experienced this error since utf8-general-ci is not a valid MySQL collation. The silly little error that causes so much grief lies in the dashes — they should be underscores.
Most MySQL installations use utf8_unicode_ci as the default collation. You’re likely to get joy by setting the DB_COLLATE option to
define('DB_COLLATE', 'utf8_general_ci');
Sorry for the horrible attempt at a pun.
By now is old news that Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, has withdrawn from the final run-off elections in Zimbabwe which would determine the next president of the country.
This comes after at least 70 MDC supporters have been killed. Robert Mugabe‘s answer to the “imperialist West” to the allegations that opposition supporters are being killed by mandate of the government is that the media is once again misrepresenting what is happening in Zimbabwe to justify their interference in the country.
Steve Pierson at The Standard, a political blog, says:
Military action seems to be the only option left. A smart campaign could be conducted relatively bloodlessly but it would have to be led by South Africa, the only country in the region with the standing and the military might to carry out such an action. And South Africa is showing no will to act. [http://www.thestandard.org.nz/?p=2298]
In some respects I agree with Steve. It is obvious that non-violence seems to be a tactic only the opposition are interested in. But I disagree that any military campaign conducted by South Africa against Zimbabwe will be “relatively bloodless.” I also agree that New Zealand should offer its support – but that South Africa should decline. At least initially.