virtuemart update from version 2.0.6d to 2.6.6 Blank Page

[hiss]

Hi
After virtuemart update from version 2.0.6d to 2.6.6
My store page is blank
Nothing could be
If that's true in all areas of the site works

But my store page opens a blank page!
Please help me

[jenkinhill]

You provide so little information. What PHP version is on the server? Are you using a commercial Joomla template with overrides that need updating for the current version?
See http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=121692.0

[jsbullock]

I'm getting the same screen of death on the home page after upgrading from VM 2.0.22a to 2.6.6

My hosting environment is shared with Apache 2.2.27, PHP 5.4.28, MySQL 5.5.37-cll - I just successfully updated to Joomla!  2.5.22

I followed the link on blank pages offered by Kelvyn. I set VM debugging on, but that didn't give me anything informative, then I followed the link on Joomla! page of death diagnostics and set Site/Global Configuration/Server tab/Error Reporting to Maximum. I then get this message:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 110595 bytes) in /home/user/public_html/plugins/system/sef/sef.php on line 34

In my case, with a shared server I don't have access to php.ini, but I can check the settings which give the maximum memory limit as 32mb. I'm not familiar enough with sef, but must observe that it's probably requiring more memory than its predecessor.

- Jeff

[jsbullock]

OK, after much searching, I've come up with some more info about the issue and some fixes.

"System - SEF" is a Joomla! plugin. There seem to be memory overflow issues with it since 2009 in relation to how and when Joomla! handles buffering and caching in relationship to SEF and other components. For what it's worth, regarding the particular error message I reported previously, line 34 of sef.php is a regular expression search and replace on a buffer.

I think the whole issue of a VirtueMart upgrade causing it to break a perfectly working site with an earlier version should be examined by deeper Joomla!/VM experts than me

Since the immediate issue is a memory exhaustion, I've come up with the following solutions:

Well, in my case, I've been informed that to be allowed a 128mb memory limit, which is what I think is needed, I actually have to upgrade my hosting plan For the time being I've solved the problem by disabling the "System - SEF" plugin from the Joomla! Extensions/Plug-in Manager. Just type "sef" into the search filter, Edit the plugin named System - SEF, set Status to Disabled, then Save. Now everything works OK.

If you're allowed to up your site's memory limit to 128mb...Find these files in the public_html root:

For those with access to php.ini find and edit the memory limit line and change it to:
memory_limit = 128M

That's ideal, but you might also be able to increase the memory limit from one of these files:

In .htaccess:
php_value memory_limit 128M

Insert the following code line near the top of index.php or even just before the class declaration in configuration.php:
<? ini_set('memory_limit','128M');?>

Oh, and don't forget to turn error reporting off completely in Joomla! and reset vmdebug off in VirtueMart, if you had set them on earlier to determine the error message as discussed in my first post.

Hope this helps with what I think is going to turn out to be a fairly common problem

- Jeff

[GJC Web Design]

My only comment would be that 32Mb is extremely low for any sort of php/mysql based site... 

We run all ours (incl. some very busy sites) problem free on 256Mb

[jsbullock]

My only comment would be that 32Mb is extremely low for any sort of php/mysql based site... 

We run all ours (incl. some very busy sites) problem free on 256Mb

Thanks for the sound advice. BTW, I just upgraded my hosting package and requested 128Mb, and now the home page works with the SEF plug-in enabled again.

- Jeff