Warning to Wordpress users-Was "Is anyone else unable to reach Wordpress dashboard?"

[Myra]

Bingo! I found the solution to a Wordpress problem I was having and wanted to share it and warn people. The problems is described here: http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21497&highlight=myra

Basically I was unable to login to the dashboard, just got the white screen of death after entering my password.

The cause was a plugin that Wordpress choked on. Apparently that's a common cause of the white screen of death (along with bad themes). In my case I went into the wp-content/plugins directory and realized that the plugin I added most recently was codexsearch.php. I moved it out of the plugins directory and my dashboard started right up the next time I tried.

So, caveat and all. Don't upload plugins promiscuously. In fact I may swear off of them. Apparently themes can be suspect as well, tho' it wasn't the cause of my problem...this time.

Phew, this Wordpress is a fragile beast.

Myra

[On edit: corrected a typo.]

[sheila]

Next time you encounter the "white screen of death" you might want to try examining your PHP error logs.

You can find these through your CNC by clicking on the "Troubleshooting" link.

Or, you can find them directly (by FTP or command line) at
/big/xdom/xexample/logs_cgi/php_error

(where xexample is replaced with your actual xdomain)

[Myra]

Next time you encounter the "white screen of death" you might want to try examining your PHP error logs.

You can find these through your CNC by clicking on the "Troubleshooting" link.

Or, you can find them directly (by FTP or command line) at
/big/xdom/xexample/logs_cgi/php_error

(where xexample is replaced with your actual domain name)

Oh, good point. Thank you Sheila. And I didn't realize the php logs were accessable via the Troubleshooting link. Very convenient.

Ok, so just out of curiosity I'm now checking the php log...great googley moogely it gives the exact problem:

"[13-Jun-2006 03:46:24] PHP Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /big/dom/xconsignedesign/www/blog/wp-content/plugins/codexsearch.php:2) in /big/dom/xconsignedesign/www/blog/wp-rss2.php on line 8
&
[13-Jun-2006 19:40:11] PHP Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /big/dom/xconsignedesign/www/blog/wp-content/plugins/codexsearch.php:2) in /big/dom/xconsignedesign/www/blog/wp-includes/pluggable-functions.php on line 325 "

Well...that sure confirms it. Both the problem and the fact that you give good advice.

Thanks again.

Myra