Note on Virtualmin installs and WordPress

I cannot say that my Virtualmin install was perfect anymore, I’ve had to manually install a missing feature.

I noticed when I was working in WordPress on the theme that WordPress was having issues with uploading images for me to use.  Obviously, that is a permissions error, I must have done something odd when uploading the files during install.  So I do a chmod on the directory.  It’s still not working.  Maybe the default permissions are not working on the Ubuntu install, let’s try something a bit more lenient.  It’s still not working.  Maybe it’s a cached files issue, clear the cache.  Still not working.  So it’s off to Google for the correct answer.

Google says that maybe it’s the image, it needs to be in RGB mode and not too big, so I trim it down some.  I could have just edited it down to the correct size and FTP’d the file to the server, but that is not the point, I want my user-friendly feature that I can use once a year to rotate the banner.  It still doesn’t work.  Back to Google, maybe it’s the file name.  Rename the file to image.jpg, it can’t be more simple than that.  And still no-go.  That about wraps up the simple Google support at this point, now I am down to digging through forum threads.  Finally I come across a post that does not recommend another image or just using FTP, it recommends testing that you have php5-gd installed.

apt-get install php5-gd

Wait for it to load… It works.  Another perfect example of make sure you’ve installed the feature you are trying to use.

Now for a simple checklist for those having the same issue:

  1. Check your permissions, mine were 644 default.  Wordpress recommended trying 755 for the wp-content directory
  2. Check your cache (If you have one).  Clearing a cache can solve all sorts of interesting issues.
  3. Check the image.  The color mode should be sRGB and you should avoid the more interesting choices of filename.  Wordpress has this troubleshooting page available for more information.
  4. Check that you have installed php5-gd.  Without it, one cannot play with images.

Thanks to h3x.no for their solution.

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