Decided to set up a new WordPress installation for my attempt at a PhotoBlog and managed to run into a few issues; some confusing… others a little easier to resolve. Here’s a quick round up, for the benefit of others who may run into these “problems” and would like to lose as little hair as possible.
HTTP 500 ERROR
So, you’ve unzipped the WordPress install, and like the installation instructions say, created the wp-config.php file. You fire up yourdomain.com in your browser… and KAPOW… HTTP 500 ERROR greets you. Solution? Check the permissions and ownership on your installation directory. Your webserver (apache or whatever) needs to be able to write to wp-config.php and various other files. In my case; apache:apache does the trick.
I HATE TYPING IN MY FTP PASSWORD EVERY TIME I INSTALL A NEW THEME/PLUGIN WTF???
Don’t like doing this? Again, check ownership and permissions… chmod 755 wp-content will likely solve this.
WORDPRESS CREATES 3 THUMBNAILS OF MY IMAGE… AND KEEPS MY 21MP IMAGE TO BOOT… WTF???
Install Imsanity – for a somewhat saner approach to imaging with WordPress.
HTTP ERROR ON UPLOADING BIG IMAGES – REALLY USEFUL ERROR MESSAGE LOL
Check your php.ini and make sure it allows enough time for the scripts you use (for resizing, etc.) to run. On my BLAZING fast 7 year old server hardware, the default of 30 seconds isn’t enough to process large JPEG images. Increasing options like those fixes this issue.