lurch999

Ah, thanks for the explanation, that solves the mystery!

I came across this tip, which worked! I have no idea why, but once I did the update I commented it out:

Add below code in wp-config.php

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

Per:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17922644/wordpress-asking-for-my-ftp-credentials-to-install-plugins

Interestingly enough, I have another WP installation on exactly the same OS, versions of Apache, PHP, etc., yet it did the 4.4 update without issues. So this points the finger to some security or other mechanism I’ve overlooked, and doesn’t appear to be an issue with WP per se.

Thanks for your help sleuthing this James!

Every file and directory within is owned by apache. I’m most puzzled why plug-ins can be installed but not the WP core update

Yup, still able to upload files, etc. /tmp is empty as well.

I do, I have Word Fence. I’ll try disabling that temporarily and see.

Actually it was a tad more verbose:

WARNING: wp-admin/includes/file.php:939 – fopen(/var/www/html/temp-write-test-1449711934): failed to open stream: Permission denied
require_once(‘wp-admin/admin.php’), do_action(‘dashboard_page_background-updates-debugger’), call_user_func_array, Background_Update_Tester_Plugin->content_wrapper, Background_Update_Tester_Plugin->content, Background_Update_Tester_Plugin->tests, call_user_func, Background_Update_Tester_Plugin->test_all_files_writable, Automatic_Upgrader_Skin->request_filesystem_credentials, WP_Upgrader_Skin->request_filesystem_credentials, request_filesystem_credentials, get_filesystem_method, fopen

Yup, the same error after all of these were uninstalled.

No joy, I uninstalled Suhosin, mod_security and mod_evasive, restarted Apache, and had the same problem. A bonafide mystery. I guess I’ll have to brave the manual install…

I do have SUHOSIN installed as well as mod_security and another Apache security module. I’ll see about disabling those at least temporarily. Still odd that plugins are okay but not a WP update, no?

Hi James, so I installed the Debug Bar and then saw this error when trying to get the update:

WARNING: wp-admin/includes/file.php:939 – fopen(/var/www/html/temp-write-test-1449710183): failed to open stream: Permission denied
do_core_upgrade, request_filesystem_credentials, get_filesystem_method, fopen

Ideas? Thanks for your help so far, much appreciated!

No, nothing in the Apache logs. Is there a way to make WP more verbose in terms of logging?

Hi James,

PHP 5.6.16
Apache 2.2.15

Apache module.

The following PHP snippet shows that PHP runs as apache (in case this helps):

<?php

if(function_exists('posix_geteuid')){
    // use posix to get current uid and gid
    $uid   = posix_geteuid();
    $usr   = posix_getpwuid($uid);
    $user  = $usr['name'];
    $gid   = posix_getegid();
    $grp   = posix_getgrgid($gid);
    $group = $grp['name'];
}else{
    // try to create a file and read it's ids
    $tmp = tempnam ('/tmp', 'check');
    $uid = fileowner($tmp);
    $gid = filegroup($tmp);

    // try to run ls on it
    $out = <code>ls -l $tmp</code>;
    $lst = explode(' ',$out);
    $user  = $lst[2];
    $group = $lst[3];
    unlink($tmp);
}

echo "Your PHP process seems to run with the UID $uid ($user) and the GID $gid ($group)\n"; ?>