How to Use PHPMyAdmin to Disable all WordPress Plug-ins

A wordpress plugin was locking in out of the admin log-in.  FTPing in and renaming the offending plugin didn’t do the trick – it just broke the whole site. So I knew I needed to deactivate all plug-ins so I could get back in.

Thanks to Jeff Star’s post here, it was easy-cheesy and I was able to zip into PHPmyAdmin to quickly disable all plugins in a WordPress install.  Here’s part of his post:

In the blink of an eye..

Before beginning, make a backup copy of your database. Then, login to your database using phpMyAdmin (or whatever), and navigate to the “active_plugins” column of the “wp_options” table using the following SQL query (edit the default WordPress table prefix “wp_” if needed):

SELECT * FROM wp_options WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';Once the active_plugins column appears, click to edit it. You will see something similar to the following, depending on the number and type of plugins you have installed:

a:31:{i:0;s:13:"AddMySite.php";i:1;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";i:2;s:23:"all_in_one_seo_pack.php";i:3;s:16:"authenticate.php";i:4;s:28:"breadcrumb-navigation-xt.php";i:5;s:18:"codeautoescape.php";i:6;s:37:"contact-coldform/contact_coldform.php";i:7;s:32:"custom-query-string-reloaded.php";i:8;s:30:"customizable-post-listings.php";i:9;s:33:"dd-sitemap-gen/dd-sitemap-gen.php";i:10;s:20:"download-counter.php";i:11;s:13:"feedcount.php";i:12;s:13:"full_feed.php";i:13;s:15:"get-weather.php";i:14;s:36:"google-sitemap-generator/sitemap.php";i:15;s:13:"gravatars.php";i:16;s:19:"kill-admin-nags.php";i:17;s:18:"landingsites13.php";i:18;s:30:"nofollow-free/nofollowfree.php";i:19;s:17:"ol_feedburner.php";i:20;s:16:"plugins-used.php";i:21;s:22:"popularity-contest.php";i:22;s:39:"search-everything/search_everything.php";i:23;s:27:"simple-tags/simple-tags.php";i:24;s:26:"simple_recent_comments.php";i:25;s:18:"simple_twitter.php";i:26;s:25:"subscribe-to-comments.php";i:27;s:24:"the-excerpt-reloaded.php";i:28;s:18:"theme-switcher.php";i:29;s:9:"top10.php";i:30;s:16:"wp-db-backup.php";}That entire array of code represents every active plugin on your site. Thus, to quickly disable all plugins without using the WP Admin area, highlight the entire block of code, cut it out, and paste it into a safe, offline text file. After removing the code, click the button to save your changes and that’s it. All WordPress plugins are now deactivated (yet still installed, and with all plugin options intact). This obviously is a huge time-saver that really comes in handy during those mission-critical, time-sensitive situations where every second counts. Once you are ready to re-activate your entire set of plugins, simply cut/copy & paste the preserved code back into the “active_plugins” field. Click save and done. Again, don’t forget to backup your database before editing it 😉

There is more info at his post and I suggest going over and checking it out. He also has quick ways to nuke and enable plugins.

 

How To Install AMD Catalyst Legacy Drivers in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal | Ubuntu Geek

I upgraded (grrr) to Ubuntu 12.10 and lost 3d video support. Looks like the ATI Mobility radeon HD 4250 driver is no longer support by AMD/ATI. The laptop is only 3 years old. So that really frustrates me.

Anyway, looks like I had to revert to the legacy drivers just to get the thing half way operational.  This has killed Minecraft for my son on this laptop.  #bummer.

Latest proprietary AMD Catalyst driver version 12.9 cannot be used with Ubuntu 12.10 If you have a AMD Radeon HD 2xxx-4xxx series card.

Drivers for these cards are now available in a separate branch called legacy series. Unfortunately these legacy drivers (version 12.6) have not been updated to work with Ubuntu 12.10. Ubuntu 12.10 comes with xorg 1.13 while these drivers have support for older xorg 1.12.So if you want to install these drivers in Ubuntu 12.10, you have to downgrade to xorg 1.12.

To install these packages open the terminal and run the following commands

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:makson96/fglrx
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install fglrx-legacy

Remove these packages using the following commands

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:makson96/fglrx

Thanks Ubuntu Geek.

Speaker Invitation/Request Scam

This email is a scam a friend got recently. The trick is to get you to eventually pay a “work visa” to get you to the country. Don’t fall for this or even bother replying.

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Xavier [mailto:stjohnanglicanchurch@imail.com]
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2012 9:53 AM
To: [removed]
Cc: [removed]
Subject: INVITATION REQUEST

St John Anglican Church,
Address: 39 Eccleston Square,
London, SW1V 1BX,
E-mail: Stjohnanglicanchurch@imail.com
E-mail: Helpdesk@Achurchnearyou.com
Website: http://www.achurchnearyou.com/
Telephone: + 44 704 205 6151
Telephone: + 44 795 276 3257

Dear [removed],

My Name is Rev Don Xavier from the St John Anglican Church we are writing to Invite you to be our guest speaker at the up Coming St John Anglican Church 2013 Anniversary which is taking place here In UK England, We are writing to invite and confirm your booking to be our Guest Speaker at up Coming St John Anglican Church 2013 Anniversary. Other Ministers Of God are coming from Different part of the World.

Expected audience: 500 people Duration of speech per speaker: 1 Hour
Host: Rev Don Xavier
Topic: EDUCATION BUSINESS HEALTH INSPIRATION
DATE: 20th Match 2013

The purpose of these conference is to re-brand the heart,mind,body and soul of Christians who have gone astray and are diverting their whole attention into mundane affairs and ensuring that it is possible for Christians, whether new or of long standing, to deepen their spiritual lives and gain eternal life. Also bringing a heart of deep compassion and a strong commitment to the fullness of life that is found only in the redemptive love of Christ, we are Sorry about our late invitation it is due to the fact that our Speaker had back out because of her sudden illness.

We came across your profile on http://[removed] we also listen to you on Radio and we say it’s up to standard and we will be very glad to have such an outstanding personality in our mist for these overwhelming gathering. With your Multi talented speech more lives will come close to GOD. Arrangement to welcome you here will be discussed as soon as you honor our invitation. If you have any more publicity material, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are taking care of your traveling and Hotel Accommodation expenses including your Speaker fees you are bless as you honor this invitation it is a pleasure writing you.

Hope to hear from you Asap.

In His Services,
Rev Don Xavier
St John Anglican Church.

Making Amazon Prime work with Ubuntu

Amazon Prime won’t play most of it’s videos on Ubuntu. It was giving me an error about Upgrading the Player.  Most of this stems from the slow death of Adobe flash, I susspect.  But the reasons why are less important to me than the fix.. and thanks to the link below, it’s a very very easy fix.

Just enter the following in Terminal and enter your password and you should be good to go (at least I was):

sudo apt-get install libhal1 hal

Read the full post which has more things to try, if this didn’t fix it for you.  BTW: If this did work for you, please let me know in the comments below.