Kirby Panel Not working

Hi, my Kirby panel is no longer working. This has happened out of the blue. The site has been up and running for years (since 2016 I think). Up until now the panel was working without issue. The site was updated recently, but no config files were changed. In chrome dev tools when I login I get these errors:

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500 ()

VM10:161 crbug/1173575, non-JS module files deprecated.
(anonymous) @ VM10:161

On Safari I get a blank page.
Any help with solving would be greatly appreciated!

What’s your current Kirby version? If it is from 2016, I guess it is some Kirby 2.x version.
Which PHP version currently runs on the server?

If it really happened without being triggered by any changes you made, then it’s very likely that your hosting service updated PHP. You should usually be informed before such changes happen, but either you missed it or the hosting service is not very customer friendly.

Yes, the Kirby version is 2.3. The site is for a new client. I came on earlier this year for some basic web dev stuff.

The site is hosted by DreamHost. As I am new to this project and not completely in control of its entire development I am still getting up to speed with parts. It seems like the client did get a message a while back about DreamHost no longer supporting Php 7.4. This is on their site:

DreamHost pre-installs the following versions of PHP on its servers:

  • PHP 8.2.0 — Available in the panel
  • PHP 8.1.0 — Available in the panel
  • PHP 8.0.2 — Available in the panel
  • PHP 7.4.15 — No longer available in the panel. Officially End-Of-Lifed by php.net.

Is it possible that this is the issue? The site itself works fine, but the client just can no longer login to the panel.

If you believe the compatibility is the issue, do you think upgrading to Kirby 3 would solve it?

And lastly if you believe the upgrade is the solution, can you quickly outline the best methodology for upgrading?
I am looking at this link: How to upgrade from Kirby 2 | Kirby CMS
but I am wondering if I should download a starter kit to get a sense of file structure. I am still relatively new to Kirby so any help is great. Thanks!

Yes, definitely, this very old Kirby version doesn’t support PHP 8+, and is not even the latest Kirby 2 version.

And if this is a new website, building it with Kirby 2 is a no-no, if you ask me. Kirby 2 is no longer supported by us in any way. We are now heading towards Kirby 4, which will be released in autumn.

So, yes, upgrading to Kirby 3 is vital for security.

It’s probably no longer up to date, because a lot has happened since the we published Kirby 3 four years ago.

That sounds like a great idea. The Starterkit has a lot of inline documentation that should help you find further details in the docs.

@texnixe Thanks so much. This is all very helpful information! Hopefully the upgrade should solve this issue.