Panel Error:
The mbstring extension must be installed
The hosting provider insists that mbstring is active and installed. This is the latest message they have sent me:
“The errors you are seeing are related to php_mbstring.dll which is a component of a windows server and will not work on our Linux servers .mbstring is definitely enabled on the server, the issue appears to lie in your script itself”
They have told me that they are running Apache 2.2 with Mod_Rewrite and should be able to satisfy the requirements to run Kirby.
The rest of the website functions perfectly. Can this really be the case?
The way Kirby detects that the extension is missing is by checking if there is a function named mb_split, which is one of the functions mbstring provides.
Could you please create a PHP file with the following content and check if there is mbstring somewhere on the resulting page:
<?php
phpinfo();
If there isn’t, please send them the link to the phpinfo page and tell them that the extension is not enabled.
Hm, then I don’t know why it isn’t available in your Kirby installation. Could you please reply to the support what I wrote above (how Kirby detects it) and that it doesn’t relate at all to the Windows DLL?
I believe that was the case. They didn’t tell me exactly what they did to fix the problem, but after I mentioned mb_split and asked whether they could activate or fix it, they sent an email back saying the problem had been fixed, and the panel works perfectly.
Hi. I am having this problem too. My host says mbstring is enabled but wasn’t too sure about what role mb_split had to play. Via cpanel I have some options to change my php.ini file. There are 8 entries for mbstring but none mention mb_split. So currently can’t access /panel/. Any ideas?
If it is not disabled in the php.ini file, you need to ask your hoster to enable mb_split (or if they can’t or don’t want to do it, change your hosting provider).
If I were you, I’d downgrade to PHP 7.4 and update to the latest Kirby 2 version (if you are running an older version). And in the long run, update to Kirby 3 if possible. If you can’t handle it yourself, then it shouldn’t be difficult to find someone who can do it for you. If the site is not very complex, it shouldn’t be such a big effort.