MySQL Error Attaching a Particular File

[Wally Hartshorn]

One of our users has been attempting to attach a PowerPoint file to a message. (I have enabled "ppt" as a valid file extension for attachments.) When he does so, the browser is filled with random characters and the following e-mail is sent to me:

Database error in vBulletin: Invalid SQL: INSERT INTO attachment (attachmentid,userid,dateline,filename,filedata,visible) VALUES (NULL,1,990565152,'aces des plains presentation2.ppt','ÐÏࡱá\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\.....

I've tried renaming the files to remove the spaces in the filename. I've also tried changing the file extension to ".doc", but I get the same result.

The file is 1.50MB in size. I have set an upload limit of 2MB. (Specifically, 2000000.)

I attempted to attach a PowerPoint file that was just over 2MB and got the expected "this file is too big" error message. I attempted to attach a PowerPoint file that was 700KB and it accepted it without problems. Both files has spaces in the filenames.

Our environment
vBulletin version: 2.0.0
URL: forums.intranet.epa.state.il.us (behind a firewall)
PHP version: 4.0.4pl1
MySQL version: 3.23.32
Apache/webserver version: 1.3.19
Server operating system: Solaris 2.7

Any ideas?

[Mike Sullivan]

We need the end of the error message to do any troubleshooting.

[Wally Hartshorn]

Sorry, I didn't realize there was any more to the e-mail following the 1.5MB of binary from the PPT file itself. (Our e-mail program is braindead and truncates things.)

I eventually managed to read the end of the error message, which says:

mysql error: MySQL server has gone away
mysql error number: 2006
Date: Tuesday 22nd of May 2001 03:59:12 PM
Script: /forums/newthread.php
Referer: http://forums.intranet.epa.state.il....ead&forumid=12

Looking in /usr/local/mysql/data/spider.err, I saw this:

010522 16:03:02 Aborted connection 2577 to db: 'vbforums' user: 'root' host: 'spider.admop.epa.state.il.us' (Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet')

Is that related to this, or just a coincidence? Does it have anything to do with the size of the file?

Thanks!

[Chris Schreiber]

There's a MySQL server parameter called 'max_allowed_packet', which is probably set to 1MB... this is limiting the size of uploaded files. You need to increase this to 2MB to be able to attach a file of that size.