Another GD Library Fix for Image Thumbnails

I had the same image upload problem that is documented in other threads and found a different fix. This may help if you are hosting on a dedicated server or
VPS using Cpanel. Here’s some detail:

Problem

• Images uploaded but no thumbnails were created
• Changing the max image size in the WP upload routine did not help
• The GD library package was installed on the server (verified through ‘yum list gd-devel’)
• Uncommenting the ‘extension=php_gd2.dll’ line in php.ini and restarting apache didn’t help
• Running a .php file with phpinfo() embedded listed all the extensions and GD Library was not included

Solution

• At this point it was clear to me that while the package was on the server, php did not know anything about it.
• On-line documentation pointed to rebuilding php using the ‘–with-gd’ option. However, I’ve never maintained php builds manually on this server (updates are automated) and I did not want to start now.
• Eventually I used WHM (the server management component of cpanel) and chose the ‘Apache Update’ selection. It was not clear but this function builds both Apache and PHP. Before building there is a check box to include the gd library in the build.
• The build process showed the the gd library was included and I verified with phpinfo() after the build. And the most important verification was that thumbnails were created when I uploaded images.