Fatal error after upgrading to WordPress 2.5

After upgrading DavidChinPhoto.com to WordPress 2.5, everything seemed fine initially.

But when I tried going into the Dashboard / Site Admin, I got this error message:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function register_sidebar() in /home/ ... /wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php on line 12


Searching Google for "Call to undefined function register_sidebar()" turned up this discussion.

The solution that was proposed included disabling the Disable WordPress Widgets plugin, and that was directly applicable to my site as it was running on a 3-column variation of the K2 theme.

I took the following steps.

Step 1 – Edit an existing post

I was wondering how to get to the plugins page since I wasn't able to call up Site Admin. By a stroke of luck, I thought of trying to edit an existing post, and it worked. I was then able to click on the Plugins link.

Step 2 – Deactivate the Disable WordPress Widgets plugin

This a pretty straightforward step. Just scroll down the page until you see the Disable WordPress Widgets plugin, then click on the Deactivate link.

Step 3 – Navigate to the Dashboard

Test that everything went well by clicking on the Dashboard link at the upper left-hand corner. You should be able to see the brand-new WordPress 2.5 Dashboard now.

After this experience, I think I'll just stick to the Default WordPress Theme and modify the design and functionality to suit my needs.