B3 software updates; clarification & help please

[drdr6]

Reading through the release notes has left me confused.
You refer to software releases as:

"The upgrade is available both as a firmware upgrade and a new install image"
"The upgrade is available only as a web update"

A "new install image" I understand. This is documented in the user manual. It looks to be highly undersireable since it took me hours of configuration to get the box working at all owing to extreme difficulty in finding any ADSL modem that works with the B3 at all. I've also installed a considerable number of packages and have no idea how to find out exactly what's been applied.

A "web update" I understand to be the method using the web-ui per the manual p136

A "firmware update" doesn't seem to be documented

My B3 is running "software version 2.1.99" for which there appears to ne no release note, so I'm not sure where it fits in release order. Before 2.2.0 ?

I tried the web update method, but it failed at 20% and overwrote my iptables which meant that the B3 could no longer access the internet, as my connection is ppp and the ppp routing happens in iptables.

Did my software upate fail because it lost internet connection, or because it isn't meant to work anyway ?

Thanks

[nobody]

It seems you are posting this comment mostly to blow of steam because your update failed. You say you heavily modded the B3 software to work with your modem, which means you know your way around GNU systems. This also means you already know the answer to the questions you pose, so it is useless answering them.

What I don't understand is why you chose to do the update via the web gui instead of the command shell which you seem to be so familiar with..

[johannes]

Hi, sorry that you are not satisfied. Try to answer your questions one by one:

Reading through the release notes has left me confused.
You refer to software releases as:
..
A "firmware update" doesn't seem to be documented

Where do you find this statement? It's just a mistake, should read web update I guess, but please point me to it so I can correct it.

My B3 is running "software version 2.1.99" for which there appears to ne no release note, so I'm not sure where it fits in release order. Before 2.2.0 ?

Correct. This was a long time ago and I wasn't responsible for updates back then so I don't know why it isn't documented, but most likely a simple mistake in versioning.

I tried the web update method, but it failed at 20% and overwrote my iptables which meant that the B3 could no longer access the internet, as my connection is ppp and the ppp routing happens in iptables.

Can't say why it failed without more infromation, but as your system is quote modded (as nobody points out above) this may have something to do with it. Better to make it on the command line so you know what's happening and can answer whatever questions the updater may throw at you about your modded stuff.

[drdr6]

Johannes,
Thanks for your reply. The terminology I'm referring to comes mainly from the release notes elsewhere on this forum, e.g.:

Release notes for Excito B3 software version 2.2.0
This is a new major upgrade. The upgrade is available both as a firmware upgrade and a new install image.

Release notes for Excito B3 software version 2.3
This is a new major upgrade. The upgrade is available both as a software upgrade and as an install image

Release notes for Excito Bubba 2&3 software version 2.4.1.1
This is a new minor upgrade. The upgrade is available both as an install image and as a web update, and for both Bubba 2 and Excito B3.

- so we have "firmware upgrade", "new install image", "software upgrade" and "web update"
Just to mix it up nicely, the user manual I loaded at the time of purchase (1.32) refers to "firmware upgrade" on p35 and then describes what I'd call a web update.

You may think I'm trying to be pedantic, but I'm just trying to find out what the update process options really are.

Clearly I could wipe the disk and start again with an install image, but that's at least a day's work. I'm anxious to avoid this because:

1) It took me so long to figure out all the changes I had to make to get the modem to work (including doing things that I know get backed out by the bubba install process) that I'm not confident I got all the steps written down to be able to repeat it. Ideally I wouldn't have gone down this route, but my ISP only offers DSL and there seems precious little by way of clear advice as to what modems work and are fully supported. Obviously if there's no other way, I'll have to do that again.

2) I don't see any easy way to find out what packages are installed on the box now. I suppose some genius like "nobody" is going to tell me I should have written that down as well, but life is too short.

Ideally the "upgrade" route is the one I'd like to follow, since, although I can use a command line, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. As far as I can see it seems like if you're not using WLAN0 as the outside port, you're on your own.

As for blowing off steam, yes, I was doing that because the update failed with absolutely no clue as to what was going on (ie. documentation, clue as to where to start etc.) and no useful messages in any log I could find, and no documentation as to how to increase debugging to trace what might be going wrong.

Any while it would probably be "fun" to spend the next week reverse engeering what the update process is trying to do and binary chopping it to the point where I can figure it out (a) I don't have that amount of time to spend as I do have a day job and (b) my B3 box is randomly crashing (as in locking up) with no log messages any time my son chooses to connect to it with his laptop via WiFi, so I'm guessing I need to at least get somewhere near up-to-date wireless drivers (and rest of system) before anyone can help, if help is still needed after that process.

[RandomUsername]

2) I don't see any easy way to find out what packages are installed on the box now. I suppose some genius like "nobody" is going to tell me I should have written that down as well, but life is too short.

Code: Select all

dpkg --get-selections

Redirect it into a text file and you can then do

Code: Select all

dpkg --set-selections

To install the same packages.

[johannes]

Ok, yes, we actually changed terminology from firmware update to web update recently, this is why you can read this in old posts and old manuals. Should be sorted in all recent documentation, sorry for the confusion.

Regarding the update it really is not very difficult, and I don't think you need to worry about destroying your system. Also, updating from your old version would give a lot of news and a stable system. If you want to go ahead, do:

* make a backup copy of your /etc just in case
* make sure your /etc/apt/sources.list point to our sources (the elvin repo) and nowhere else
* do apt-get update
* do apt-get dist-upgrade

You will be asked some of questions, especially some asking if to replace some of your modded configs. This may be the main issue, if overwriting you risk loosing your changes, and if not overwriting you may be stuck with old obsolete config files. But I think the risk is minimal, and as long as you read carefully while updating you should be fine. Should you run into problems we can help.

[nobody]

Why is a reinstall required in this case? We've seen multiple cases with failed web updates that were fixed with a shelll update. In this case the connection is lost which is easily resolved with rescue stick. I'd that's a lot less work than a full reinstall, especially considering the effort that has been put in modding the unit.

And in case you wondered why my first reaction was the way it was:

... or because it isn't meant to work anyway ?

Thats's why

[drdr6]

Johannes, nobody, RandomUsername,

Thank you all for your suggestions. You've given me plenty to go on and I shall get stuck in. I haven't modded too many system configs outside of the network and have a fair idea of what I changed there. So with the /etc backup (actually I'll take a full backup as well, apart from the time, one never regrets having done those) I should be good to go.

Thanks all

[drdr6]

I applied the update last night, and was impressed overall with the smoothness.

I had to pull out one package, libsql-abstract-perl which the updated claimed it would break if it updated, even though the installed version was the same as the one it was proposing. Doing this consequentially pulled out squeezebox support (which I'm not using, so wasn't an issue).

I rebooted the box and voila - everything including network support worked. Wireless support seems to be vastly improved with ipad/pod devices finding the network really quickly and performance seeming much more snappy.

Just to be sure I could use the web interface in the future, I tried the web update, not expecting it to do anything as the web UI was showing software version 2.5.0.2. It claimed to have downloaded 6 files but found nothing to update.

It then flashed a warning about finding something illegal in my iptables and clobbered iptables with set of defaults which put the box off the net. My iptables setup was hard won, so I have a backup, but this was an unwelcome surprise at the end of the update loop that was otherwise near flawless. Would you expect this ? Can you cast any light on what is "illegal" ? Iptables attached

Thanks

iptables-save-dr1.zip

Iptables file

(619 Bytes) Downloaded 560 times

[nobody]

The official answer is yes: the gui is safe to use. Fact is however that you are familiar with using shell access and no matter how great a web gui can be built, it is still a stateless protocol. Therefore, by definition, updating via the shell is more secure, and I personally would recommend anyone who is comfortable with the shell to use that route. At the very least you have much more control and input in case things do happen to go wrong.