migrating from SC 7.3.3 to SBS 7.4.2

[Roland Online]

Hi all

I'm hankering for an upgrade, but want to avoid any headaches or problems.

Currently running SC 7.3.3 for about 6 months, which has run quite stable with around 6,700 mainly FLAC tracks from original CD sources:

Don't have any extra plugins installed.
OS is Windows XP Pro SP3.
PC hardware is a single Athlon XP1600 with 2GB RAM and around 1.4TB of RAID 5.


I've just got a single Squeezebox 3 but also use SqueezePlay 7.5 to stream music to the office.

The only problem I have with 7.3.3 is the services don't start up properly on boot, and I've resorted to a scheduled script to run them. That problem might go away with a fresh installation.

Overall, I'm very happy with what I have; the SB3 is one of the best gadget purchases I've made in the past couple of years.

So I'm looking to upgrade to 7.4.2 and would like to know (from those who've learned from experience):

Is 7.4.2 a safe, stable release, or should I use 7.4.1?
Should I first completely uninstall 7.3.3 before upgrading?
How do I realiably backup/transfer my server and player settings?
Is there an upgrade guide somewhere (other than the outdated wiki material) ?
Any other tips, comments, gotchas, recommendations, wishes of good luck, floral tributes, monetary donations...


I have lurked these forums since before the Logitech days, and whilst everyone's experience and success with SC seems quite variable, I thought I'd just ask directly.

Many thanks
Roland

[Gadgety1]

Just don't.

I thought the people having trouble on here were newbies mostly, but "upgrading" to v 7.4.1 r7915 complete screwed up my song collection and I'm getting sick and tired of it all.

It is NOT worth it for just a different looking interface and some renaming of services you already have on your controller to "apps." Logitech must really think we're suckers for iPhone like bullshit.

I've got two controllers and two receivers and was planning to get another three receivers for my home. I was evangelizing about the Duet to my friends how great value this product was, but I've stopped after the update.

Answers I've got as to what went wrong basically tell me it's a Microsoft issue, or I made a mistake when I ripped my song collection (6000+songs) and that my setup should never have worked properly in the first place.

Well, thing is it WAS working before the update, and it's not working now.

So my advice is, if it's working, don't mess with it. You can check around here and you will find A LOT of upset people who did "upgrade."

Yeah, I forgot, Logitech support totally abandonded me once the fixes they suggested didn't work. Way to go!!

OK, I realized I may not have answered your questions, so here goes:

Is 7.4.2 a safe, stable release, or should I use 7.4.1? Don't know. Is 7.4.1 stable? Perhaps it is, but it's not working well.
Should I first completely uninstall 7.3.3 before upgrading? Yes
How do I realiably backup/transfer my server and player settings? Can't help you there. Don't know that you can "transfer" them, but back up sounds wise instead of taking the plunge as I did.
Is there an upgrade guide somewhere (other than the outdated wiki material) ? Don't know.

[Roland Online]

Hi Gadgety1

Thanks for your comments.

Sounds like it might be useful for a poll of versions people are using, that might give an overall picture of things too.

Cheers

Roland

[Roland Online]

bump.

anyone??

[JayLaFunk]

bump.

anyone??

Got to agree with what Gadgety1 says, don't chew yourself just for a diff interface, I have just spent a full weekend of my life that I will never get back trying to accomplish what you would like to do and guess what I am doing now - rescanning my music library after going back to SC 7.3.3 & SSODS 3.18

Jay

[Roland Online]

Thanks for your response JayLaFunk, but as I commented here to a similar question by someone, it would be useful to hear good reasons *why* not to upgrade, rather than "just don't" or "it didn't work for me".

Like, why not? What advice did you ask for or get in solving your specific problem? Did anyone/everyone else also experience similar problems?

I would have expected more useful information sharing here, esp. about a release as significant as 7.4.x from the days of 7.3.3.

If a complete reversion back to 7.3.3 was the only way for you, then 7.4.x musta been a major f*ck-up of a release. I can't think that's really likely to be the case, even coming from Logitech :D

Oh, well, at least I'm in no hurry :rolleyes: ...

Cheers

[TheBean]

I have been happily running 7.3.2 for some time and thought it was about time for an upgrade... Anyway you may wish to add my experience to your list.
I first upgraded ClarkConnect to from 4.2 to 5.0, this was all fine. I then tried Squeeze 7.4.1 (a clean 1st time install) - It did not work 'out the of box' like previous released have. It scanned only some of my 10,000 tracks and had some other odd behaviour on Squeezenetwork and web interface. I then read thru all sorts of stories about tags etc and other problems... (should have done my research first) The upshot was a wasted weekend trying to get 7.4.1 to work and finally another re-install of 7.3.4 - This time it just worked 'out of the box' and is 100% reliable.
IMHO, 7.4.1 and probably 7.4.2 is not as good a product as 7.3.x - I am quiite technical and for me it was not worth the hassle.
What I have now is a nice upgraded Linux (ClarkConnect 5.0) and a nice upgraded Squeeze 7.3.4.
I'll think about Squeeze 7.4 or 7.5 upgrade when the general sentiment on the boards changes from despair to support.
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention - Take a backup BEFORE you do anything! Also a nice idea to make a dual boot so you can always get back to a working system
Regards.

[aubuti]

The only problem I have with 7.3.3 is the services don't start up properly on boot, and I've resorted to a scheduled script to run them. That problem might go away with a fresh installation.

Overall, I'm very happy with what I have; the SB3 is one of the best gadget purchases I've made in the past couple of years.

So I'm looking to upgrade to 7.4.2 and would like to know (from those who've learned from experience):

Is 7.4.2 a safe, stable release, or should I use 7.4.1?
Should I first completely uninstall 7.3.3 before upgrading?
How do I realiably backup/transfer my server and player settings?
Is there an upgrade guide somewhere (other than the outdated wiki material) ?
Any other tips, comments, gotchas, recommendations, wishes of good luck, floral tributes, monetary donations...

I've been using 7.4.x for close to a year, most of that time when it was still in beta. I run it under Ubuntu Linux, so I can't help you with your Windows script. But here's my take on your questions.

1. Go to 7.4.2. It's pretty stable, and fixes a lot of the bugs in 7.4.1.

2. Probably yes (definitely yes under Linux, I'm not sure about on Windows)

3. The fact that you have no plugins makes this easier. Use Windows file search facilities to find server.prefs, which contains almost all of your SqueezeCenter and player settings. Stop SC, and then make a copy of this file. If you have defined "Favorites" then look for favorites.opml, which is usually in the directory you've specified for your playlists.

After installing 7.4.x, stop SC/SBS (SBS = Squeezebox Server, the new name for SC), and copy server.prefs and favorites.opml back to the correct directories.

4. Not that I know of for Windows.

5. A lot of the headaches people have had are with the SB Controller interface, but it appears that you don't have an SBC. If so, that's a moot point for you. The other thing is the change of music services like Last.FM, Pandora, Slacker, BBC, to "apps". If you use those you need to go to www.mysqueezebox.com (the new name for www.squeezenetwork.com) and "install" the apps; it doesn't really install anything, it just makes them available to you.

If it turns out that you don't like 7.4.x, you can always roll back to 7.3.x by downloading the older version from downloads.slimdevices.com and installing that. I'm happy with 7.4.x, and good luck.

[Mnyb]

Re Linux slightly ot.

Now the download page says: in that help screen that launches *after* you start the download !?

"Linux, Solaris, & BSD

If you've previously installed SlimServer, SqueezeCenter or Squeezebox Server, you should uninstall it before installing the new version."

So now it is an official recommendation.

I wish this info could be better communicated, who actually downloads a file for install on linux you use rpm,yum,apt ?
So the concerned parties will never see this info ?
By uninstall they should add that you sometimes have to track down some leftover files you self and delete, remove everything settings user data all of it.

This forum is filled with folks upgrading linux installs 7.3 or 7.2 to 7.4 and it's borked (including NAS boxes that usually runs linux, but all NAS owners do not know that they have a linux computer ).
However the ReadyNas owners get directed to wiki with very complete instructions, thats a very good move.

I know by experience since 6.5 that upgrading trough major version in linux don't work. Minor nightly build upgrade just fine . Until you get that nightly upgrade close to release when that crucial change that brakes upgrade is checked in...