Problems updating MinimServer

[Giarc]

I currently have MinimServer 0.8.5.2 update 122 running on a Raspberry Pi (headless), and control it using MinimWatch on my Windows 7 PC.

When I run MinimWatch, it sometimes tells me that a MinimServer update is available. This happened about two months ago so I clicked on the "Install now" button, but something went wrong. After the update, MinimServer failed to start. The MinimWatch tray icon appeared gray and my control point could not find the server.

Using PuTTY I rebooted the Pi, but MinimServer still failed to start. I looked into the MinimServer/Bin directory and found that many of the files there did not look right or were missing, so apparently the update did not install properly. In order to get things working again I had to manually download the setup file, copy it to the server, and install it from PuTTY. Once I did that (and rebooted the Pi), MinimServer started working again.

Before this problem began, updates always went smoothly. If I recall correctly, this has happened to me three times now. It's really a hassle having to manually reinstall the program from a terminal window. Plus, due to another problem, I cannot skip the updates.

What is causing this? I did switch the Pi from an Ethernet connection to Wi-Fi around the time this started, but that shouldn't cause an update problem like this, and everything else works great. Thanks for any help.

[simoncn]

Are you installing and running MinimServer as the "pi" user? If you are installing it as root or installing it using sudo, some files might have incorrect access permissions and this might possibly cause an update to fail to install correctly.

[Giarc]

(12-04-2018 07:22)simoncn Wrote:  Are you installing and running MinimServer as the "pi" user?

Yes, I did install MinimServer as the "pi" user following your instructions. I have had to reinstall several times manually, and logged on via SSH as the "pi" user to do this. I did not use sudo.

When I boot up the Pi, Raspbian auto-logs on as the "pi" user, so MinimServer should be running correctly as well.

The only thing unusual is I did not install directly into the "/home/pi" folder, I installed to "/home/pi/Programs" instead.

[simoncn]

I will try this myself and post back here. Using /home/pi/Programs for the install should be OK.

[simoncn]

I have confirmed that MinimServer autoUpdate is working for me when MinimServer is installed by the 'pi' user in the /home/pi/Programs directory.

Please do the following:

1) Completely remove your current installation by running the minimserver/bin/uninstall command from the /home/pi/Programs directory. When asked whether you want to save the configuration file, answer No.
2) Check that the minimserver folder and all its subfolders have been removed
3) Reinstall MinimServer by unpacking the .tar.gz file into the /home/pi/Programs directory
4) From a Terminal or SSH window, run the command minimserver/bin/startc
5) You should see output like the following:

Code:

pi@raspberrypi:~/Programs $ minimserver/bin/startc
MinimServer 0.8.5.2, Copyright (c) 2012-2017 Simon Nash. All rights reserved.
autoUpdate: installed package 'minimserver-0.8-update-122'
Enter command (? for help):
autoUpdate: relaunching
>MinimServer 0.8.5.2 update 122, Copyright (c) 2012-2018 Simon Nash. All rights reserved.
starting MinimServer[raspberrypi]
Enter command (? for help):
>Enter content directory, or null to continue:
#

If you see this output, autoUpdate has worked correctly. You can now enter the path to your content directory and press Enter to complete the MinimServer installation.

[simoncn]

I have also confirmed that the 'Remind me later' button in the update dialog is working for me. To check this, please do the following:

1) Install MinimServer as described in my previous post
2) In a terminal window, enter the command: minimserver/bin/startc (if not already running)
3) At the '>' prompt, enter the command: prop .autoUpdate=false
4) Accept the license conditions
5) At the '>' prompt, enter the command: exit
6) Enter the command: rm /home/pi/Programs/minimserver/libext/*
7) cd to the /home/pi/Programs directory
8) Enter the command: minimserver/bin/setup
9) Enable MinimServer desktop integration
10) Double-click the MinimServer desktop launch icon

This should produce an update dialog asking if you want to install update 122. Click 'Remind me later' to dismiss the dialog.

[Giarc]

(13-04-2018 10:41)simoncn Wrote:  I have confirmed that MinimServer autoUpdate is working for me when MinimServer is installed by the 'pi' user in the /home/pi/Programs directory.

As I mentioned in my original post, the Raspberry Pi is headless and I'm controlling it with MinimWatch. It sounds like you only tested this using a local Terminal window. If you did not test it using MinimWatch to initiate the update, then I don't think that's a fair test.

If you are pretty sure there are no bugs in the software, and think that something must have happened to my installation, I could try completely uninstalling and reinstalling via SSH, and then see what happens on the next release.

[Giarc]

(13-04-2018 11:05)simoncn Wrote:  I have also confirmed that the 'Remind me later' button in the update dialog is working for me.

Thanks for the reply Simon, but I think this post should have been placed in my other thread titled "Cannot skip update". That's where I explained the problem I've been having with the "Remind me later" button.

Also, please recall that's it's actually MinimWatch that displays the update dialog that cannot be dismissed with the "Remind me later" button. Getting MinimServer to produce the dialog on the Pi itself isn't really the same thing. I suspect that MinimWatch is where the problem lies.

[simoncn]

(15-04-2018 03:29)Giarc Wrote:  As I mentioned in my original post, the Raspberry Pi is headless and I'm controlling it with MinimWatch. It sounds like you only tested this using a local Terminal window. If you did not test it using MinimWatch to initiate the update, then I don't think that's a fair test.

If you are pretty sure there are no bugs in the software, and think that something must have happened to my installation, I could try completely uninstalling and reinstalling via SSH, and then see what happens on the next release.

I posted the diagnostic steps in this post to provide a way of verifying whether or not there is a problem with your installation that is causing .autoUpdate not to work. MinimWatch is not involved in the .autoUpdate mechanism, as I explained in the other thread. You can perform these diagnostic steps without waiting for a new release to become available. The results of this test are important to help me with determining the cause of the other problem and I would appreciate it if you could try these steps and let me know what happens. It is fine to perform these steps from an SSH window instead of a Terminal window. Many thanks.

One additional note to the diagnostic steps: If you have customized your Minimserver configuration, please make a note of your configuration settings before performing these steps so that you can reapply these settings afterwards.

[simoncn]

(15-04-2018 03:34)Giarc Wrote:  Thanks for the reply Simon, but I think this post should have been placed in my other thread titled "Cannot skip update". That's where I explained the problem I've been having with the "Remind me later" button.

Also, please recall that's it's actually MinimWatch that displays the update dialog that cannot be dismissed with the "Remind me later" button. Getting MinimServer to produce the dialog on the Pi itself isn't really the same thing. I suspect that MinimWatch is where the problem lies.

Point taken about keeping the threads separate and also about the need to test with MinimWatch. I posted here because I thought it likely that the problems are related and if this is the case it would be simpler to have all the discussion in one thread. As we haven't yet definitely established that the problems are related, I am happy to keep the discussions separate and I have posted instructions to the other thread (see this post) for you to check whether you still get the problem when using MinimWatch with a clean reinstallation of a headless instance of MinimServer.