I am running 5.0-rc8a, not had any problems, is there any pressing need for me to upgrade to the latest stable version I have near 5tb of data and don't want to loose it all.

 

the upgrade steps seem straight forward...what could go wrong.

 

All previous 5.0-beta and 5.0-rc versions including 5.0-rc8a

Prepare the flash: either shutdown your server and plug the flash into your PC or Stop the array and perform the following actions referencing the flash share on your network:

Copy the files bzimage and bzroot from the zip file to the root of your flash device, overwriting the same-named files already there.

Reboot your server. Once boot-up has completed, you should see "Stopped. Configuration valid." array status with all disks assigned correctly.

Click on each disk link on the Main page and examine the Partition format field. If you see "MBR: error", or "MBR: unknown" for any disk, do not Start the array; instead post your finding in the Forum announcement thread for this release. If everything looks ok, click Start to bring the array on-line.

Go to Utils/New Permissions and execute that utility to change file ownership and permission settings. This is necessary for proper operation of the 5.0 security model.

In addition to bzroot and bzimage, you should copy the Readme file and the new version of Memtest.

 

Other than that, what you've outlined should work fine.

 

As for a "pressing need" to update -- clearly if everything's working perfectly now, there's no "pressing need" => but there HAVE been many bug fixes and improvements between that old RC and the newest stable version, so I'd definitely do the upgrade.    If you want to "hedge your bets" (always a good idea), copy the entire flash drive to a folder on your PC BEFORE you make any changes [You can do this across the network -- no need to physically access the flash].

 

I am on the same release and am staying on it until the 64 bit version & add-ons are stable.  The reason in my case is that I have other plugins and Simple features 1.05 running plus other minor system tweaks.  There are too many changes I would have to make just to get to the current stable 5.x release for no feature improvements.    My system is nice and stable now an I only want to suffer the upgrade pain once.

I realize this is an old thread but it relates exactly to my issue.

I have been running 5.0-rc8 for over two years without problem. However, I am unable to upgrade. I gave up trying a while back but decided today to try again and encountered exactly the same problem. I replaced my existing bzimage and bzroot files with 5.6 and sent the reboot command. No reboot. Tried a hard reboot and even cycled the power. Telnet shows a connection to be opened and then closed by remote host. I pull the flash drive and replace the "new" bzimage and bzroot files with my archived 5.0-rc8 files and reboot successfully. I suspect I am going to need to pull the server out of it's closet so I can connect monitor and keyboard but am hoping that perhaps someone recognizes this problem and can suggest a quick fix.

I suspect this is a very simple problem, but as you noted, you need to be able to see what's happening to fix it.  You may want to connect a moderately long VGA cable to your server and just leave it wound up and unused most of the time -- it's then MUCH simpler when you need to connect a monitor ... no moving needed => just connect the display and plug a USB keyboard in the front and you're ready to troubleshoot 

 

Another guess here, you may have 'outgrown' the syslinux boot space (can't remember the correct terminology).  It seems to happen to everyone that started with an older UnRAID version at some point.  Try backing up your flash, and re-installing v5.0.6 and re-running make_bootable (restoring the config folder if necessary).  The make_bootable batch file will run the newer syslinux, and grow the 'boot space' needed.  May or may not be your problem...

@rsokoloff

 

These are the steps I would take:

1. Shutdown the server gracefully. 

2. Pull the USB and make a copy of all the contents on your pc hardrive.  Use a utility such as terra copy or other utility to verify with checksums a good backup.

3. Get rid of all traces of "Simple Features" if you have it installed. How to remove SF http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30939.msg342721#msg342721

4. Copy the bzimage and bzroot files to the USB drive after first deleting originals

5. Run the make bootable bat file.  If on a later version of windows, make sure to run as administrator.

6. Power up the server.  If it will not bootup, do the next steps

 

6. Power the server down and place the USB drive on you main PC.

7. Delete all of the contents from the flash drive

8. Copy the complete new unraid contents to the flash drive

9. Copy over the key file that you backed up in step 2.

10. Run the make bootable bat file as administrator.

11. Eject the USB stick from the PC and place it back in the unraid server and boot it up.

 

12. Assuming it boots successfully, shut it back down.  If it does not boot, you have other issues that you need to trouble shoot.

 

13. Move the USB drive back to the main PC.

14. Rename the "config" directory of of the USB drive to org_config".

15. Copy the "config" directory you backed up in step 2 to the USB stick.

16. Copy the "plugins" directory in the config directory on the usb stick of "org_plugins".

17. Open  the "plugins" directory in the config directory on the usb stick and delete everything in the directory.

18. Run the make bootable bat file as administrator.

19. Eject the USB stick from the PC and place it back in the unraid server.

20. Try and boot your server. 

21. Assuming it boots, then one of your pluggins may be causing a conflict. You will need to add them one at a time until you find the problem pluggin.

 

Also, are you doing any thing unique in your go file?

Another guess here, you may have 'outgrown' the syslinux boot space (can't remember the correct terminology).  It seems to happen to everyone that started with an older UnRAID version at some point.  Try backing up your flash, and re-installing v5.0.6 and re-running make_bootable (restoring the config folder if necessary).  The make_bootable batch file will run the newer syslinux, and grow the 'boot space' needed.  May or may not be your problem...

I think this is very likely the problem.  It was around this version number that things changed to require a re-run of make_bootable.bat for some people when upgrading from an earlier release.