Upgrading from 1.1.8

[Arnor]

Hi guys,

I have an old forum in SMF 1.1.8. with just over 100 posts.  I would like to upgrade to the latest and I would like to keep those old posts.  However, I have tried to upgrade directly to the latest and got ton of errors (mostly about unrecognized indexes for arrays in the upgrade.php file) .  So I tried to upgrade to 1.1.21 and I get a persistent error about not being able to write to the Settings.php.bak file, even if the attributes is set to 777.  I have another forum that I _think_ was in 1.1.8 and I upgraded past 2.0, but this forum just won't upgrade. 

I could try to upgrade one build at the time and see if it works, but if anyone has suggestions to try out, I would appreciate it:)

Best regards,

Arnor Baldvinsson - Icetips Alta LLC.

[Looking]

You do not have to do it one build at a time. A large upgrade will do it for you.

[Topman]

An "old forum with 100 posts" is not worth all the upgrade the messing about - believe me.
My advice would be to start over again using the latest 2.0.10, perhaps setting up your forum so it gets a bit more interest this time around too.

[margarett]

@topman, not everyone faces the same issues you did
If the user values the information and memberbase he has on that old forum, IMO he should keep it.

@Arnor, what is the exact error you get regarding that "not being able to write"? Because Settings.php.bak does not exist in SMF

[pcmarc]

Did you try to use repair_settings.php and then upgrade?

Best Regards,
Deko

marg edit: removed spammy content. Please don't pull that trick again or you will be labeled as a spammer and treated accordingly

[Arnor]

Hi guys,

topman:  I have indeed considered that and that may be what I'll end up doing. 

margarett:  The error was just that:  cannot write to Setttings.php.bak.  I don't know why it wanted to write to that file<g>

pcmarc:  no, where would I find that file?

I will look into this further tonight and will post back what I find.

Best regards,
Arnor

[margarett]

Just to be clear: was it Settings_bak.php or Setttings.php.bak?

edit: What is repair_settings.php?

[Illori]

edit: What is repair_settings.php?

i am not sure in this case that repair_settings.php will help any.

you need to make sure Settings_bak.php can be written to by the server. [assuming that is the file that is mentioned]

[Topman]

@topman, not everyone faces the same issues you did
If the user values the information and memberbase he has on that old forum, IMO he should keep it.

Whilst I very much appreciated your help which as we know required you amending something in my actual database so I could use 2.0.10, I have and had spent many many hours messing around trying to do the upgrade.
Indeed, without you stepping in I would still be floundering or had given up altogether.

I am still, currently checking every post and editing as necessary to get rid of the "A" symbols etc after uft8 was set.
I am also spending a lot of time to get my forum colours back to as they were, which is again a lot more complicated.

Arnor has the chance to save his time.
I found a simple setting up a new forum using 2.0.10 files from scratch was about 30 minutes work fro me.

[Kindred]

except, 99.9% of the users will never have the issues that you did... 

[Topman]

except, 99.9% of the users will never have the issues that you did...

That's me the "lucky" 0.1%!!

I would hope that no one has the issues I have had.
What worries me now is in 2 years time 2.0.whatever will be out of date and an upgrade to the currently Beta 2.1 will be required.
And I may have the same issues all over again!

[margarett]

Not likely And we'll be here to help you if that happens

[Topman]

Not likely And we'll be here to help you if that happens

What is unlikely?
1) That I will have trouble again or
2) 2.0.whatever will become obsolete in two years

I hope so Bruno.

[Herman's Mixen]

Settings.php and Settings_bak.php needs to writeable actually...

also make sure your /public_html or whatever chroot enviroment you have is set to 755 all underneath can 755/777 then...

now you can safely use the repair_settings tool...

or just shoot the large upgrade package

[margarett]

First is unlikely (because you are now in UTF8), the second is impossible. 2.0 will be officially supported for a long time.
Granted, when 2.1 goes final the focus of users and customizers will change (like it happens now and for some years with 1.1). But the product itself will be supported

[Topman]

Thanks Bruno relief all round.
I couldnt cope with that again!