Release string on dashboard does not change?

[KA5PLE]

I have gone now through a couple of upgrades with my repeater in the last 1.5 years since I have it and never once that I remember has the release string that is being displayed in the dashboard upgraded.

Is that something I do wrong in clicking the upgrade button, or is that a known "problem"? Right now it still says RC2 from when I downloaded the image even though I just ran the RC6 upgrade. It does not seem to have any negative impact except me never knowing from one month to the next with version I actually am running.

[M1DNS]

It's possible to update / upgrade between release candidates or between releases of the same series.

You can update upgrade between say 3.4.16 and 3.4.17. But an upgrade won't take you beyond that as it's the final release in the 3.4 series.

An update upgrade on 4.0 RC2 won't take you up to 4.1

If your moving up to the newer series that will require a download and reburn of the SD card.

If ur currently on 4.1 RC2. An update and following upgrade command should take you up to rc4. Then another will take you to RC6

Andrew M1DNS, (Mod)

[KA5PLE]

Thank you for the reply, The problem is not that its not upgrading, the problem is that the cersion string in the dashboard does not change. I am in RC2, upgraded and even though I saw the files being downloaded and installed (I hope) the version string on the dashboard still says RC2

[KE0FHS]

Thank you for the reply, The problem is not that its not upgrading, the problem is that the cersion string in the dashboard does not change. I am in RC2, upgraded and even though I saw the files being downloaded and installed (I hope) the version string on the dashboard still says RC2

Your question puzzles me. Can you share the full version number you have? I'm guessing it's Pi-Star 4.0.0-RC2, but that codeline goes up to 4.0.0-RC4, so you should be able to upgrade.

I'm also confused by you saying "I have gone now through a couple of upgrades with my repeater in the last 1.5 years since I have it and never once that I remember has the release string that is being displayed in the dashboard upgraded." 1.5 years ago, Pi-Star was on the 3.4.x codeline:
29-May-2018 **Version 3.4.15**
10-Aug-2018 **Version 3.4.16**
09-Jan-2019 **Version 3.4.17** (3.4.17 was the final version release of the 3.4.x codeline)

The release candidates began with version 4.0.0 in Jan 2019. The first publicly available version was 4.0.0-RC2, and the final release of that beta codeline was 4.0.0-RC4. After that, in Jun/Jul 2019, the most recent beta codeline, 4.1.0, was released. The last downloadable version of that was 4.1.0-RC4 in Aug 2019, but there have been two more upgrades made available since then with the most recent being 4.1.0-RC6.

But here's the thing: the only way to upgrade to 4.0.0 or 4.1.0 is by flashing a new image. It's not possible to upgrade from 3.4.x to 4.0.0 or from 4.0.0 to 4.1.0 by using the links in the dashboard or the sudo pistar-upgrade command in an SSH session; you have to flash a new image.

Excuse me for raising this if you already know all this, but I can't tell from your previous posts how familiar you are with Pi-Star's separate Update and Upgrade commands.

• The Update command, which can be run by clicking the Update link in the dashboard, updates the radio binaries (MMDVMHost and DStarRepeater), gateways (DMRGateway, ircDDBGateway, etc.), hostfiles, and dashboard. When there is an update, running this command results in the second version number (which is a date) being changed, for example, the current dashboard version is 20191206.
• If you run the Update command by running the sudo-pistar-update command in an SSH session, you also get the Raspbian operating system updates, so it's good to run updates via SSH once in awhile.
• The Upgrade command, which can be run either by clicking the Upgrade link in the dashboard's Expert Editor section or by running the sudo-pistar-upgrade command in an SSH session, makes operating system-level changes to the system services and packages required to support new features. It is the upgrade the changes the Pi-Star version number, for example, from 3.4.16 to 3.4.17, or from 4.1.0-RC5 to 4.1.0-RC6.
  • IT IS ALWAYS RECOMMENDED TO RUN AN UPDATE BEFORE RUNNING AN UPGRADE.
  • Note that you only need to run one update at a time (an update will take you from whatever dashboard version you are on all the way up to the most current one), but you must run one upgrade for each Pi-Star version, for example, running an upgrade will take you from 3.4.15 to 3.4.16, and then running it a second time will take you from 3.4.16 to 3.4.17.
• One final note: As you update and upgrade Pi-Star, it's also important to keep your radio/modem board's firmware updated. For example, for the ZUMspot/MMDVM_HS boards, there have been nine firmware releases in the past 1.5 years, with the current firmware version being 1.4.17 (and there's also a beta version being tested right now).

Without knowing more about your setup and current Pi-Star and dashboard versions, it's challenging to give much advice, but here are some things to think about:

• Make sure you are running both updates and upgrades, and that you are running updates via SSH at least occasionally.
• Make sure your radio/modem board's firmware is up to date.
• After running updates/upgrades, I always go to the Configuration page and click Apply Changes, and I also reboot.
• If nothing else works, consider flashing a fresh image of the latest downloadable version in the codeline you want to use (currently, the 3.4.x and 4.1.x codelines are available), and then starting over. It's easy enough to do, and will ensure that if something somehow got corrupted in your current image, that will be corrected.