So I go to upgrade from 5.2.13 to 5.8.8 because one of the projects I'm interested in needs it.
Thus I have to uninstall 5.2 and then install 5.8. Fine.
Except that now I have to re-attach myself to every single project. Which in turn requires I remember the username and password for the project which of course I don't. I had to spend 5-10 mins just trying to re-aquire access to this account.

Anyway, there is a point to this:
Wouldn't it make sense to enable some form of "easy upgrade" that doesn't require entirely starting over upon installing an upgrade?

Note: I've install BOINC as a service if that makes any difference.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to spend the next 30 mins trying to figure out the URL to my previous 2 projects along with my username/pass. :-/

Wouldn't it make sense to enable some form of "easy upgrade" that doesn't require entirely starting over upon installing an upgrade?

It DOES work like that. All your accounts and even workunits in progress are kept. In fact, extra effort from the installer would be needed to delete those files.

Maybe the 5.2 uninstaller was still stupid enough to delete the whole BOINC folder, I don't know.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to spend the next 30 mins trying to figure out the URL to my previous 2 projects along with my username/pass. :-/

The 'username' is an email address, that should be easy to remember :) And project URLs can be easily find on BOINC list of projects.

Ah right. Because When I tried to uninstall BOINC Bad Things (TM) happened. Namely it wouldn't uninstall. But I suspect that was partly my fault because I had tried to install 5.8 directly over 5.2.

Which does leave my other point valid - why can't I just "upgrade" rather than have to uninstall and re-install. It was because I anticipated it'd "upgrade" that I was silly enough to try to install over my previous install.

Thanks though.
And yes, I have figured out it's my e-mail addy. I just had to go though a bunch of hoops to get my pass though. :-)

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Can you be more specific as to what bad things happened?

I've done over the top installs of new versions starting with 5.2.11 going to 5.4.9 and then 5.4.11 and then all the alpha versions since 5.7.5.

The only time you have to uninstall is going from a 4.x client to a 5.x.x client because of major changes in how things work.

[edit]At least over the top installs work going forward in version number. Going backwards creates problems (which have been reported to the developers)[/edit]

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Kathryn :o)

When you install BOINC over another version, it uninstalls the old version automatically. By uninstalling, it will delete the executables and leave much of the rest alone.

You can't "easy upgrade" a service, as the service is in use. Most changes are done to the core client, aka boinc.exe, so the service does need to be stopped, the old version of boinc.exe needs to be removed, the new version written to disk and the service needs to be restarted.

The installer does this automatically though. If your old installation isn't corrupt (missing its .MSI installer file).

The only thing that is of annoyance is that after Boinc has installed the new version (again as a service), you need to set it to Local System your self. But I think that's done because under XP any new version gets a new and unique ID.

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It always causes me to cringe completely when someone goes into rant mode about something without doing some pretty basic checks first.

..Thus I have to uninstall 5.2 and then install 5.8. Fine.

No you don't!! 5.8.x installs just fine over the top of 5.2.x

... now I have to re-attach myself to every single project....

No you don't!! Whether you install over the top or uninstall first and then reinstall, it makes not one jot of difference as neither procedure interferes with any of your project settings, account information, science apps or project data. There are at least two possible causes to a situation where you would need to reattach and both of these are good examples of the user "deciding to point the loaded gun at his foot and pull the trigger" (TM) :).

Firstly, if you forgot where you had installed BOINC the first time and then decided to use a different folder for the upgrade - yep, this would sure cause BOINC not to be able to find your previous accounts.

Secondly, having uninstalled the old version, you decided to clean up a bit by deleting the old BOINC folder before running the new install - yep once again the accounts have gone bye bye!!

There may well be other scenarios where you hide or remove the account info from BOINC's view, but you can hardly blame BOINC for that.

Wouldn't it make sense to enable some form of "easy upgrade" ....

That's precisely what a BOINC upgrade really is - a two step simple procedure.

• 1. Fully stop the currently running old version of BOINC
  
• 2. Start the installer and answer the questions it asks
  

You do have to answer the questions sensibly and if you are installing as a service to do have to reenter the credentials under which the service will run. Hardly rocket science ...

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to spend the next 30 mins trying to figure out the URL to my previous 2 projects along with my username/pass. :-/

If you didn't actually delete the folder where the old BOINC was installed just go and extract your account info from there and save yourself 30 mins :).

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Cheers,
Gary.

I concur. The last version that needed to be uninstalled before upgrade was 4.19. The work in progress and account info is all retained in the Boinc folder. The Boinc folder should not be deleted unless something really major has occurred to corrupt it. Even then backing up the client_state.xml files before folder deletion and restoring it before running Boinc again will restore all the accounts (although existing work in progress is lost).

I've always uninstalled before downgrading a version so I can't confirm whether an overlay install works when downgrading.

Stopping Boinc before upgrading is probably a good idea, but I know that it isn't necessary for Single-user installation as I sometimes forget to do so. Upgrades over v5.8.x will even remembers your install options including the folder location if it isn't the default location or drive. The newer version can also look for the BBC climate folder if your installing on top of their special edition of Boinc.

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Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470

I've always uninstalled before downgrading a version so I can't confirm whether an overlay install works when downgrading.

That one I do know doesn't work (I tried it). If you do it, things appear to work fine until you go to launch BOINC at the end of the installer. It falls over... BOINC.exe BOINCmgr.exe aren't in the BOINC directory.

Small details....


Anyhow, Rom is aware of the problem.

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Kathryn :o)

OK, this is what happened:
I tried to install BOINC over old boinc. I think I'd stopped boinc at this point (though maybe not the service). It wouldn't work because it kept wanting an MSI for some reason. So I stopped the service and tried again. No luck, it still wanted the MSI.

Then I gave up on that and tried to uninstall the old version (per http://boinc.berkeley.edu/troubleshoot.php ) - again no luck because it wanted an MSI. Thus I had to install boinc into a new directory which meant that I had to re-attach everything.
Having read the replies it seems it was looking for the original installer.msi which was missing (where would that have been located? My new install of BOINC doesn't have any .msi files in it).

It always causes me to cringe completely when someone goes into rant mode about something without doing some pretty basic checks first.

I wasn't ranting - your post looks like a rant to me.
And I DID check the facts as best I could. Just because it all works fine for you doesn't mean it didn't break for me - I couldn't see any mention ANYWHERE on the install texts that say you're supposed to install straight over - might want to clarify that point. The only thing I found was the troubleshooting page which says uninstall and re-install. So it wasn't lack of information - I based my conclusion on the info available.

Whether you install over the top or uninstall first and then reinstall, it makes not one jot of difference as neither procedure interferes with any of your project settings

Again, the upgrade option didn't work so I had to install to a new directory which meant none of my settings were kept (because I couldn't uninstall the old BOINC I didn't know which files to transfer safely without making my copy of 5.88 into 5.42).


But anyway - the whole mess was caused by a missing MSI file.
A little research shows it's stored in my temp directory. Which is plain silly because the whole point of temp is to be.... temporary. :-)
At least I have a BOINC .MSI sitting happily in my temp right now - so I'm guessing it's that. No files should be left lying around in the temp directory - it does get expunged on occasion for many people (i.e. "norton system cleaner" or whatever they are). Personally I regularly delete files in there by hand seeing as lots of useless cruft builds up over time.

Just a suggestion. :-)

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The .msi file in use is actually in the C:\\WINDOWS\\Downloaded Installations\\{long alphanumeric} folder. You won't find it unless you use the advanced function and include search of hidden system folders.

A missing or damaged BOINC.msi can usually be fixed by reinstalling the original version on top of the existing install.

You could have reattached all your projects by simply copying the original 'client_state.xml' file into the new installation before running Boinc.

The information needed is usually available from volunteers when people ask in a clear an concise way before jumping the gun.

P.S. Sorry, but I just reread your original post and all I got out of it was a rant about Boinc install not working properly. It does work unless something is messed up on your system and even that can usually be worked around. I've installed just about every test version starting with V4.0 and only with a couple of bad versions which the public never saw have I had a problem with the installer.

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Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470

You could have reattached all your projects by simply copying the original 'client_state.xml' file into the new installation before running Boinc.

You mean the account_*.xml files. Example given, account_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml is the file you want to copy over to immediately attach to Seti.

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You could have reattached all your projects by simply copying the original 'client_state.xml' file into the new installation before running Boinc.

You mean the account_*.xml files. Example given, account_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml is the file you want to copy over to immediately attach to Seti.

Thank for the catch and refresher. Its been a while. I should have checked my crib notes.