[RfE] Ease migration from Bananian?

[ThomasKaiser]

Nico just informed me that Bananian went EOL unfortunately (security fixes will be provided for some time but users need to migrate next year).

I thought I open this issue here as a place for us and experienced Bananian users willing to contribute to discuss whether/how Armbian should provide some means of smooth migration.

IMO only Bananian releases already running with 4.4LTS should be supported and then also a distro upgrade to stretch should be mandatory.

[igorpecovnik]

We have this upgrade.sh tool but it's also deprecated. Last time, year(s) ago, it was successful in migrating from Bananian, but it need RFC to meet today's reality. I am also not familiar with current Bananian state.

Thank you Nico for all of his contribution!

[ThomasKaiser]

We have this upgrade.sh tool but it's also deprecated.

Yes, and it would also need some checks:

• check current Bananian installation. If it's not both Jessie and kernel 4.4 then stop and let the user upgrade before (this will also hopefully rule out the occurences of users running off from SD cards that got broken in the meantime)
• check what needs to be adjusted. This could be become PITA since crossgrading from Bananian needs a lot more love to implement perfectly compared to upgrading really old Armbian installations (where we currently recommend to backup user data and start from scratch)

A final result of this discussion might not be a tool but maybe just an article how to transfer data/settings to a new Armbian installation. Let's wait and see. Fortunately no one is in a hurry.

[nisenbeck]

Hi Thomas, Hi Igor,
thank you for this open discussion!

Bananian ships "bananian-update" which was intended to do distribution updates. Maybe it can also be used to offer a migration/upgrade to Armbian?

If a migration from Bananian to Armbian is not possible, I would use bananian-update to show some EOL information in the future. Checking the kernel version and Bananian release is pretty simple. I can provide you those checks.

However, let me know if you need my help with this topic. I would really love to see a migration method from Bananian to Armbian and would also ship it via bananian-update.

[ThomasKaiser]

@nisenbeck well, getting kernel or Bananian version is no problem at all. I'm more concerned about differences regarding partitioning, boot scripts (related are DT overlays), users who run Bananian off a SATA or USB disk already or those using SD cards that are pretty old and will then die after Armbian migration when doing the dist-upgrade to Stretch later.

As already said: No need to hurry, let's collect thoughts first.

[thdankert]

Just to chime in: I took the plunge and tried the old upgrade.sh tool to go from Bananian 16.04 to Armbian.

TL;DR: It kind-of-worked, but required manual intervention, mostly because I have my rootfs on an external drive.

I've been using a 4.4 mainline kernel before and have my rootfs on a SATA disk (/boot is still on the SD card).
Here are my observations:

• did not remove bananian-etc, leading to problems during kernel installation with existing files
• u-boot was successfully upgraded
• generated boot.cmd assumes all files are in directory /boot on the SD, but the bananian "copy to sata disk" script moves it directly to the root dir of the SD card

After fixing boot.cmd and (re-)installing the correct kernel and firmware packages my board was booting fine.

Here's my upgrade.log, in case you're interested:

No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
Note: selecting "linux-image-dev-rockchip" instead of the
      virtual package "linux-image-4.10.0-rockchip"
Note: selecting "linux-image-sun8i" instead of the
      virtual package "linux-image-3.4.113-sun8i"
"linux-image-3.4.112-sun8i" exists in the package database, but it is not a
real package and no package provides it.
"linux-image-4.8.3-sun8i" exists in the package database, but it is not a
real package and no package provides it.
"linux-image-4.7.3-sun8i" exists in the package database, but it is not a
real package and no package provides it.
Note: selecting "linux-image-dev-sun8i" instead of the
      virtual package "linux-image-4.10.0-sun8i"
"linux-image-4.9.4-sun8i" exists in the package database, but it is not a
real package and no package provides it.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-4.4-bananian linux-image-4.4.34-bananian
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 45.3 MB will be freed.
(Reading database ... 51042 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-image-4.4-bananian (16.04.06) ...
Removing linux-image-4.4.34-bananian (16.04.06) ...
Removing Bananian kernel 4.4.34-bananian (uImage-next)...
Note: selecting "linux-headers-sun8i" instead of the
      virtual package "linux-headers-3.4.113-sun8i"
"linux-headers-3.4.112-sun8i" exists in the package database, but it is not a
real package and no package provides it.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-headers-4.4.34-bananian
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 53.2 MB will be freed.
(Reading database ... 49028 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-headers-4.4.34-bananian (16.04.06) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing linux-headers-4.4.34-bananian, directory '/lib/modules' not empty so not removed
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-firmware-image linux-firmware-image-4.3.3-bananian
  linux-firmware-image-4.4.34-bananian
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 1,667 kB will be freed.
(Reading database ... 34032 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-firmware-image (16.04.04) ...
Removing linux-firmware-image-4.3.3-bananian (15.08.04) ...
Removing linux-firmware-image-4.4.34-bananian (16.04.06) ...
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.

[ravermeister]

Hi, Glad to know that a migration is planned, especially because over the time I did several customizations
(new custom daemons etc) one question, what will happen to custom compiled Kernel Modules?
especially this one: @http://forum.lemaker.org/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=23612&extra=page%3D2%26filter%3Dtypeid%26typeid%3D3
I'm using this module to encrypt my Home directories

[inaciose]

Hi. Are you working in a script to do the migration automatically?

[ThomasKaiser]

Are you working in a script to do the migration automatically?

I don't know with whom you're talking but at least I'm not working on anything like that. The intention behind this thread here is to identify pitfalls and necessary steps that are needed to make a migration as flawless as possible so @nisenbeck could even provide it as bananian-update variant.

So let's hope that some experienced Bananian users collect their experiences while migrating so that a collective work approach can start that will help inexperienced users later. But as already said there's no need to rush since Bananian still receives security updates for a longer time.

[ravermeister]

@igorpecovnik the link to the upgrade.sh mentioned here is dead. Does it still exist somewhere? are there any plans to get it up to date? if I can I'm willing to help, but my Shell Scripting knowledge is not the best :)

[igorpecovnik]

We removed script because it's deprecated and make more damage than benefits, while we were unable to provide working alternative. I am afraid deep understanding of Armbian is needed, not just scripting power ... If you are willing to help, start with easy tasks.

just a question I don't know where to ask else...

I'm running Bananian. What if I ...

• remove the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bananian.list file
• change /etc/apt/sources.list - alle jessie to stretch
• run 'apt-get upgrade' and 'apt-get dist-upgrade' - (full procedure as of https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-upgrade-debian-8-jessie-to-debian-9-stretch)

Would that work, too?

[igorpecovnik]

Such upgrades are always critical - do a backup, prepare for the worst and try. Nobody can tell you this will work without a problem.

[nisenbeck]

Pay attention that you won't receive kernel and u-boot updates after removing the Bananian sources list.

I did not try to update a Bananian installation to Stretch so far, but why not do a backup/image and just try?