Upgrade to 1.32 gone wrong, and I don' know where (1 Viewer)

[Jura]

Hi all,

Not a rant, more a sharing of experience (maybe hoping to get some clarification on which wrong turn I took)

It has been a while since I came here because my version 1.24 worked like a charme. No issues at all, I was watching my series with MP-TV-series and my movies with moving pictures. (I don't watch classic TV, so no TV server here) And occasionally I listened to a bit of music from my MP3 collection. All worked perfectly. My box ran with the Titan extended skid, for which I had modified the home screen a bit to put forward the mostly used plug-ins. As I remember well I had used the configure button in the plugins menu of settings to configure this. (there was a titan logo in plug-in for this.

I was a happy man.

Until I decided to upgrade to 1.32.

• Download went with out issues
• Install ran as usual
• Clicked the existing shortcut and then, 1.24 started, but all db files erased (no series, no movies)
• Existing links to drives etc removed, a blank install as it seamed, but still running 1.24, basically all settings gone
• Found myself with 2 versions of MP, V1.24 (installed in Program Files) and a V1.32 (installed in program Files (x86)) (or the other way around I can't remember)
• Erased 1.24, updated all shortcuts etc configured Mov'Pics and TV-series. Then 1.32 wouldn't start. => Titan file ***.xml missing
• Installed the Titan extended plugin, still same issue

Downgrade to 1.30

• Deep clean via uninstall
• Install 1.30
• Configured Mov'Pics and TV series
• Got a working setup, but Titan still isn't showing the old home screen
• Don't see the Titan logo in plug-ins, so I can't fine tune my home screen like it was

Is it normal that the detailed settings pages for Titan have disappeared ?
Should I have made a db backup before upgrade ? If yes how ?

Thank you for your attention.

Kind regards, keep up the good work.

 

[CyberSimian]

I was a happy man.
Until I decided to upgrade to 1.32.

Unfortunately, MP 1.32 has some serious problems that mean that it won't install successfully "straight out of the box". It might be possible to get it to work with manual fiddling, but I don't recommend that. A new release that fixes these problems is in development at the moment (it will be MP 1.33).

The last problem-free release is MP 1.31, which is available only as a 32-bit version. There have been some changes made to the Titan skin, but as I don't use it myself I cannot provide details. I think that @ajs is the person who knows most about Titan. Hopefully he can offer some advice.

I am sorry that you had these problems and have had to start again. It makes the point about backing up your system before making any significant changes (although I must admit that I don't backup my HTPC before installing a new MP release, a decision that I will probably regret sometime in the future).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[ajs]

Is it normal that the detailed settings pages for Titan have disappeared ?

I don’t quite understand what we’re talking about, but in the release it was written that we removed the outdated TitanExtended and if it is needed, then we need to keep everything that is needed. Remove the old TitanExtended and install a new one if needed.
When you remove the old TitanExtended, it can delete the necessary files in the skin, so it’s worth reinstalling all plugins that support the Titan skin.
If there are any problems after this, please let me know.

 

[xppx]

I was waiting for someone to notice this as well.

No rant either. First time that I needed to manually fix an install that normally goes perfectly out of the box. I'm a super happy user of MediaPortal.


To be honest, this new version needs a big red warning on the homepage. Otherwise we will be losing a lot of long-term users.

It took me literally 3 hours to find out what was going on, and find the right order to install v1.32 so I wouldn't lose anything. Luckily I have good backups (and ARES active) which allowed me to experiment.

In short, v1.32 x64 only works if you didn't fine tune anything yourself and are using the basic LAV drivers. It still needs the x64 version of the LAV drivers though.

In my case I have a mean and lean HTPC that works on minimal specs and therefore I needed special tuned drivers (not using LAV). Those drivers do not seem to be available in 64-bit which means I need to keep the x84 version.

For anyone interested - How to install MediaPortal v1.32 x86?

First make sure you have a full backup of your data and binaries.

Then make sure all plugin's on the current version (<v1.32) are installed via the MPE installer. This is critical.

1. If you used the StreamedMP installer in the past like I did then a number of plugin's could have been installed via that installer (like moving pictures, mptvseries or fanarthandler). They won't show up anymore after v1.32.
So do an uninstall of this particular plugin, and then install it again but make sure you only install the main code and the home page plugin. Do the rest via the MPE installer. And yes, this means re-installs.
2. Check in the MPE installer that ALL your plugins (except for dedicated ones like StreamedMP) are present. If not, get them and install them through MPE.
3. Test out that all still works as you expect.

Only when you did above, you can safely start the installation process with v1.32.
It will install over v1.31 but all your plugins will seem to be gone in MP Configuration.

4. If you have StreamedMP as plugin, then first re-re-install it again with its own installer with only the home page plugin as additional plugin.
5. Then re-install all plugins one by one which are listed as present in your MPE installer. And take care to not uninstall. The question will pop up during each re-install.
6. After that open each plugin in MP configuration and save or execute the plugin (e.g. movingpictures or mptvseries). This will guarantee that the configuration files are aligned with the plugin version. (after step 5)

And lo and behold, you will have again a full functional Mediaportal upgraded to v1.32.

I did this last week and until today all is fine.

I'm just hoping we don't have to do this every time we upgrade from now on.

 

[Jura]

@xppx thanks for this explanation. Don't think that I'll go through the hassle of reinstalling.

@ajs I was talking about the Titan settings pages that used to be available when going into MP settings (separate program, not the Integrated pages) => Plug ins => Titan => Config. This settings program allowed to fine tune the homescreen.

Now the logo for titan is no longer display in plug ins. I don't know if the settings program is accessible in an other way. I checked for *.exe files in my current install, but could find any.

Enjoy your weekend !

 

[xppx]

@Jura I'm using StreamedMP as skin and you are using Titan. If you replace StreamedMP with Titan in my previous explanation, you probably have the answer.

On top, if I read the remark given as breaking changes on v1.31, I see it will behave the same way as StreamedMP:
"Titan skin: If you're using the Titan skin without themes, you'll need to configure Basic Home after installation. Run the TitanEditor and select the necessary plug-ins to be displayed on Titan Basic Home."

So what do you need to do (I think)?

First realize that the v1.32 didn't delete any binary from your system. All, including Titan, is still there but unreachable because the FE technology of Media Portal changed and the configuration behind it needs to be redefined.

That's the reason you don't see Titan in your plugin page of MP Configuration. It's still there physically but you don't see it.

I suggest you look up the TitanEditor and do what you see written in blue above. I'm pretty sure the TitanEditor will still be on your system. Find it and execute it. If you can't find it, just re-install it. The configuration files it uses are still there as well (as data) so in theory you shouldn't lose your settings.

I needed to do the same with StreamedMP to get it visible again in the plugin page of MP Configuration - and my settings survived.

Good luck.

 

[Jura]

This is the way !

On top, if I read the remark given as breaking changes on v1.31, I see it will behave the same way as StreamedMP:
"Titan skin: If you're using the Titan skin without themes, you'll need to configure Basic Home after installation. Run the TitanEditor and select the necessary plug-ins to be displayed on Titan Basic Home."

I suggest you look up the TitanEditor and do what you see written in blue above. I'm pretty sure the TitanEditor will still be on your system. Find it and execute it. If you can't find it, just re-install it. The configuration files it uses are still there as well (as data) so in theory you shouldn't lose your settings.

@xppx That worked perfectly ! Thanks. I found a titanedit.exe in an old backup, together with a titan dll file and a pack of support files (*.png mostly) I copied all those into my existing MP installation. (Application Files or ApplicationData, where applicable) without overwriting existing files.

Restarted MP settings => Titan editor had reappeared in the plugin list. I could do all my previous settings.

Whoop whoop !

I was a happy man.

Happy man again !

Thanks @xppx & @ajs

 

[ajs]

I was talking about the Titan settings pages that used to be available when going into MP settings (separate program, not the Integrated pages) => Plug ins => Titan => Config. This settings program allowed to fine tune the homescreen.

Now the logo for titan is no longer display in plug ins. I don't know if the settings program is accessible in an other way. I checked for *.exe files in my current install, but could find any.

To be honest I've never seen this page, and it's never been in the Theme out of the box, nor have I seen the Titan icon on plugins, although I've been using this theme since the beginning.

 

[Jura]

I reinstalled 1.24 to get it back, however it was not included in that distro. I have no idea how I got that application in the first place. Anyway I got it back as described here above.

I can send you the executables if you like. Let me know.

 

[horned_reaper]

I had the same issue and found the executable under
C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\skin\Titan\BasicHome.Editor\TitanEditor.exe

Only the shortcut was missing.