Amahi Forums

Wasn't sure what category to post in. I figured it's a fairly noob-ish question.

I'm running Amahi 7.4.1-1. I discovered there was a Plex update, and then after reading a few posts in the forum, realized I'll have to update to a new Amahi version. I gather version 9 is the most recent?

Is it possible to update from 7 directly to 9? My understanding is that fresh installs are recommended over "upgrading," but I'm lazy. That, and my wife almost divorced me when I originally set this all up. Lots of frustration, documentation not always up to date, trial and error, etc. The idea of starting over with a fresh install sort of makes me want to eat a bullet.

I was hoping I'd be able to put this off for another year or so, but I could really use that Plex update...

gather version 9 is the most recent?

Yes, Fedora 23.

Is it possible to update from 7 directly to 9?

No. You have to upgrade to Fedora 21, Amahi 8 first and then to Fedora 23, Amahi 9. This is not well tested and we don't recommend it for the basic Linux user. There are many things that can go wrong, then you will be forced to install from scratch. On a side note, I did this with a basic Amahi install and it worked fine, but I did not have apps or anything customized.

Lots of frustration, documentation not always up to date, trial and error, etc.

Not sure what you mean here. Can you provide specifics?

It's best to install from scratch. Recommend you check out Amahi Docs for instructions.

It's been over a year since I originally got my HDA up and running, so I can't recall any specific examples. I swore I would make detailed notes of my installation experience while it was still fresh in my mind, but my baby girl was born days later, and I never got around to it.

I remember having the impression that some of the steps in the documentation had been copied/pasted from previous versions of Amahi, and were no longer applicable. I also remember occasions where it seemed as if the author assumed the reader would already have some working knowledge of Linux, and didn't go into as much detail as (I felt) he/she should have. Having zero experience with Linux prior to stumbling across Amahi, I spent a significant amount of time searching the web for additional information. Maybe it's just me, but in my opinion, the Amahi documentation alone (at least as it was 16 months ago) was nowhere near sufficient for your average user to get an HDA off the ground.

Bad example: If I were on some kind of PC enthusiast forum, helping someone troubleshoot a hardware issue in Windows 7, I'd just say, "Go to device manager." On the other hand, if I were writing some kind of tutorial that would be used by a variety of people, I would assume the lowest common denominator and say, "Left-click on Start. Right-click on Computer. Left-click Properties. In the upper-left corner, left-click Device Manager." In my opinion, the Amahi documentation should be like the latter, but instead it's more like the former.

Anyway, I'm not intending to be overly critical. I realize you have a small team and limited resources, and besides, once I got the kinks worked out, my system has been 100% reliable. I'm just not looking forward to a fresh install.

I am a total linux noob and I managed it using the current versions with the current docs.

I remember having the impression that some of the steps in the documentation had been copied/pasted from previous versions of Amahi, and were no longer applicable. I also remember occasions where it seemed as if the author assumed the reader would already have some working knowledge of Linux, and didn't go into as much detail as (I felt) he/she should have. Having zero experience with Linux prior to stumbling across Amahi, I spent a significant amount of time searching the web for additional information. Maybe it's just me, but in my opinion, the Amahi documentation alone (at least as it was 16 months ago) was nowhere near sufficient for your average user to get an HDA off the ground.

Thanks for the feedback!

We are constantly trying to improve our guidance, but that's easier said than done. Would you be willing to help? It would be valuable to get someone with minimal experience to help with updates to Amahi Wiki guidance.

We rely heavily on the Amahi community to assist with the documentation.

Sure. It'll be a couple of weeks before I'm able to get to it, but I'll be sure to make notes as I go. I'll report back when I'm finished.

wilholt, maybe I'm just a dummy, I dunno. I managed it, too, but it took a lot of Googling.

maybe I'm just a dummy, I dunno. I managed it, too, but it took a lot of Googling.

Nah.

Everyone has a different level of experience. Amahi attempts to setting up a basic server simple. However what happens is many users want to do advanced tasks and don't have the knowledge to do so.

Much of our documentation is contributed by the Amahi user community, so may not be simple enough for those with minimal experience. We hope to make this better in the future, but it takes the efforts of the entire community. Our team is 3/4 folks so not enough hours in the day for us to work it all.

We need feedback on shortcomings in the documentation or we presume all is well. Not many have provided that in the past.

If you look at my posts here you will see it was not all a bed of roses. Installation was easy enough, but I did break my install around 5 times in a row... I have certainly gotten better with practice!

Understand.

What we need to know is what are the problem areas. Is it the install guidance or issues come from doing advanced procedures that might not be well documented.

Any specifics you can provide on your install experience will help.