Nextcloudpi on Odriod N2 (and N2+): Updates impossible for nextcloud

[NOBL]

Hi

 

Unfortunately, I use an Odroid N2 (and N2+) for nextcloud installed via the nextcloudpi script. Now, the support is gone and there are no longer updates for nextcloud beyond version 30.0.x available.

Currently I am running nextcloud 30.0.17. The version 30.0.x will reach end-of-support soon.

I can imagine the following alternatives:

1.  Use armbian-config to install nextcloud - but will it do the update correctly or at all esp. for my external disks which nextcloud is using ?
2. Use the image for the Odroid C2 (another arm-based SBC) and replace the kernel by the one for the Odroid N2+
3. Port the script from the Odroid C2 image to my Odroid N2
4. Buy an Raspi 4 or, even better, a Raspi 5 and use the images for that HW - how about a migration path ?

 

So what do you suggest ?

I think I could do all of those alternatives myself and I have an Odroid N2 and an Odroid N2+ useable for testing purposes.

One of those was planned to run HomeAssistant and I'm happy that HAOS is supported on my hardware. But that can be postponed to later.

 

Kind regards

Norbert

Edit: Added question for the migration path if HW changed to Raspi 4 or 5

 

Edited Thursday at 02:48 PM by NOBL

[geoW]

I have no clue of your Odroid hardware, but nextcloudpi there

sudo ncp-config

-> system -> info

will start with an overview

pi@nc-rspios5:~ $ sudo ncp-config
Running nc-info
Gathering information...
NextcloudPi version  v1.55.4
NextcloudPi image    NextcloudPi_06-01-25
OS                   Debian GNU/Linux 12. 6.12.47+rpt-rpi-2712 (aarch64)

 

ncp version 1.55.4 is only offered to running instances and no image is provided on github to start with.

But this version offers support of nextcloud 31 which gives you some more month support, ncp maintainer is ttrying 

to get supprt done to nc 32.

You may try

sudo ncp-update

and then

sudo ncp-update-nc

 

[eselarm]

19 hours ago, NOBL said:

I use an Odroid N2 (and N2+) for nextcloud installed via the nextcloudpi script

I see from https://github.com/nextcloud/nextcloudpi/releases

that 'pi' is sort of a synonymy for 'ARM SBC' or pre-installed images. 'pi' is great but a problem as it is not generic arm64 so every SBC flavor needs a 1GByte zip image just for a different kernel and bootloader. 

 

Same as long time ago I used a 'pi' script to get Node-RED installed in an x86 Debian Bullseye Virtual Machine (so just 'Debian' actually), I would focus on generic solutions. Armbian is doing very well w.r.t. alignment and portability, so the SoC or SBC does not really matter, as long as it is compliant with Debian ARM64. 

For Node-RED on Opensuse-Tumbleweed ARM64 I needed to hack the script a bit to fake a compliance check, but with that, it also worked. It saved an enormous amount of effort re-installing OS etc.

 

So bottom line is, maker sure you don't lock yourself into a certain SBC or SoC, but make sure it is standard generic ARM64 (or standard x86-64, which is already the case for years)

 

A way to keep your current installation is to 'virtualize' it: What runs on the Odroid or RaspberryPi or other SBC from SD-card or eMMC or NVME or SSD can be made EFI bootable and then it will run as virtual machine on the same SBC or other new/faster SBC of course as well. I have done this for RPI3B functions -> RPI4B in the past (also 32-bit VM in 64-bit host, Pi-Hole for example) and this year again to replace RPi4B-8GB with ROCK5B-16GB. It is beyond the scope of this topic, but start with installing 'virt-manager' and try to boot and Armbian-UEFI image/instance.

 

Or see: https://github.com/nextcloud/vm

I haven't used 'cloud' since owncloud, but right now, if I would certainly start with a VM. Same for e.g. HAOS, runs fine in a VM on ROCK5B. You do not need proxmox, all is build-in in Linux already.

Edited Friday at 10:38 AM by eselarm

[NOBL]

Hi geoW

 

Couldn't find any button to reply to your answer to my question in this forum 😐 .

 

But here it goes:

I know well how to do updates of armbian, nextcloud and nextcloudpi and how to use ncp-config.

I configured it even to do the updates automatically but was burned twice - once with Armbian OS (didn't boot because

of compressed kernel modules) and once with nextcloudpi updates to nextcloud without prior checking the required PHP version (8.1).

So, no automatic updates any more, but manual checks, of course.

I have configured an RSS feed to the nextcloudpi github page.

That didn't include the never officially released version 1.55.4 of nextcloudpi, of course.

 

In the release notes for nextcloudpi (v1.55.3) it mentions support for nextcloud 30. See the github page:

• Nextcloud 30.0.1 (can be automatically updated to latest minor version)
• PHP 8.3
• Debian bookworm
• Armbian v24.08

Fine.

There are no release notes for version v1.55.4 nor where this one officially released, at all, just tagged.

So, where do you get the information that an update to nextcloud version 31 is supported by this version of nextcloudpi (v.1.55.4) ?

Did you successfully update nextcloud to version 31.x with this version v1.55.4 of nextcloudpi ?

Where do you get the information about someone working to allow updates to nextcloud version 32 via nextcloudpi ?

Unless there is an official report about this, I won't simply update my installation.

 

So, my original question is: what to do after the end of support for version 30.0.x ?

 

Added:

OK, I see: you are running one of the provided images for your Raspi5. I don't have a Raspi 4 or 5,

That's why I posted my problem in this forum.

So the story is: There is no support for any HW except for the images provided.

 

I agree, that Nextcloud GmbH is overflowed with european requests for offers and work due to the politics of the orange head in the US.

This is favourable in my opinion.

So, my impression is that, obviously, nobody cares about the few nextcloudpi users not running nextcloud on HW other than on the images provided.

 

Regards

Norbert

Edited 2 hours ago by NOBL

[NOBL]

Hi eselarm

 

Thank you for your post.

I can't still find a button to answer directly to your post in this forum.

 

If I replace the HW - and I could afford it - then the question of migration to the new platform arises. 

 

Nextcloudpi worked fine on armbian releases, there is no point in changing the OS. Obviously it is

close enough to debian so the "port" from debian to armbian is not very difficult. As long as the same base version (bookworm, trixie) is used.

Even debian 12 did not support the required PHP version 8.1 at the time, nextcloud required it. But nextcloudpi still did the update to

that nextcloud version with the result of nextcloud not running.

 

I host nextcloud at home and I don't want a fan running at full speed in my living room. The "generic x86-64" (or amd64) is really no choice.

Once I bought a WLAN router with built-in room for a disk but even with no disk installed the fan did run and couldn't be stopped.

Returned it.

 

I heared about proxmox, docker. LXC and LXD. For the latter there are images for x86-64 HW with nextcloudpi provided.

But choosing the right HW and do the migration to it seems difficult to me.

 

Regards

Norbert

[eselarm]

@NOBL You can select text of someones post and then a small popup appears; If you click that, a reply/edit field is provided. It also took me some time before I discovered, maybe it was a browser issue or webblocker before I don't know. Related to it, I also don't know how to create 'hidden' text files so no endless logs or so.

Anyway, on the topic: I see indeed VM is only x86-64 focused and also no Linux default build-in virtualizer, only external/commercial stuff like VMware and Windows/Mac.

 

So for nextcloud, it is worse then for HAOS as I see it now. For HAOS, there is some Aarch64 VM image hidden somewhere on github, no documentation, but it works, does update well. It is same principle as for x86-64 VM images, so for me, having used standard Linux virt-manager (libvirtd/QEMU/KVM) for several years after VirtualBox and after VMware, it was easy to get running and as HA has a good backup-restore option, you get perfectly the same In a Aarch64 VM hosted on my ROCK5B for example as something running on old Intel Atom computer (also as VM by the way).

 

So I would consider the easy 'nextcloudpi' and ready made images gone; You have to dig deeper and do more yourself, so looking at all the lower level components like PHP versions etc that fit a certain version. That is independent of which ARM SBC. Nextcloud is high-level software, there is no dependency on HW pins or GPIO or videocodecs etc. If there are Aarch64 images, you have to look at how they are created. I see from other post that there is ncp command, so what does that do? 

 

If you stick to 'images', you will indeed have a problem. The only relevant difference between Odroid and Raspberry or other Aarch64 SBC is the bootloader and kernel. Raspberry is the worst as they also do many changes to Debian userspace which for example from bookworm to trixie ruined my networking setup, so I blocked specific things (netplan stuff) and went back to Debian versions. Also RPi5 still cannot run standard Debian. If you want standards, make sure your HW supports UEFI, same as every PC/MAC does. See https://github.com/edk2-porting/edk2-rk3588?tab=readme-ov-file#supported-platforms

I have this on ROCK5B and NanoPi-R6C and it is like a PC. You have to install it yourself of course, it is not pre-installed like is the case on a PC. But after installed, it is like a PC. Both those boards I have bought with metal case/heatsink, so no fans. Faster than a RPi5 and M.2 M-key slot on-board, so can use standard Samsung NVME or so. Also, the current/edge Armbian rockchip64 kernel runs in/as a VM, which makes it super flexible for tests but also for 24/7 doing real things. I installed grub-efi and then it boots as VM (assumuing 2 partition scheme). For Odroid (Amlogic SoC) I would expect the same. If not, install linux-image-arm64 in addition and use that kernel.

 

[geoW]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb NOBL:

Where do you get the information about someone working to allow updates to nextcloud version 32 via nextcloudpi ?

Hi Nobi, I'm in a hurry therfore short hints for your investigation.

Most info you get on matrix channel.

https://matrix.to/#/!AT6qaz1QxylX2sw2mzjLElHbLKVll3kAgeIQd16e7J0/$dLsP9mV-fEjbokwdo-WqcJvg5CqsUaArfNKWWdUNPp0

Listen to the podcasts mentionened in this discussion.

Yes, I have ny servers upodated to 31 and did the offered 1.55.4. update before, it is offered to running instances only (ssh boot prompt).