Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

SanttuAhonen | 28 February, 2012 13:15

Dear eager N9 developers!

We know that you are interested in updating your devices to PR1.2 as fast as possible, but we propose that you restrain yourselves to the fully productized and verified updating procedure.

The availability of the update is based on the variant of the Harmattan operating system on your device, and not the current operator or your physical location. See Harmattan version numbers explained (23-Jan-2012) for further details.

The over the air updates are rolled out on a per-variant basis. Some variants are released earlier, and others obviously later. The exact schedule depends on various aspects, including but not limited to variant volumes, time zones and e.g. network owner approval. Please have patience waiting for the update notification to appear on your device.

We recommend that you do not apply your skills or other voodoo in forcing the update from the terminal application. While manually tweaking the settings and trying to force the update may seem to work, you may also end up bricking your device or otherwise rendering the platform or applications to an unexpected state.

A variant release consists of packages that have dependencies to each other. Different variants have different packages and different dependencies. Additionally, apt-get is a component of full software delivery stack and using it directly is not advised. If a user e.g. forces an update of a variant on top of another variant by manually tweaking repository information, this may result in some packages not getting updated, and some being otherwise wrong.

To update your device, only use the over the air updates with device graphical user interface or the Nokia Software Updater.

Remember that great powers come with great responsibility: the warning of potentially losing your warranty when enabling developer mode is there for a reason. The terminal enables you to do plenty of impressive things, but it also enables you to mess up your device's configuration and contents in a spectacular fashion.

In addition, some users have experienced sluggishness on first boot after the update. That is to be expected and is a sign of ongoing cleanup and re-indexing. It should be fairly fast, only a minute or so for most users. However, the duration is dependent on the amount of data stored on the device, and thus the sequence may take significantly longer as well.

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Transparency

awallberg | 28/02/2012, 14:50

Well, the solution is really simple. Just be more transparent about how the rollout takes place, ie in what order and approximately when different makes are expected to get the updates. I can not see any competitive advantage in being secretive about these things.

You need to understand the expectations of the customer. I do not care about different incarnations of the N9 in different markets. I just want to know when I can expect the update and not start mistrusting Nokia or my carrier about my particular make in my particular market being left behind. No one wants to buy the pig in a poke. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_in_a_poke

For 1.1, I got tired of waiting for an OTA for my 339 and just flashed it in the end.

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

Jeffrey04 | 28/02/2012, 14:57

thanks for bringing PR1.2 so soon :)
very much agree to @awallberg tho, it would be great if there's a schedule or something so we could stop checking manually all the time seeing others from all over the world getting theirs :/

On endless waiting

rahulthewall | 28/02/2012, 16:59

+1 for awallberg

I purchased an unlocked Nokia N9 here in Switzerland. One of the major reason for buying it unlocked was that I did not want my updates to be dependent on the operator. However, in the case of PR 1.1 a month went by and there were no OTA updates. Nor did Nokia provide any information on when can I expect an update.

Through other customers I came to know that the update was available (after a month) via Nokia Software Updater (which works only on windows). I had to hunt down a Windows PC and update my phone from there.

I would rather flash my phone than endure the same fiasco again.

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

jesperC | 28/02/2012, 17:16

Can be hard to show patience when you have a useless unit that has been tucked away for a couple of months while waiting for a bug fix.

Is there any official listing of the bugs addressed by this release? Interested to know if the problem with the phone dropping network (without any indications) has been solved.

//j

OTA

myname24 | 28/02/2012, 18:09

well i tried with OTA and when it finish downloading and starts installing it will stuck at 0% and after a while device update failed

images

hardc0de | 28/02/2012, 19:24

At least you could release images for navifirm. That would make it easier to fix if users destroy their setup.

Different versions roll out schedule

kegnatz | 28/02/2012, 20:23

just to support the idea of awallberg (and Jeffrey04) - the schedule of, at least approx, roll out dates for different versions of OTA updates would be really useful. Please, do consider it when time for PR1.3 arrives...

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

SanttuAhonen | 29/02/2012, 18:18

SanttuAhonen

Thanks for the feedback. This is a longer reply addressing some of the questions and comments, as far as we can go.

In a perfect world, all the device variants would receive updates simultaneously. In a slightly imperfect world, the schedule of each individual variant would be known and public well ahead of its delivery. However, in the real world things are quite a bit more complicated.

Some of the reasons are technical, e.g. even though we do our utmost best and go the extra mile to test and validate various update scenarios there is always a chance that something goes wrong in real world. The sheer number of variants, and the effects of vast numbers of installed applications cannot all be properly verified in advance. Not to mention all the things developers seem to do with their devices, like add their own repositories or change system configurations etc.

In order to counteract this complexity we first have a limited number of pilot testers, then larger test groups, and finally we roll out release updates variant by variant. Next batch will only start when we have verified statistics and feedback from real live world with the previous batch. If there are any major hiccups with the latest released update, the others will be postponed (if they depend on same resources as they often do).

There are also non-technical, business and confidentiality reasons that prevent us commenting or publishing the device variant sw update schedules.

News flash: Now we have already 001 Europe, 003 China, 005 SEAP, 006 Arabic and 009 Europe 2 variants live on over-the-air update, and NSU will follow up shortly (if not there already).

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

SanttuAhonen | 29/02/2012, 18:21

SanttuAhonen

Note on the ‘stuck on 0%’ problem: It is natural for the device to idle around the 0% for a few minutes. In most cases of 'true stuck' this seems to be caused by self-added repositories that are in fact broken. If you have added your own repositories, either make sure that they actually work or disable them before starting the update.

Note on ‘stuck on 91% problem: We are still debugging this, however it seems that this is typically impacting developers who have been tinkering with their device rather than regular consumers using 3rd party content from Store. Additionally, rebooting (though not encouraged during update process) seems to clear the issue in several occasions (but not always). Developer feedback on pre-conditions and how to reliably repeat this problem is most welcome.

PR_480 ?

D.Cent | 29/02/2012, 21:02

I'm actually not complaining about waiting some weeks for PR1.2 because as a developer I know for myself how hard the process is.

However, I've got a question here: My N9 Cyan 16 GB from Switzerland did not receive the PR1.1 update until early January (well, only via NSU which I finally used).
It is variant "PR_480" and I'm wondering whether you forgot to enable the update because I never had any OTA update working with it.

Re: PR_480

rahulthewall | 29/02/2012, 21:30

@D.Cent: I have the same PR variant as you (Black 64 GB Switzerland).

It seems PR 1.1 was only available via NSU for us. However, I do get updates for several packages OTA. For example, see this:http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/24/dev-updates-for-nokia-n9/

I did get these updates OTA.

Re: PR_480

D.Cent | 03/03/2012, 23:03

Ok, so I found out that PR_480 is a so-called "country variant" which will never get any PR-updates OTA and so I wonder why.
As somebody who doesn't own a Windows-PC I can't run NSU so I am basically not able to update my N9 to PR1.2.
I don't get the difference between my Swiss phone and any other Swiss phone which isn't a country variant.

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

gabrielharrison | 04/03/2012, 11:17

Hi,

The upgrade from PR1.1 to PR1.2 on my Malaysian version N9 is failing.

I initially did it via OTA and it installed but at the end said it had failed and instructed to try with the NSU.

When I rebooted all the PR1.2 features appear to be there but on the about page it still says PR1.1.

When I now plug it in to the NSU it reports that there is an update but it always fails to upgrade the phone.

I have tried using the Nokia Flasher to upgrade but I then get a warning that I've put a non-Nokia OS on and it won't boot. If I then check the version with the flasher is STILL says "Version of 'sw-release': DFL61_HARMATTAN_20.2011.40-4_PR_005"

I can get the phone working again by flashing back to PR1.1 but am no further forward.

Any advise? Do I need to send the phone off for repair?

Thanks,

Gabriel

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

SanttuAhonen | 04/03/2012, 13:11

SanttuAhonen

@gabrielharrison: You may have some 3rd party apps that are now causing headaches. Hard to say what without seeing first hand. A sw reset (Settings - Reset - Clear device) may help.

Note, that in some rare cases the problem may be something that is backed up, and when you restore you also restore the cause of your problem. To avoid this try to backup the bare minimum.

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

gabrielharrison | 04/03/2012, 13:26

@SanttuAhonen Thanks for reply. The problem occurs even if I flash everything back to the original Malyasian PR1.1. Once flashed back the phone functions perfectly but when it finds the OTA PR1.2 update and installs it it then starts giving me the stock warnings on boot.

What is odd is it looks like the kernel is not updating. If I turn on dev mode with the flasher it still reports the even older PR1.0 kernel on the boot screen.

Gabriel

Re: Patience is a virtue while waiting for a platform update

SanttuAhonen | 08/03/2012, 13:59

SanttuAhonen

@gabrielharrison: Sounds like it is not flashing completely. Best guidance I can offer with this info is: 'take it to a Nokia service point'.

Harmattan SDK beta 4 ?

colistete | 10/03/2012, 18:43

Can we have some time frame for release of Harmattan SDK beta 4 repository, compatible with PR1.2 for Nokia N9 ?

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