Martin Crockett

Drupal 6.0 update issues

It seems like a large number of Drupal users (myself included) are having issues with upgrading Drupal 5.x to 6.0.
I attempted an upgrade with a local development website running 5.6 and encountered numerous SQL errors. It may be that I didn’t play by the rules so I’ve done a little research on how to streamline the process.

I watched a very good screencast Upgrading from 5.x to 6.x by Greg Knaddison and taken a number of notes from it below.

• Lots of reading recommended. Several locations mentioned.
• Contributed modules may affect how the upgrade process will take place.
• Backup entire website.
• Backup database.
• Decent chance that there will be some problems.
• Look at recent log entries and see if there are any errors. You don’t want a whole lot of these before you upgrade.
• Check status report.
• Use the update_status module to check all the modules are currently up to date (Note: ensure you disable and uninstall update_status before upgrading to Drupal 6). It’s highly recommended that all are updated before attempting an upgrade from 5.x to 6.0.

If there’s a module that your site depends on, you cannot update your site to Drupal 6.0. The same goes for the theme. This needs to be 6.0-ready.

• Log in as in admin and set to offline mode.
• Delete all files/folders that do not have modified content/functionality in them.
• Delete the update_status module folder.
• Upgrade all other modules to their version 6.0 counterparts.

Greg recommends copying and pasting any SQL errors into a text file and searching for them to see if anyone else has a fix or patch. :-O

I find it curious the Drupal team released 6.0 without many popular modules and themes updated. The net result of this is that there will be quite a staggered uptake from 4.x and 5.x branches.

I’m going to wait and see how this one plays out before further upgrade activity.

Further reading:
WARNING - do not update to 6.0
Upgrade problems - For problems with upgrading an existing Drupal site.

Early thoughts
Pros: it seems they fixed the most ridiculous thing with Drupal where it truncated your content with a ‘Read more’ link.
Cons: Clumsy upgrade. Theme engine still convoluted.