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Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

pixel81
Guide

Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

Seeing a large number of posts about problems (some of them quite serious) occurring with the official OS 6.4.0 firmware upgrade.

 

Is it safe to upgrade to 6.4.0, or does Netgear recommend waiting for a .dot release to fix problems?

 

Are there any pre-install recommendations (e.g. delete snapshots, remove certain apps, special user group configuration steps, etc) to lessen the chance of encountering an issue after the upgrade?

 

Any special considerations based on platform/processor type (i.e. arm vs x86)?

 

I do both a data backup and configuration backup before an OS upgrade. Any other precaution suggestions?

Message 1 of 9
BrianL2
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

Hi pixel81,

 

Yes, we recommend upgrading to the latest firmware available since it contains major bug fixes and includes new features (refer to Release Notes for details). Please remember to back up all your important data prior to initiating a firmware update.

 

Some customers have raised concerns to us with the upgrade. Based on those reports, here are our recommendations FAQs on upgrading ReadyNAS firmware to 6.4.0. We will continue to monitor the community to ensure all customers have a successful upgrade. Thanks to all who are providing feedback!

 

Let me know if you have further questions.

  

Kind regards,

 

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

Message 2 of 9
pixel81
Guide

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

Thanks for the reply BrianL, I'll do as you suggest.

Message 3 of 9
spotcatbug
Apprentice

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

 

Wish I could go back in time and un-upgrade. Smiley Sad

Message 4 of 9
cpu8088
Virtuoso

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

6.4.0 is great with newer kernel

 

seems most problems with 102 and 104

 

 

Message 5 of 9
IcyK
Tutor

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

Could you explain why it is great? And what are the benefits of the newer kernel? How does it change the user-experience?

I was thinking about upgrading but looking at the messages, I now am very much in doubt.

Message 6 of 9
ifixidevices
Luminary

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

Or if you're on legacy hardware... some work fine, others cause issues.

 

It's working fine on my pro 6 (at the moment, with this firmware things can go wrong fast) but it totally screwed up two drives in my ultra 6 (command timeouts, bad sectors, end to end errors, ata errors on two drives simultaneously and now one isn't even recognized by anything I plug it into.) Used a 160gb drive to get it back to 6.2.4 and put in another 8TB drive and it works fine (and those drives had been working great on 6.3.5 up until a few hours after upgrading to 6.4.0)

 

It's buggy and not as stable as 6.2.4 was in my opinion. The 6.4.0 betas were all kinds of trouble where previous betas usually didn't have so many problems.

Message 7 of 9
JasperA
Apprentice

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

I would definately NOT upgrade if you need files that are on your NAS, because a combination of de quota-system, btrfs-cleaner and snapshot(removal?) makes the device completely useless. And there is no way to downgrade.

Message 8 of 9
JasperA
Apprentice

Re: Is Netgear still recommending upgrade to 6.4.0 ?

Update: My ReadyNAS 516 is still unusable every day until btrfs-cleaner has finished. You could say my device is bricked. I think Netgear should come with a fix real soon now and I don't know what they are recommending... upgrading to 6.4.0 would definately not my advice. I'm beginning to think I should sell my bricked ReadyNAS and buy a different brand of NAS. One that is NOT using btrfs would be a nice starting point.

Message 9 of 9
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