Upgrading your Gridcoin Raspberry Pi node

I have written about how to install and control a Raspberry Pi based Gridcoin node, with the release of a new version 3.5.9.1 of the wallet now is a great time to discuss upgrading.

Before doing an upgrade you might want to make a backup of your SD card image, just to be on the safe side. If you encounter any problems you can then just re-load the SD card with your current image. Its worth keeping regular SD card images, I do mine monthly, its much faster than setting up your Pi again.

Its good practice to check for OS upgrades before making other changes:

sudo apt-get update -y && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Upgrading is much easier than making a new install, first prepare for re-compiling by closing down all other non essential processes, this will reduce the strain on your R-Pi:

cd /var/lib/boinc-client
boinccmd --quit
sudo systemctl stop gridcoinresearchd.service
cd

Now we go to the Gridcoin-Research folder and download the update from github:

cd Gridcoin-Research
git pull

Once thats completed, we re-compile the source code

cd src
sudo make -f makefile.unix clean
sudo make -f makefile.unix -e PIE=1

Thats going to take a long time, so get a cup of tea. Once its completed we have just a few more steps:

sudo strip gridcoinresearchd
sudo install -m 755 gridcoinresearchd /usr/bin/gridcoinresearchd

Now you can either manually restart all your programs, or perhaps easier:

sudo reboot

Thats it nice and easy. Once your system is running again, you can do:

gridcoinresearchd getinfo

and check you are on the latest version: