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2.15 users : how to upgrade to 3.8 while being able to revert back ? (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi redditors!

I've been a 2.15 user with DDVK hack for some time now, and my experience has been great so far. New rm-hacks repo and 3.8 native features are tempting though.

I wanted to test the upgrade while beeing able to revert to 2.15 in case I don't like the new experience. I know the switch.sh script. My issue is the following : in 2.15, the only version I can update to seems to be 3.04, and not directly 3.8. However, if the update goes in two steps (2.15 -> 3.04, then 3.04 -> 3.8), I believe the 2.15 partition will be wiped by the two steps process, am I correct ? Then, how to upgrade to 3.8 and keeping the ability to revert back ?

Thanks for your help

Edit : Currently, one partition is on 2.15, the other one in 3.3

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (5 children)

You can't, at least not safely.

In 2.x, each document had a single .lines file containing the pen strokes for every page in the entire document.
In 3.x, the pen strokes for each page within a document are stored in separate .rm files.

The first time 3.0 boots up after being installed, if it finds any .lines files from 2.x, it will convert them to a directory full of 3.x format .rm files. Once this happens, if you were to reboot into the 2.x software, it wouldn't be able to read the pen stroke files. (Full disclosure, I've never used 2.x at all. My understanding is based on a description of the file format and the fact that reMarkable wouldn't let me upgrade from 3.0 directly to 3.5, it made me install 3.2 first.)

With that said, given the fact that the 3.5 software can't work with files from 3.0, I really doubt that 3.8 will be able to work with 2.x files at all.

I am willing to be proven wrong about this, but until/unless that happens, PLEASE BE CAREFUL. You mentioned having RCU, I highly recommend using it to back up of every document in your tablet to an .rmn file on your computer, before doing anything else. This way if I'm correct about the mess it's going to make of things, you'll at least be able to do a "factory wipe" under 2.x (which clears the user storage area) and then use RCU to restore your notebooks. (And if not, you'll only be out the time it took to make the backups.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just to let you know, I was still able as expected to open 2.15 files in 3.8, but sure, once flipping to 2.15 again, the file cannot be open anymore since they are converted when first opened in 3.x

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for letting me know.

So it sounds like the documents are converted the first time they're opened under the new software, rather than as a batch process when the new OS first boots.

If you had a document that worked in 2.x and didn't open under 3.x, was it still usable after downgrading back to 2.x? If so that would seem to confirm the theory.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Absolutely. As long as you do not open a document in 3.x, they are still usable in 2.x. I was working on several documents in 2.15, and I was still able to open them after going to 3.8 then going back to 2.15. Actually, there is a message "Unable to display the document please upgrade the software" in every notebook you opened or created in 3.x. So indeed, conversion is on a per document basis and not a batch process at boot.

However, as you stated, it's still a rather unsafe situation as any miss click in 3.x will definitely make your document unusable in 2.x.

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