Trouble with upgrading electrum wallet

[frizzijo]

I use linux mint, and I am currently trying to upgrade my electrum wallet. I thought I had downloaded the latest version of Electrum -- 3.3.4 but when I opened the electrum wallet, the wallet itself said it was 3.0.5 and is stuck on synchronizing. I have followed all of the instructions on https://electrum.org via command line, and I am stuck. I have no idea how to get into this wallet, and I need my btc! I appreciate any help on this... Thanks in advance!

[psycodad]

I use linux mint, and I am currently trying to upgrade my electrum wallet. I thought I had downloaded the latest version of Electrum -- 3.3.4 but when I opened the electrum wallet, the wallet itself said it was 3.0.5 and is stuck on synchronizing. I have followed all of the instructions on https://electrum.org via command line, and I am stuck. I have no idea how to get into this wallet, and I need my btc! I appreciate any help on this... Thanks in advance!

The problem is the python version available on your Linux Mint (and on most Linux distros). On  my Debian Jessie I have python 3.5.3 and that works only up until 3.2x but not with 3.3x which needs a newer python version (can't remember but when you try to install with pip it tells you what it would need).

Most probably the highest version you can use on your system without upgrading the stock python is 3.2x, i.e.:

Code:

pip3 install https://download.electrum.org/3.2.4/Electrum-3.2.4.tar.gz

Whatever you try, make sure you have your seed secured somehwere and eventually also a backup of ~/.electrum before you try to upgrade.

HTH

[frizzijo]

Thank you so much! That fixed it!!

[psycodad]

Thank you so much! That fixed it!!

That's great to hear.
judging from browsing through the release notes there should be no disadvantages securitywise running the 3.2.4 except that the servers can display error messages to/in your Electrum wallet which was abused in the past by rogue electrum servers to ask users to download a trojanized version of Electrum.

As long as you never click any links in any Electrum popups or error messages you should be fine with the outdated 3.2.4.

[Artemis3]

Thank you so much! That fixed it!!

That's great to hear.
judging from browsing through the release notes there should be no disadvantages securitywise running the 3.2.4 except that the servers can display error messages to/in your Electrum wallet which was abused in the past by rogue electrum servers to ask users to download a trojanized version of Electrum.

As long as you never click any links in any Electrum popups or error messages you should be fine with the outdated 3.2.4.

Unfortunately most (all?) Electrum servers are now rejecting versions under 3.3.3... Python 3.7 is needed, probably, to run the 3.3.4 client. For Ubuntu and derivatives such as mint, a ppa is available.

There are a ton of rogue servers that won't pass transactions, they might sync but it will return the error with the phishing link you don't click.

What you said was true until the Electrum servers decided rejecting the older versions. There is a lot of info in the Electrum sub forum area.

[HCP]

Your best option is to download the "AppImage" listed in the "Linux" section of the Electrum.org download page: https://electrum.org/#download

That AppImage includes all the necessary versions of the required libraries and should work without you needing to worry about trying to update Python etc.