Yeah, SD card method is the only method if you want to flash an older version.
My hard drive had no problems. I did a restore to Lighthouse Version 2.5a2, and restarted it with my hard disk plugged in, and all my old files came back. Also, new files started appearing in the Library as Pages. Also, my Lighthouse is reporting in on your Service Status web page.
Wish you luck figuring this one out. 
Ken
By the way, this is what I got running the echo command on my Lighthouse running version 2.5a2:
Using username “outernet”.
[email protected]’s password:
outernet@outernetrx:~$ echo -ne ‘\0’ | nc local:/var/run/ond
d.ctrl
2.5a2 does not support multiple storages, so you’d always get /mnt/data/downloads.
Related to Ken’s report, we found the problem. Will be fixed in rc4.
Branko, when 2.5rc4 comes out, would it be best for me to start with a clean reformated hard drive so I have no residual problems to confuse things? Ken
2.5 is supposed to handle upgrades from odler version, so let’s try that first.
OK - - I’ll just do the USB stick upgrade routine. Ken
Another interesting issue is Outernet Service Status is not seeing my Lighthouse. I know that because when I turn it off for 2 5 minute report cycles, the number of reporting stations doesn’t change. In the past, I would note a reduction in one reporting station when I tuned mine off.
Check to see if I’m in your list. Here’s my key
Using username “outernet”.
[email protected]’s password:
outernet@outernetrx:~$ cat /mnt/persist/monitoring.key
6f67d3bf-d837-4fcb-b795-9987bd74d2c6outernet@outernetrx:~$
Ken
What does it say when you do:
grep monitor /var/log/syslogKen,
You are one of the two reported users for Galaxy 19. If your LH remains shutdown for another 10 minutes, the number will reduce by 1, unless someone else joins in on the party.
RC4 is being uploaded. Should have fixed the issue you were seeing. If it doesn’t fix it, try unplugging and plugging back in the hard drive while receiver is still on.
OK I’m fine here. I puzzled for awhile because I couldn’t find the transmission detail in my app log this morning. It was probably there, but buried under all the Tweets received. Ken
Thank you - - I’m downloading it now. By the way, what is in the corresponding small MD5 files?
It’s an md5 hash for verifying file integrity.
You need an md5sum command http://etree.org/md5com.html
Then you download both .pkg and .md5 files into the same folder, open command prompt, go there and go like:
md5sum -c outernet-rx-<version>.md5
It tells you whether the file was downloaded correctly.
After I upgraded Lighthouse to 2.5rc4 and looked at the Library, I had all my pages. I then preceded to look at the Dashboard, and discovered in the Aps log that files were being systematically deleted. I did as you suggested to disconnect the hard drive with the Lighthouse running, and plug it back in again - - no change. I powered down and back up, and had the same results.
I then went back to the Library, and all the pages I originally shown were gone, and I had:
I checked in the Files section - - the News Sub folder where all the informatio used to be:
and all the folders were now empty like this one from Alliance Earth:
Also, the content of my hard drive had demished by over 100 MB (from 2.13 GB to 2.03 GB) to look like this:
My aps log shows all content now removed, and my system is now downloading new files from Galaxy 19 although the Sys Log shows no new activity. I’ll wait a few hours and check back to see what happens to the new matterial. Ken
Files are not physically removed. They are just unindexed.