After much trial and error, I finally succeeded. Here is the process, for comment (and list archive). Step 1: create a dump of the old wiki tables MySQL 5 will not work with the tables from a mysqldump that was bundled with MySQL3. Fortunately mysqldump can run on a remote machine. My new machine has MySQL5 installed so I created the dump with the following command on the new machine: mysqldump --host=<old.machine> -u <userName> -p <databaseName> > <file>.sql Step 2: create a fresh installation of MW 1.17 on the new machine (Follow the instructions; if you previously had any tables in the database, DROP them). Download and place your LocalSettings.php You should get to the stage where you have a functioning, but empty MW 1.17 Problem? In my installation, I encountered a problem that the installer had "remembered" the previous installation (where was that information stored? I had untared a fresh download!), then was not able to CREATE tables. Fortunately tables can be created manually: mysql -u <userName> -p <databaseName> < maintenance/tables.sql Step 3: upload your old tables, the ones you have previously dumped mysql -u <userName> -p <databaseName> < <file>.sql Step 4: run update php maintenance/update.php Initially I got an error RENAME TABLE `ipblocks_newunique` TO `ipblocks` returned error "1050: Table ... already exists But when I checked, that table did not exist and when I reran update.php it went through. AND THEN my Wiki was again live. Step 5: clean up Indices have to be rebuilt, especially if $wgHashedUploadDirectory was used. php maintenance/rebuildall.php That should be all. Boris On 2011-11-08, at 2:21 PM, Boris Steipe wrote: