confusing instal/upgrade

[nakinigit]

previously running 0.2.7, all was working. Changed system from ubuntu 14.04 to linux mint 17.3. 0.2.7 was working until I decided to upgrade baikal. Tried git clone, got an error that installation was incomplete, I needed to run 'composer install'. So I do that, and see I'm upgraded from 0.4.4 to 5.0. Then I get this error:
Uncaught exception during upgrade: exception 'PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1142 ALTER command denied to user 'baikal'@'localhost' for table 'calendars'' in /home/naknight/Data/webpages/baikal/Core/Frameworks/BaikalAdmin/Controller/Install/VersionUpgrade.php:167 Stack trace: #0 /home/naknight/Data/webpages/baikal/Core/Frameworks/BaikalAdmin/Controller/Install/VersionUpgrade.php(167): PDO->exec('ALTER TABLE cal...') #1 /home/naknight/Data/webpages/baikal/Core/Frameworks/BaikalAdmin/Controller/Install/VersionUpgrade.php(61): BaikalAdmin\Controller\Install\VersionUpgrade->upgrade('0.2.7', '0.4.4') #2 /home/naknight/Data/webpages/baikal/Core/Frameworks/Flake/Core/Render/Container.php(71): BaikalAdmin\Controller\Install\VersionUpgrade->render() #3 /home/naknight/Data/webpages/baikal/Core/Frameworks/Flake/Controller/Page.php(85): Flake\Core\Render\Container->renderBlocks() #4 /home/naknight/Data/webpages/baikal/html/admin/install/index.php(83): Flake\Controller\Page->render() #5 {main}
This despite the fact that I have preserved 'Specific' folder.
Then I delete all, and re-install from zip, thinking it might be simpler since I had a successful install of 0.2.7 from .tgz. I get the same error as above.

I see database errors regarding the "ALTER" command, but I not changed anything in the database.

[evert]

This error indicates that the baikal user in MySQL was not permitted to execute ALTER TABLE. If you use some kind of MySQL management tool you should be able to see the Baikal user and change what it's allowed to do. If you simply add all the privileges for the baikal user, the upgrade should complete.

However, you must make sure you start the upgrade over and don't try to complete the existing upgrade as this will likely cause corruption.

[nakinigit]

I'm thinking this might be the same as #530.

So, with that in mind, Have tried every version from 3.0 forward (via git checkout). Is git a mistake? What about composer install, and does composer install/update make git pull redundant? Or is downloading zip/gz more appropriate? Do I need to run composer update for all of the above methods, or only some of them? What is the recommended install method?

I installed composer as myself, but run it as www-data in the baikal folder, which is owned by www-dat. I get the 'unable to create cache in ~/.composer...' folder. Does it matter? All installs regarding baikal are done as www-data. I'm an a lan; should I just make everything 777 in order to expedite this?

I apologize if this sounds like a rant, but that is not what this is... these are legitimate questions. I have installed a few web services on my lan, including those that rely on a mysql database, and updates via composer. Ampache music server & Wordpress being my primary examples. I'm somewhat of a noob, but a tenacious one ;-)

[evert]

If you are not developing Baikal, then the only installation method you need to use is the one documented on http://sabre.io/baikal/install/, which means:

• You use the zip.
• You don't do anything with composer.
• You don't do anything with git.