Upgrading from 6.2 to 6.3 for Novices

I have spent almost a day and a half for this upgrade.When most of the folks have done it in 5 minutes. I am just trying to put it in here,somethings which maynot be clear for the first time upgraders :-) (who are not familiar with it, like me).

Am using the standard upgrade.txt,explaining little more ,what would have helped me.

1. Backup your database and Drupal directory - especially your "sites"
directory which contains your configuration file and added modules and
themes, any contributed or custom modules in your "modules" directory,
and your "files" directory which contains uploaded files. If other files
have modifications, such as .htaccess or robots.txt, those should be
backed up as well.

pan: This is very important,first backup database and files.One thing which was confusing for me,
was that the,modules and themes directory was in the drupal installation directory,
and not the sites/all/themes directory and sites/all/modules directory
(where we should install all the contrib modeules and themes as best practise).

Not to worry,
(a) Disable the custom,contrib modules.Switch over to core themes (like garland ).
(b) we can create directories(themes and modules) inside sites/all .
(c) Then copy the respective contrib themes and modules into these directories.
(d) Enable some of the required contrib and custom modules
(e) switch to contrib themes.
(f) see if now everything works as expected.
(g) If there are any errors in any page.
( I saw some errors as when using replacement tags modules,
even after they were enabled,we may need to and save the settings once more,
this helped me to get rid of errors I saw)
(h) When everything is working fine as expected,make a copy of the sites directory.

2. If possible, log on as the user with user ID 1, which is the first account
created and the main administrator account. User ID 1 will be able to
automatically access update.php in step #10. There are special instructions
in step #10 if you are unable to log on as user ID 1. Do not close your
browser until the final step is complete.

pan: Use the admin user id or goto the database (am using myphp).Select the database of drupal.
Goto structure tab,in that select users for display.This has info about used id 1.

3. Place the site in offline. Administer->Site maintenance -> offline
4. Switch to core themes (like garland )
5. Disable all the custom and contrib modules
6. Delete all the files under the drupal installation directory.
Or you can leave the sites directory as it is.

7. copy the new files into the drupal installation directory.
pan: (a) If you are using mac,you wont be able to see the hidden files.
So make sure you copy files such as .htaccess into the drupal installation directory.

8. Copy your backed up "files" and "sites" directories to the Drupal
installation directory. If other system files such as .htaccess or
robots.txt were customized, re-create the modifications in the new
versions of the files using the backups taken in step #1.
pan: Copy back the files from our backup such as sites directory,and any modified file in our backup.

9. Verify the new configuration file to make sure it has correct information.
pan: This is the settings.php file in sites/default/ .
Make sure you have base_url and db mentioned as it was before.

10. Run update.php (type in www.example.com/update.php)
pan: (a)You neednt select any versions,leave it as it is.
(b) now it shows either errors or "administrative or home Page"
(c) If errors are seen , try to fix it
(upgrade the required modules so that they are compatible with this release)
(d) If still you see error,please check with experts.
(e) If you reach the adminstrative page,
and when you try to goto any other pages it throws up 404 not found error,
clean url is messing up.
(i) Goto the database , structure, variable ,select clean_url.
(ii) modify it from s:1:"1"; to s:1:"0" .
(iii) Run update.php (maynot be required not sure)
(iv) Still not fixed,try http://drupal.org/node/262892
(v) When url is working in the not so clean way.
Check if the .htaccess file is in the drupal installation directory
(http://drupal.org/node/281770)
(vi) Now urls should work in clean way.

11. Ensure that the versions of all custom and contributed modules match the
new Drupal version to which you have updated.
12. Re-enable custom and contributed modules and re-run update.php
to update custom and contributed database tables.
13. Return site to original theme
14. Make site online.

Lastly,I found an issue where except admin,none could login ( http://drupal.org/node/256915).

Good luck,hope you were able to upgrade.

And many many thanks so many folks who had helped people like me throughout this exercise.
I have merely put down their advice in one place for a novice like me,
so that they neednt break their head.
Also this might not be all the problems we face.
So if you had faced any new ones.And have found the fix,Please update this post.

Thanks,
Pan