I've been having more or less the same problem over the past month or more, updating three Joomla sites on different hosts, both J1.5 and J1.6 sites.

J1.6.0 to J1.6.3
J1.5.17 to J1.5.23
J1.5.20 to J1.5.23

JInstaller: :Install: Cannot find XML setup file
Path does not have a valid package.

One of the hosts, today, added a php.ini file to the root but that didn't help.

I've unpacked the zip file using File manager and I've unpacked the zip file locally and uploaded to a new folder, tmp/joomla but still couldn't complete the installation of the patch.

I've read a bit on the web as well as the Joomla instructions.

I've installed new templates and plugins on the same sites with no problems.

Surely it couldn't be that the good people at Joomla are putting out incomplete patch files. I'd think there would be multiple thousands of people with the same problem if that was the case.

So can anyone point me in the right direction please?

To me, this whole business of how to upgrade Joomla is one of the most frustrating aspects of using Joomla. We've all been there, right? You install J! 1.5.x and you want to update your site to J! 1.5.y (or J! 1.6.x to J! 1.6.y). So you read the convulted instructions that are printed at www.joomla.org and you say, "What the heck ... ???" (If you are, like me, someone who carefully chooses his words or you say something else that we'd rather not repeat in polite company. )

Why do you get the message "JInstaller: :Install: Cannot find XML setup file"? This is because the Joomla patch files do not have a XML setup file or manifest (as it's sometimes referred to) that is used by the Joomla extension installer. Let me put it to you in another way: you don't use Joomla to upgrade Joomla.

So, how do you update Joomla? The answer is that you replace the files on your site with the updated versions created by the Joomla core team. There are a couple of ways that you can do that.

(1) Unpack the patch kit on your PC and, using FTP, copy the files to their corresponding folder locations on the target site. That's the method that you're "supposed" to use (if you understand the Joomla guide gobbledegook). I don't favour that approach because it's easy to make a mistake and put the files in the wrong places if you're not careful.

(2) Use Kickstart (a tool provided for free by Akeeba Backup) to do the unpacking for you. This involves two steps:

• Use FTP, copy the file kickstart.php and the compressed Joomla patch file [.ZIP format] to the root folder of your site
• Run kickstart.php ... literally as mydomain/kicstart.php

... and that's pretty much all there is to it.

The main thing is that, if you've never done a Joomla update before, practise the technique on a well backed-up website. Practise, practise, practise until you get the technique down pat and you can do it with your eyes shut. I do most of my updates in less than 5 minutes.

Well, thanks Sozzled! I greatly appreciate that response. I've downloaded Kickstart and the user guide and will get to know it.