Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 1st Nov 2009 22:57 UTC
Another week gone bye-bye, another Week in Review. Ubuntu 9.10 was the star of the week of course, but we also talked about language, the HTC Hero, and wall warts. Yes we did.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Member since:2006-01-23
I made the mistake of deciding to do a distro upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10. DON'T try that. It might work, or it might fail horribly and leave you with a barely usable installation like it did me 
I'm beginning to think I'll wait until 9.10.2. Wasn't there such a thing with 9.04? Besides, I'm having enough fun trying to get Snow Leopard to work properly for me.
Member since:2006-07-16
I made the mistake of deciding to do a distro upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10. DON'T try that. It might work, or it might fail horribly and leave you with a barely usable installation like it did me
Contrary to popular belief, upgrades from one version of Ubuntu to the next rarely if ever work correctly. I think because it could theoretically work for a select few people, the devs like to tout the process as foolproof for everybody. Hardly! Many people utilize PPA repositories or install software from source which could present problems when upgrading. I learned that lesson the hard way quite awhile ago and always do a fresh install.
Member since:2005-07-22
Member since:2007-02-17
I think rolling release distros are a better way to keep your system up to date without having to switch to a different repository every six month. Not newbie proof, of course.
I keep a separate /home partition. That means I can reformat / and install a new Linux OS (it doesn't even have to be the same distribution as before) and just carry on from there. If the new OS doesn't suit ... I can just revert to the original, or indeed try another distribution.
It typically takes only about 30 miuntes to swap the distribution in the / partition like this. If you don't want even that disruption, why not just stick with what you already have in the first place?
PS: My upgrade to Kubuntu 9.10 has gone flawlessly on each of four different machines to date.
Edited 2009-11-02 01:53 UTC
Member since:2005-07-22
Member since:2007-07-26
Seems a lot of trouble just to get a newer version. Pretty much Windowesque.
Keeping a separate /home partition is pretty good practice regardless, as it makes it easier to recover things if you accidentally blow up your linux. That, and keeping a regular backup of /etc
Also, installing Ubuntu is easy enough that upgrading and installing the new version from scratch are pretty much on par with each other. I'm going to have to reinstall this time, because my / partition is too full for an upgrade, and I fancy a bit of a spring clean (in winter) anyway.
Member since:2006-01-23
Contrary to popular belief, upgrades from one version of Ubuntu to the next rarely if ever work correctly. I think because it could theoretically work for a select few people, the devs like to tout the process as foolproof for everybody. Hardly! Many people utilize PPA repositories or install software from source which could present problems when upgrading. I learned that lesson the hard way quite awhile ago and always do a fresh install.
According to the "How did your upgrade/installation go?" poll in the Ubuntu forums, fresh installations and upgrades aren't that dissimilar.
I've had good luck, I suppose, even with some software added outside Synaptic, from 7.04 to 9.04. They seemed to get worse as time progressed. Of course, the Broadcom wireless drivers always seem to be a problem.
Member since:2006-10-28
Member since:2005-08-18
Contrary to popular belief, upgrades from one version of Ubuntu to the next rarely if ever work correctly
Really. That must be why I have distro upgraded my laptop since Intrepid and it is still working fine. I'm also using PPA's without any problems when upgrading.
I think because it could theoretically work for a select few people, the devs like to tout the process as foolproof for everybody
I cant recall when and where it has been touted as "foolproof for everybody".
Member since:2008-07-15
I don't think any upgrade is fool proof for everyone. No matter what os, no matter what software, there's just no way to take into account every possible configuration change one might have made. I've had Ubuntu upgrades work perfectly, and I've had them royally screw up. I've had the same experiences with Arch, Gentoo, Debian, OpenBSD, OS X, and certainly Windows just to name a few. Os upgrading will never be a completely smooth experience, there's just too much that can't be tested.
Member since:2005-07-22
Member since:
2006-05-10
I upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10. The only issue I had was that audio didn't work. I had to uninstall pulse audio and uncheck the digital channel in kmixer and reboot. So far, everything seems to work. However, the sound is set at max and the volume control doesn't seem to work in kmix.
Member since:
2008-12-13
I installed ubuntu 9.10 the first everything went ok.
I then had to shut down the pc when i turn the pc back
i get white ubuntu logo then the monitor screen turns
black an wont goto login page.
im on dell gx 260 intel onboard video
I hope this issue gets fixed
I drove myself crazy asking for help on irc chat
In my opinion its a ok release bug it has issues
RE: ubuntu 9.10 problem
by Thom_Holwerda on Mon 2nd Nov 2009 20:46 UTC
in reply to "ubuntu 9.10 problem"
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:
2008-12-13
Member since:2007-02-17
This could hurt ubuntu if they get the problem fixed. Im not good at commandline. someone said edit boot in kernel vga = 720 Im totally lost when it come to that
There is a file /etc/default/grub . You need to be root to edit it, but it contains the default parameters to be passed to the kernel on boot.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275&highlight=customiz...
etc/default/grub
This file contains information formerly contained in the upper section of Grub Legacy's menu.lst and items contained on the end of the kernel line. The items in this file can be edited by a user with administrator (root) privileges.
This file contains information formerly contained in the upper section of Grub Legacy's menu.lst and items contained on the end of the kernel line. The items in this file can be edited by a user with administrator (root) privileges.
The line that you apparently want to edit is this one:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
Change it to read as follows:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash vga=720"
To do this, from your initial "black screen", hit Alt-F1 to get to a vga command prompt. Log in. Then type:
sudo nano etc/default/grub
Change the line indicated above as shown. Hit Ctrl-X then Y to save the file.
Then type the following to update grub:
sudo update-grub
Once that is done, reboot (Ctrl-alt-del).
