[SOLVED] [Ubuntu] Do upgrades work well?

littlebigman · 05-23-2011, 04:33 AM

Hello

I need to help a friend upgrade a laptop running Ubuntu 10.04 to 11.04.

Since wifi is the only connection to the Net, I'll have to burn a CD/DVD to perform the upgrade.

Any feedback appreciated about how well that works, traps to pay attention to, tips to make it run smoothly, etc.

Thank you.

Mr. Bill · 05-23-2011, 09:15 AM

The short answer is no.

From my own personal experience and from all the issues I've seen here on the LQ forums, upgrading Ubuntu can have random results, up to and including an unusable, irreparable system, regardless what method is used. The only safe way to "upgrade" is to move important data to a separate partition and do a fresh, clean install with the newer version.

snowday · 05-23-2011, 09:21 AM

A good first step is to read the upgrade notes:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes

You can't upgrade direct from 10.04 to 11.04; you need to go through 10.10 as an interim step.

Has your friend used 11.04 before? It has a new and very different desktop environment called Unity. I would recommend your friend "test drive" 11.04 as a Live CD/USB before "taking the plunge."

littlebigman · 05-23-2011, 09:54 AM

Thanks for the help. She insists on having the latest version, but has no important data, so is OK about wiping out the hard drive and installing 11.04 from scratch.

I just hope the Ralink RT5390 driver isn't as unstable as I've read elsewhere...

Thank you.

cascade9 · 05-23-2011, 10:11 AM

Get ready for changing the 'unity' interface back to 'classic gnome'. For 11.04 anyway its fairly easy, its going to be tougher with 11.10...if canonical even put gnome 2.X up in the 11.10 repos.

snowday · 05-23-2011, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cascade9

Get ready for changing the 'unity' interface back to 'classic gnome'. For 11.04 anyway its fairly easy, its going to be tougher with 11.10...if canonical even put gnome 2.X up in the 11.10 repos.

If the OP's friend "insists on having the latest version" then obviously she does not want Gnome 2.x which is a dead-end, soon-to-be-obsolete project.

cascade9 · 05-23-2011, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowpine

If the OP's friend "insists on having the latest version" then obviously she does not want Gnome 2.x which is a dead-end, soon-to-be-obsolete project.

I sort of agree with gnome 2.X being a dead end now, but just because the user (for whatever reason) wants the newest version of ubuntu doesnt mean they want unity......

frankbell · 05-23-2011, 09:17 PM

I have never encountered an issue with an on-line version upgrade.

This here computer started off with 8.04 and is now running 11.04. Also, it's using wifi.

I always back up my home directory and crucial config files (such as /etc/samba/smb.conf) first, though. Soon as I didn't, that's when the whole thing would crash.