Upgraded from Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04 => Computer doesn't boot
 

One hour ago I had a nice computer running Ubuntu 9.10 and I ran the update manager and clicked on update to 10.04 LTS distrubution. Now the computer wont boot! I get this message:

init: plymouth main process (3083) killed by SEGV signal
init: plymouth-splash main process (477) terminated with status 2

... and after that nothing happens unless I hit Ctrl-alt-delete.

Plz help me out, the rest of my family is lining up for a chance to punch me. Yes, I have googled around and I see that I'm not alone about this but how the heck can I get the computer working again? I have a rescue partition so I can boot up another installation on the same machine, can this help?

easy way out: boot into rescue...dl ubuntu and burn to disc...reinstall

Of course, but what about all user accounts? If settings, coockies,etc is lost I dill get hanged. ;-)

If you do a clean install every think is gone .
But how do you install Ubuntu 9.10 ?
Which separate /home partition ?
In the last case backup /home and not format /home during install

The last several Ubuntu releases have been disasters. To get around that I (a long time ago) set up a separate /home partition, and two other partitions for the base system. Ubuntu gets clean installed each time, flip-flopping between those two partitions, but using the common /home. That way the installer recognises the users, and things continue to "just work". If you need to revert, re-boot the old partition, and again things "just work".
If you have space, you can do similarly - setup /home, create a new partition for the base, and install 10.04 into it mounting /home (no format) as part of the partitioning.

I will try that! Clever installer!

Maybe I'm not the person to judge, but exposing a button "Upgrade" to new distrubution in the GUI that makes your system unbootable without a decent chance to revert is really bad concidering Ubuntu's slogan "Linux for ordinary people". Anyone would have clicked that button...


// J

Not in my household - very strict rule. About 2 months after a public release I go round and upgrade them all manually.