Oh dear! Just downloaded and installed the upgrade for ubuntu 9.04 on my systems. All downloaded well(took ages) installed then on final re-start, the new ubuntu logo appeared, screen goes black, then comes up with various blocks of colour on screen and hangs the computer. Unable to do anything. Please can anybody help as this is my main work machine and I am unable to do any. can't even go back, what can I do? starting to panic now !

Regards
Itbod

I recommend using a Live CD (any - Ubuntu is fine, including old versions) to get hold of your data. Then try booting in failsafe mode - you might be looking at a driver issue (X...). If that doesn't help, try the alternate install CD (download can also be done with the help of the Live CD) to try and rescue the system. The worst that can happen after securing your data is a complete reinstall, which isn't too bad (if you haven't spend a lot time tweaking your system, that is...).

M.

Thanks I will try loading an old 8.04 to see if I can get the files.

Will keep you informed
regards
itbod

Every time one of the distros that offers "Upgrade" offers a new "upgrade" (that's about every six months), LQ is deluged with complaints that it "didn't work".

The advice is unchanged: Backup your personal data before you start, be happy if the "upgrade" works for you, otherwise do the sensible thing:

1] Backup your personal data
2] Do a clean install of the new release, to its own partition.

I never choose the "upgrade" option, as I need one PC to be fully functional at all times. "Once burnt, twice shy".

Before I start, I make sure I have a copy of my current partitioning ( fdsik -l > PARTITIONING ) and my /boot/grub/menu.lst stored externally.

Then I do a fresh install to a different partition, then fix up grub (see LQ user saikee's posts for all-about-grub ). I try the new version out. If I like it, after a few months and it seems to be stable enough to use, I migrate my personal files to the new version, and delete the old.

Otherwise, I can always go back to my original installation, and just continue to use it while the bugs in the latest and greatest version are fixed up.

I still have a box running kubuntu 6.06. It serves, it prints, it is the master repository for all my emails, and is backed up regularly.

If you boot from your 8.04 CD, you'll be able to rescue your old home (~).

Copy ALL of that to an external drive (DOT-something files and directories included).

Then do a fresh install (to its own partition).

Then restore your personal files - this does NOT mean copying over all of ~ (those hidden DOT-something files from your previous installation will mess up your new installation). ONLY copy ~/Music ~/Documents ~/linuxHOWTOs and the like - that's to say, data files, not config files.

Migrating emails from one distro version to the next is another matter altogether. (But I have it cracked for kmail at least).

Good luck.

Impressive I never bother wasting harddisk space for running several distributions just to make sure at least one works (if things were that bad, I wouldn't be using these). Anyway, it's got point..though when making the backup copies, remember that one might have important data outside of $HOME too---i.e. /var/www and alike. So in addition to $HOME, make sure the backups contain anything you might need, perhaps even system-wide configuration files if they're hand-tailored for some purposes.

About copying the dot-folders ( like .mozilla), I don't think it's needed to copy any of them unless you know you need them---if you don't know what they contain, you probably don't need them. On the other hand, if you want your configuration (theme, settings, ...) moved over to the new system, simply copying the dot-directories may well save you some time as your personal settings will be moved over too---and possibly emails etc. as well, at least in Mozilla Thunderbird's case (can't say about the others as I don't use them much, but I imagine they work somewhat the same way) and browser bookmarks (Firefox) etc. And should they "mess up" something in the new system, the aid is to simply remove the (offending) directories and possibly log out and back in; might be tricky to know which directories, but if nothing else, one can rename them one by one (or a few at a time) and see what works. I have my home directory on it's own partition which I don't format during the installation of a new operating system (but rather just set home to be mounted there in the new system as well), and thus I don't need backups---I take them, of course, but the installations usually go smoothly, and after the setup I have all the personal data and usually all the personal settings as well already there.

I tried out (for fun) the 9.04 RC version, which worked until the final 9.04 was released---after that I upgraded a few packages and on next starup, when gdm came up, my keyboard and mouse froze as if they were plugged off completely (screen would "work", so it wasn't completely jammed, but it wouldn't accept input of any kind). Not finding a sane reason for it and not wanting to waste more time I simply burned the final 9.04, installed it and some half an hour later was running the system happily with all settings just the way they used to be with 8.10 (installation took less than half an hour, installing additional packages the rest).

I agree the clean installation works most of the time better than the on-the-run upgrade, so unless one seeks for an adventure, I'd recommend getting the disc instead.

You need a backup of everything in your ~ before you start.

For example, kmail used to keep mail in ~/.mail but now (KDE 3.5) it is in ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/Mail and if you don't backup that, it may be lost.

Depending on your circumstances, this may or may not be acceptable.

If you select the recovery mode (from the boot menu), you'll eventually get to an ncurses menu that has "xfix" as an option. Try that - I never used it, so don't know how good it is.
For Ubuntu I also use two partitions I "flip-flop" between for releases. I also use a separate partition for home, and use the same userid/password on the install. Works a treat. In need I can boot the other system, and have all my user setting available without restore. Haven't done this with Jaunty, but have with previous releases, so I'd expect it to work as in the past. Saved me plenty during alpha/beta testing.

Ok folks, thanks for your input. I have backed up most data but some stuff would forgot to do before proceeding(I know! stupid as I preach to everyone else about backup) Running the live cd so I can access all old stuff but....some files will not copy to an external source as it says that permission is denied!!! I don't suppose there is any way of installing an upgrade on top of an excisting version so that (like the dreaded windows) it only installs the OS files which are required.

Thanks so much for your help so far.

itbod

If it's the case that every time there's an upgrade, that users should feel lucky if it DOESN'T break (every six months!), necessitating backups before daring to upgrade, then really, that's a great argument for using Windows or OS-X rather than such fragile Linux distros. But I digress.

I'm not familiar with Ubuntu, but I'm assuming it's relatively similar to Debian (which I am familiar with). When the initial grub menu shows up, just before boot, there is usually a choice of "single user" (the superuser). Choose this. It allows you to log into a command line, without starting everything, giving you the option of fixing whatever is wrong. Or, if Ubuntu has some other way of booting into the command line, without starting X, then choose that.

It appears that something is wrong with your xserver. So, if you're able to log in with grub's single user option, and/or get to the command line, try "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg". Also try opening aptitude, and searching for a package named "xserver-xorg-video-all", (or "xserver-xorg-input-all"). I believe either of these would install everything you might need to get your xserver going again.

Actually, it worked quite well the few times I've had to use it.

Press "Esc" when you see "Grub loading..." to get to the boot menu.

Hi Everyone,

Well I gave up!! decided to re-install the entire OS from a cd. I tried everything which was suggested to me but the problems which I was getting just kept increasing. I think, in future, I will back up every single thing, wipe out the old version then do a fresh install and re-load the stuff again. The new version 9.04 looks very good so far(early days yet.) Just having problems re-installing TOR don't know why yet but as always I will carry on trying.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me with this.

itbod