Ubuntu 9.10 Beta Upgrade
 

Hello all,

I got antsy earlier today and decided to go ahead and try to install the Beta version of Ubuntu 9.10 since it looked like it would be a pretty straightforward upgrade for a novice user.

However, I walked away while it was downloading and installing the updates and when I came back an hour or so later, I couldn't get my computer to display anything. My monitor just looked like it had lost connection with the computer, as if it were asleep.

So, I just decided to restart the computer. Now, I see the standard Ubuntu loading screen, but then after that, the screen goes blank and all I see is a flashing underscore.

I looked at some of the known issues here and everything that was talked about was WAY over my head it seemed. Anybody have any suggestions for me to get back on track? Either making the Beta install work, or rolling back to the 9.04 stable release work as well.

Thanks a lot,
Tim

Tim, I would burn an install disk and reboot and reinstall from that. I hope that's helpful.

Qian

I had thought of that, but will that make me lose all my settings and files?

The problem is that it was part way through the install, so the only way to be sure is probably to re-install?

You can use the liveCD to boot up, and then you can take a look at what is on your hard drive. Although I am not sure that you help you.

A long shot is to press ESC when Grub is starting up. There might be a 'safe mode' or the option to start with a previous kernel? will it start with either of those?

Why would I want to change Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 9.10?
 

Hello,

I'd like to know if there is any good reason for me to download and install the new Ubuntu 9.10. I have downloaded and installed Ubuntu 9.04 and kept it updated. So, do I have all the features that Ubuntu 9.10 offers?

Thanks for any reply.

Dwight Randall

No, but if you upgrade I recommend doing a clean install. With the new ext4 filesystem, upgrading isn't a good option. So yes, it's worth reinstalling it.

No you do not; and this applies to any new version of Ubuntu. Go to this page:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/rele...es/910overview
and scroll down to "New features since Ubuntu 9.04" to see what is new. Plus, all new versions of Ubuntu have a newer kernel, Xorg, drivers, and apps than the previous versions.
I agree that a clean install is the best way to go with Ubuntu. It is the best way to avoid problems that often develop with doing a dist-upgrade. If you have a separate home partition for your data it is not a problem at all. If you do not have a separate home partition then this would be a good time to create one:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installseparatehome

However....
If you are happy with 9.04 then you could just stay with it. Keep in mind though that the non-LTS versions of Ubuntu are only supported for 18 months. So within the next year you will have to upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu to maintain a supported version with continued updates.

I would agree it would be a good time to make one in any other case, but now that ext4 is out I suggest just backing up your data and creating a new /home partition with ext4.