[PLUG] Odd Laptop Behavior

[Dick Steffens]

On 10/25/18 12:19 PM, Ben Koenig wrote:
> There's a checkbox somewhere in the update manager to disable the check for
> version upgrades. Normally the LTS releases won't prompt unless there is a
> newer LTS, but you can completely disable it.
>
> Years ago when Free Geek was using Ubuntu we had to disable that function
> because people kept updating by accident. The difference between a regular
> security update and a full blown dist-upgrade isn't really that obvious in
> the GUI interface. A lot of people brought in systems that were in a half
> old, half new state. I expected them to improve the updater, but given how
> many times PLUG members mention apt-get issues it looks like nothing has
> changed since 12.04.
>
> There is also a feature to use a CDROM or USB installer as a package
> source. Since you mentioned you inserted a USB stick with 18.04 and then
> booted to 16.04, it might have asked if you wanted to use it for the
> update. If you aren't paying super close attention it is really easy to
> enable it and start a partial upgrade, thinking that it's just checking for
> the latest firefox security patch...
>
> Call it a UX bug... Typically you can easily avoid the problem simply by
> being aware that it wants to do it this way.

When I run updates I do see a notice that an upgrade is available. I 
never upgrade. I learned some years ago, probably from this list, that 
upgrades are unreliable to some degree. When I want to move to a newer 
version, I always start from scratch.

I don't recall seeing anything about doing an upgrade with the USB stick 
installed, just the two options of try it or install it. In this case I 
tried it.

I've stuck with Ubuntu since 10.04 (I think that was the earliest for 
me) because it's what I know. I know that's not a good reason, but I 
haven't really had the time and a spare machine to experiment with. I 
settled on the MATE version and have been mostly happy with it. There 
are some issues with Compiz vs. Marco that are still annoying, with 
different problems in each. But I've learned to live with them. The last 
one is when I click on a link in an email, if Firefox is minimized, it 
comes up without a title bar and the window controls. If I minimize it 
and restore it, it's back to normal, but it has moved to the right in 
the task bar. Like I said, a minor annoyance that I can live with. I 
just try to remember to restore Firefox before clicking on a link in an 
email.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens