[PLUG] Ubuntu Upgrade Question

[John Jason Jordan]

On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 13:09:29 -0800 (PST)
Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> dijo:

>Well! As some point during file download the OS decided that there was
>something wrong with the screensaver but did not offer options to fix
>it or turn it off. Since I had no way to see the display and determine
>if the upgrade was done, I switched to tty2, logged in as root, and
>killed xscreensaver. That locked the system and took away the cursor.
>No way to change console, move the cursor, or anything.
>
>I'm now downloading the xubuntu-11.10.iso and will re-install.
>Fortunately, ~/ was backup on on a flash drive just a couple of days
>ago.
>
>Has anyone else experienced this? I've done package and distribution
>upgrades before on that box and they always went smoothly.

Will it boot at all? If so, it may be repairable. And even if it won't
boot, you should be able to use a rescue CD to get a later backup, if
that's important.

I haven't had this particular problem, although I'd check the Ubuntu
forums to see if anyone else has reported it. 

I once had a cable modem choose to die right when an Ubuntu
dist-upgrade was at about 80%. Gawd, what a mess. I gave dpkg a serious
workout, but ended up saving it. 

Fedora uses a "preupgrade" method where you download an image that
contains everything needed for the upgrade. Then you reboot and the
upgrade is installed from the image - no worries about losing the net
connection mid-stream. Or you can upgrade Fedora from the non-live DVD,
which is what I always do.

You can upgrade Ubuntu systems from the Alternate CD or DVD as well. I
have done it at the Clinic and it works slick. Once you have the
Alternate CD or DVD the upgrade goes quickly. Next time I need to
upgrade an Ubuntu install I will definitely use the Alternate CD route.