Upgrade failure ... and recovery.

[GreyGeek]

A couple months ago I did a fresh install of Trusty Tahr on my grandson's Sony VAIO laptop. It went on perfectly and and ran perfectly every since. Even as a 2nd grader he uses it daily, mostly to play Minecraft, locally and on my server.

Yesterday, while he was visiting, I saw an upgrade notification in his system tray. I opened a Konsole and issued
sudo apt-get update
It stated that there were 384 packages awaiting installation. I followed with
sudo apt-get upgrade

After 20 minutes or so, while he was playing Minecraft on my machine, the upgrade was done and a reboot icon was in the tray. I rebooted.

The wireless no longer worked, and there was a red circle with a slash through it over the power icon.
I opened a Konsole and issued
sudo iwlist scanning

which gave me a list of the couple dozen wireless APs nearby, including my own. But, Network Manager still wouldn't let me connect.

I plugged in an Ethernet cable from my wireless router and in a Konsole issued
sudo apt-get update
and saw a notification that an additional 80 or so packages were ready for installation. This time I did
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I watched those additional packages install. When the reboot icon appeared I rebooted.
The Sony came up with all things working. It immediately connected to my wireless before the desktop was completely up. Power management worked fine, as did everything else that I tested.

[Snowhog]

I NEVER use apt-get upgrade; I ALWAYS use apt-get dist-upgrade because it intelligently handles dependencies, removing/adding as needed to keep the system 'stable'.

[zapjb]

Good to know.

[GreyGeek]

I NEVER use apt-get upgrade; I ALWAYS use apt-get dist-upgrade because it intelligently handles dependencies, removing/adding as needed to keep the system 'stable'.

upgrade
upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system from
the sources enumerated in /etc/apt/sources.list. Packages currently installed with new versions
available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances are currently installed packages removed,
or packages not already installed retrieved and installed. New versions of currently installed packages
that cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package will be left at their
current version. An update must be performed first so that apt-get knows that new versions of packages
are available.

dist-upgrade
dist-upgrade in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also intelligently handles changing
dependencies with new versions of packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it
will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
The dist-upgrade command may therefore remove some packages. The /etc/apt/sources.list file contains a
list of locations from which to retrieve desired package files. See also apt_preferences(5) for a
mechanism for overriding the general settings for individual packages.

I remember you posting about it, which is why I tried it.
However, I was under the impression that it was for upgrading from a prior release version to the next (or latest) version. Since 14.04 is the latest, I didn't have any qualms about using it. After your comment above I broke down and read the man page to see what it said. (You know the old say, "When all else fails, read the directions!" )
"dist-upgrade" it is, from now on!