[DESKTOP] Upgrading from 17.10

[steve7233]

Is it possible yet to upgrade from 17.10 yet either from Discovery or using apt from the CML. I read a Ubuntu forum thread that sometimes you can get conflicting problems from old config files when upgrading due to new config files from having to many changes. Is this that much of an issue when going to the next version in sequence. Maybe just when you upgrade several versions at once. If 18.04 is very different from 17.10 then maybe I should just do a fresh install. I was hoping an upgrade would work as I have lots of programs installed ad configured that would be deleted if doing a fresh install.

[GreyGeek]

IMO, ALWAYS do a fresh install. You will be much happier and you won't be carrying old detritus from your previous install into your new one, possibly messing it up.

[jlittle]

Is it possible yet to upgrade from 17.10 yet either from Discovery or using apt from the CML. I read a Ubuntu forum thread that sometimes you can get conflicting problems from old config files when upgrading due to new config files from having to many changes.

Firstly, one doesn't use apt; sudo do-release-upgrade is the command, it's a python script.

Yes, sometimes there's problems. GreyGeek here often and strongly advises a fresh install.

I was hoping an upgrade would work as I have lots of programs installed ad configured that would be deleted if doing a fresh install.

There's the rub. I was pushed into a fresh install by 17.10 breaking a month ago, and I still haven't completed reinstalling and reconfiguring. My GTK apps' colours still don't work well, (white on white tooltips, uncolourized scroll-bars.) Migrating my mysql databases was a mission; run mysqldump first! (Of course, I found it hard to run stuff on a dead install.)

I suspect that those who advise a fresh install always, don't install much, and don't customize much. With KDE, this can be workable, it gives so much at a high level. I got into the habit of customizing a lot on environments that were pretty basic.

Now, I wouldn't do a fresh install over the top of your 17.10, or the release upgrade, without a couple of solid backups. I suppose you could try the release upgrade, and if it's not ok, do the fresh install. I would like to be confident that I could restore the OS install from backup.

Now, you could try both, if either:

1. You are using btrfs and know about things like snapshotting @ to @_artful and setting up @_artful to be bootable. This is my approach now.
2. You are using ext4 and have space, and know about things like mucking about with partitions, cloning them and setting them up to be bootable. I used to do this. (If you clone a partition, be sure to give the clone a new UUID, learned that one the hard way.)

If the upgrade is good, sweet, if not, use the fresh install.

[steve7233]

I tried the upgrade and about 25% into it, Konsel crashed!

[steve7233]

I can't get it to run the do-release-upgrade command. It says there is no new release. Probably got screwed up from the crash.

[steve7233]

I tried the upgrade and about 25% into it, Konsel crashed! I had to boot into the 4.13.0.9-generic kernel, because the newer one was not bootable. How do I fix this?

[steve7233]

Great! Driver Manager appears to be broken again! Probably the same problem as the last time it was broken. Remember it took forever to get it fixed back then, so how long will it be broken this time?

[steve7233]

I think I got it fixed with dpkg ---configure -a. Except the following packages:
rrors were encountered while processing:
libavdevice57:amd64
compiz-plugins-default:amd64
libwxgtk3.0-0v5:amd64
blender
libvtk6.3
openjdk-8-jre:amd64
libmlt6
xorg
It could not satisfy dependaces, so those packages were left unconfigured.

[GreyGeek]

Upgrading from 17.10

There is a two command sequence to fixing crashed installs, and they are repeated until no changes are reported
sudo apt -f install
sudo dpkg —configure -a


Also, fresh installs usually takes me 15-20 minutes. I do 3rd party installs of media drivers, etc., but no updates till after the install. I’ve been using Btrfs for three years and it makes restoring data and settings child’s play.
After the install I restore my data, unique applications and settings.

I mount my previous @home snapshot in mc and select what files & directories I want to restore, and copy them over, preserving permissions and links. What I don’t copy over are configurations set in the @ (root) volume because I don’t want to overwrite the new release’s dev set config. So, I’ll copy Jerry.face.icon to the login screen directory that holds them, etc. Btrfs makes a lot of Linux migration stuff easy., especially haunting data around.

[steve7233]

There is a two command sequence to fixing crashed installs, and they are repeated until no changes are reported
sudo apt -f install
sudo dpkg —configure -a

Also, fresh installs usually takes me 15-20 minutes. I do 3rd party installs of media drivers, etc., but no updates till after the install. I’ve been using Btrfs for three years and it makes restoring data and settings child’s play.
After the install I restore my data, unique applications and settings.

I mount my previous @home snapshot in mc and select what files & directories I want to restore, and copy them over, preserving permissions and links. What I don’t copy over are configurations set in the @ (root) volume because I don’t want to overwrite the new release’s dev set config. So, I’ll copy Jerry.face.icon to the login screen directory that holds them, etc. Btrfs makes a lot of Linux migration stuff easy., especially haunting data around.

I already ran those two commands. I think its mostly fixed now just need to get several hundred updates.

[steve7233]

Discovery update is now broken! I click on update. It grays out for a few seconds then I can click it again and get the same behavior. It never asks for my password. Closing and restarting the program dosn't fix it.

[steve7233]

Discover update is now broken. When I click on the update button, discovery grays out the button then after a few seconds I can click on the upgrade button again. It never asks for my password and never displays any error messages. Closing and restarting discovery does nothing. Rebooting dosen't fix it. I tried the konsel:

steve7233@steve7233-Z68XP-UD3:~$ discover
\Sorry, command-not-found has crashed! Please file a bug report at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/command-not-found/+filebug
Please include the following information with the report:

command-not-found version: 0.3
Python version: 3.6.5 final 0
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Release:        18.04
Codename:       bionic
Exception information:

[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/usr/share/command-not-found/programs.d'
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/CommandNotFound/util.py", line 24, in crash_guard
   callback()
 File "/usr/lib/command-not-found", line 89, in main
   cnf = CommandNotFound(options.data_dir)
 File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/CommandNotFound/CommandNotFound.py", line 131, in __init__
   for filename in os.listdir(os.path.sep.join([data_dir, self.programs_dir])):
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/usr/share/command-not-found/programs.d'
steve7233@steve7233-Z68XP-UD3:~$ \

[GreyGeek]

I already ran those two commands. I think its mostly fixed now just need to get several hundred updates.

Great!
Also,
sudo apt autoremove
will get rid of left-over libs and packages.

[GreyGeek]

Discovery update is now broken! I click on update. It grays out for a few seconds then I can click it again and get the same behavior. It never asks for my password. Closing and restarting the program dosn't fix it.

Did you rename it? No one else is reporting Discover to be broken.

[steve7233]

Did you rename it? No one else is reporting Discover to be broken.

It might have been because my broke system due to the crash. Its probably fixed now. I will try it again next time I need to update. I did a dist update and that installed several hundred updates. It was probably down to mismatched file versions until I used the konsle to dist update. Don't know If konsel crashed first or do-release-upgrade caused the crash.