Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

[mhumm2]

For some reason when I start the upgrade process, there are a lot of programs that are being held back from upgrading. I really need someone to walk me through the process of correcting this so I can proceed with the upgrade.

I'll be closely monitoring this for replies since I really want to get this upgrade done this weekend (8/23/08). Thanks.

[toad]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

Could you please tell us how you started the upgrade incl. info on your /etc/apt/sources.list? The more info we have, the better equipped we are to help you

[mhumm2]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

Hello Toad;

Thanks for responding. Here's my sources.list

deb [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty main restricted 
deb-src [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty main restricted 

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-updates main restricted 
deb-src [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-updates main restricted 

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'universe'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.
# deb [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] edgy universe 
# deb-src [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] edgy universe 

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse 
# deb-src [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse 

deb [url]http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-security main restricted 
deb-src [url]http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-security main restricted 
# deb [url]http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] edgy-security universe 
# deb-src [url]http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] edgy-security universe 
deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty universe multiverse 
deb [url]http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu/[/url] gutsy main 
## Viewizard Games repository
## deb [url]http://viewizard.com/linux[/url] debian/
## deb [url]http://http.us.debian.org/debian[/url] sid main

## Virtualbox sources:
## deb [url]http://www.virtualbox.org/debian[/url] gutsy non-free 
## deb [url]http://www.virtualbox.org/debian[/url] feisty non-free


#AUTOMATIX REPOS

## deb [url]http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/[/url] feisty main 

deb [url]http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-commercial main 

deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-backports main restricted universe multiverse 

deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-updates universe multiverse 

deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-security main restricted universe multiverse

Next the terminal response to upgrading:

$ sudo apt-get -u dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
 akregator amarok amarok-xine ark celestia digikam gwenview k3b kaddressbook kaffeine kaffeine-mozilla
 kaffeine-xine kalzium kamera karm kasteroids katapult kate kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcalc kcontrol
 kcron kde-guidance kde-guidance-powermanager kde-style-polyester kde-systemsettings kdeadmin-kfile-plugins
 kdebase-bin kdebase-kio-plugins kdebluetooth kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelibs4c2a
 kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdemultimedia-kio-plugins kdenetwork-filesharing kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
 kdepasswd kdepim-kio-plugins kdepim-kresources kdepim-wizards kdeprint kdesktop kdevelop kdm kdnssd keep
 kexi kfind kftpgrabber kghostview khelpcenter kicker kio-apt kio-locate kipi-plugins klipper kmag kmahjongg
 kmail kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines kmix kmoon kmousetool kmplayer-base kmplayer-konq-plugins
 kmymoney2 knetworkconf knetworkmanager knights knotes kodo koffice-libs kolf konq-plugins konqueror
 konqueror-nsplugins konsole kontact konversation kooka kopete korganizer kpat kpdf kpf kpoker kppp kradio
 krdc krecipes krename krfb kscd kscreensaver ksensors ksirtet ksmserver ksnapshot kspaceduel ksplash
 ksplash-engine-moodin kstars ksvg ksysguard ksystemlog ktechlab ktorrent ktrack kubuntu-default-settings
 kubuntu-docs kubuntu-konqueror-shortcuts kwalletmanager kwin kwin-style-crystal kworldclock kxmame
 libcvsservice0 libk3b2 libk3b2-mp3 libkbanking1 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3 libkdegames1 libkdepim1a
 libkexif1 libkexiv2-0 libkipi0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2 libkonq4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1
 libkscan1 libksieve0 libktnef1 libskim0 networkstatus openoffice.org-kde python-kde3 schafkopf skim
 superkaramba wlassistant
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 cryptsetup linux-headers-2.6.20-17 linux-headers-2.6.20-17-generic linux-image-2.6.20-17-generic
 linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20-17-generic openssl-blacklist winbind
The following packages have been kept back:
 ksysguardd poppler-utils python-qt4 python-sip4
The following packages will be upgraded:
 bzip2 ca-certificates cupsys cupsys-bsd cupsys-client cupsys-common firefox gs-esp gs-esp-x
 gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gtk-qt-engine gtk2-engines-gtk-qt kdebase-data kdelibs-data language-pack-en
 language-pack-kde-en libbz2-1.0 libcdio6 libcupsimage2 libcupsys2 libgnutls13 libgs-esp8 libhsqldb-java
 libicu36 libiso9660-4 libkrb53 libmysqlclient15off libnspr4 libnss3 libpcre3 libpoppler1 libpoppler1-qt
 libpq5 libruby1.8 libsdl-image1.2 libsmbclient libspeex1 libssl0.9.8 linux-generic linux-headers-2.6.20-16
 linux-headers-2.6.20-16-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-2.6.20-16-generic linux-image-generic
 linux-libc-dev linux-restricted-modules-common linux-restricted-modules-generic mysql-common nvidia-glx
 openoffice.org openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-common openoffice.org-core
 openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-filter-mobiledev openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-java-common
 openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-style-andromeda openoffice.org-style-crystal openoffice.org-style-default
 openoffice.org-writer openssh-client openssl python-uno python2.4 python2.4-dev python2.4-minimal python2.5
 python2.5-dev python2.5-doc python2.5-examples python2.5-minimal rsync ruby1.8 samba-common smbclient
 ssl-cert ttf-opensymbol tzdata unzip vorbis-tools wine xserver-xorg-core
85 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 150 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 259MB of archives.

As you can see, the system wants to REMOVE a lot of programs and applications I'm still using and I don't understand why.

You also asked specifically HOW I'm trying to upgrade. I started using a plain terminal window, but I'm open to any method that will give me a good upgrade. If you need any more information, just let me know.

mhumm2

[toad]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

And what does "sudo apt-get -s upgrade" give you? The -s flag is for simulation only...

[mhumm2]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

Toad;

That's a nice switch (-s). Here are the results minus the individual Inst and Conf simulation lines:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
 amarok amarok-xine kate kcontrol kdebase-bin kdebase-data kdebase-kio-plugins kdelibs-data kdelibs4c2a kdepasswd kdeprint kdesktop kdm kfind khelpcenter kicker klipper
 kmenuedit konqueror konqueror-nsplugins konsole ksmserver ksplash ksysguard ksysguardd kwin libkonq4 linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
 linux-restricted-modules-generic poppler-utils python-qt4 python-sip4 ssl-cert wine
The following packages will be upgraded:
 bind9-host bzip2 ca-certificates cupsys cupsys-bsd cupsys-client cupsys-common dnsutils ffmpeg firefox gs-esp gs-esp-x gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gtk-qt-engine
 gtk2-engines-gtk-qt ktorrent language-pack-en language-pack-kde-en libavcodec0d libavformat0d libbind9-0 libbz2-1.0 libcdio6 libcupsimage2 libcupsys2 libdns22
 libgnutls13 libgs-esp8 libhsqldb-java libicu36 libisc11 libisccc0 libisccfg1 libiso9660-4 libkrb53 liblwres9 libmysqlclient15off libnspr4 libnss3 libpcre3 libpoppler1
 libpoppler1-qt libpq5 libruby1.8 libsdl-image1.2 libsmbclient libspeex1 libssl0.9.8 libxine-extracodecs libxine-main1 libxine1 libxine1-ffmpeg libxslt1.1 linux-generic
 linux-headers-2.6.20-16 linux-headers-2.6.20-16-generic linux-image-2.6.20-16-generic linux-libc-dev linux-restricted-modules-common mozilla-thunderbird mysql-common
 nvidia-glx openoffice.org openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-common openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-filter-mobiledev
 openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-java-common openoffice.org-kde openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-style-andromeda openoffice.org-style-crystal
 openoffice.org-style-default openoffice.org-writer openssh-client openssl python-uno python2.4 python2.4-dev python2.4-minimal python2.5 python2.5-dev python2.5-doc
 python2.5-examples python2.5-minimal rsync ruby1.8 samba-common smbclient ttf-opensymbol tzdata unzip vorbis-tools xserver-xorg-core xsltproc
98 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 35 not upgraded.

First question: Why the difference? Before with the dist-upgrade command, the system wanted to remove 150 programs. Now with a simulated upgrade, none would be removed.

Second question: Why are 38 apps being held back? Dependency issues perhaps? If so, I don't understand how there could be for some of the base system programs. Others, like wine I don't really care about anyway.

mhumm2

[Snowhog]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

The difference is in the command issued.

You first went with:

 sudo apt-get -u dist-upgrade

and then (per Toad):

sudo apt-get -s upgrade

See the difference?

To simulate your original command, type:

sudo apt-get -s -u dist-upgrade

[toad]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

Snowhog put it succinctly, the command is different.

Why the difference? You really answered it yourself, the dependencies
And upgrading is a tough business. The few times I have done it I found that I had to cycle through a few "normal" upgrades (sudo apt-get upgrade) and dist-upgrades (sudo apt-get install dist-upgrade) to get all the packages up to scratch.

[mhumm2]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

Okay, first of all, I understand there's a difference between -u and -s, that's not what I meant. Why is there such a difference in results with those two different commands? Why does one want to remove 150 progs while the other wants to hold back 38 progs?

Question 2:

The few times I have done it I found that I had to cycle through a few "normal" upgrades (sudo apt-get upgrade) and dist-upgrades (sudo apt-get install dist-upgrade) to get all the packages up to scratch.

Now I'm really confused. Why would the OS do something different when issued the same command over and over? What changed for the OS to "get all the packages up to scratch?" I would prefer to do the necessary work up front so the upgrade to the next dist is a complete one. Is that possible?

What exactly is the process for a complete upgrade from 7.04 to 7.10? I'm been researching that and reading the steps, but there's nothing about overcoming the issue I'm having with the upgrade not wanting to take all my programs along. I don't want any progs removed or "held back." Please advise.

mhumm2

[jglen490]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

To do an upgrade vs. clean install requires that the current version be completely up to date. If the upgrader detects that a package isn't up to date, it can't perform the upgrade. I'm not sure what the programmed assumptions may be - perhaps dependencies. Nonetheless, that's the way it is. It has nothing to do with the OS, but everything to do with the way the upgrader is written.

To ensure the current version is up to date, requires that the updater be run - maybe once, maybe twice, maybe three times. Just to be sure that all the repos have been scanned for all the updates and that all dependencies are resolved.

Maybe it's not the handiest, but then again, a clean install has it's peculiarities, too.

In my opinion, the clean install is more "sure".

[mhumm2]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

jglen490;

Okay, I'll take a lot of what you wrote as a "given." I'm trying to piece together a complete process of exactly what I need to do.

To do an upgrade vs. clean install requires that the current version be completely up to date.

Okay, then how do I do that exactly? I performed

apt-get update

which seemed to work well. According to the manual page, the update command resynchronizes the package index files from their sources. and updates my sources.list. BTW, should I change my source.list from 7.04 to 7.10 before I upgrade? Would that solve my problem? If so, how do I do that? I also ran

apt-get check

which reported no broken dependencies.

Again friends, I appreciate the philosophy and feedback correction when I'm wrong, but right now, after several months and postings, I would just like a step by step process of how to upgrade my system from 7.04 to 7.10 !!! Please advise.

mhumm2

[Fintan]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

Looking at your sources list (very confusing) I can assure you that you will have a problem with upgrading to gutsy.

First off you have edgy feisty and gutsy stuff in there. Okay, they are commented out but suggest they were used at some time to install something.

The main culprit is automatix but possibly other third party apps like virtulbox and games.

Gutsy (7.10) hates automatix, period.

I won't dwell on that here but you can find plenty on that subject here.

And getting rid of all traces of automatix, not to mention other thirdparty stuff is a real pain.

My humble advice (born from painfull experience ) is the following:

- If you have a separate /home partition rename .kde to .kdeold and do a clean Hardy installation using the manual partitioning feature.
Then you can copy/paste all your kontact, konqueror, etc settings over from old to new.

- If you don't have a separate /home back up your /home files and then make a separate /home, /swap (1gig) / (root) partition with the gparted live CD:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

There is plenty of valuable info on partitioning on that side as well should you need it.

Then do a clean Hardy installation using the manual partitioning feature choosing your partition accordingly.

I hope this is of some help

[mhumm2]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

Fintan;

Thank you so much for posting to this thread. Yes, your post is helpful. If you don't mind, please bear with me a bit longer...

Since your post, I've taken the following actions:

1. I cleaned out my Sources.List. Here it is for your review. Hopefully I've eliminated the confusion.

mark@Mark-AMD:/etc/apt$ cat sources.list

# Sources List updated 5-Sep-2008

deb [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty main restricted

deb-src [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty main restricted

deb [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-updates main restricted

deb-src [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-updates main restricted

deb [url]http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-security main restricted

deb-src [url]http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-security main restricted

deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty universe multiverse

deb [url]http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-commercial main

deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-updates universe multiverse

deb [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/url] feisty-security main restricted universe multiverse

You're correct, since Automatix is not a package, I don't know how to remove it from the terminal nor do I know where it is exactly in my file system.

2. I was able to remove the virtualbox package from a terminal. Not a problem since I never could get it to work very well anyway.

Okay, it seems that the sources list is the key preparation to upgrading. I get that, so how should I prep my sources list? I removed all URLs pertaining to gutsy so the only ones left are for feisty (7.04), but I want to start with an upgrade to gutsy (7.10). I thought all I had to do was update my sources list. Apparently that's not correct...

mark@Mark-AMD:~$ sudo apt-get update
Get:1 [url]http://archive.canonical.com[/url] feisty-commercial Release.gpg [189B]
Ign [url]http://archive.canonical.com[/url] feisty-commercial/main Translation-en_US
Get:2 [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security Release.gpg [189B]
Ign [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/main Translation-en_US
Get:3 [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty Release.gpg [191B]
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/universe Translation-en_US
Get:4 [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty Release.gpg [191B]
Ign [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/main Translation-en_US
Get:5 [url]http://wine.budgetdedicated.com[/url] feisty Release.gpg [191B]
Ign [url]http://wine.budgetdedicated.com[/url] feisty/main Translation-en_US
Hit [url]http://archive.canonical.com[/url] feisty-commercial Release
Ign [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security Release
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/multiverse Translation-en_US
Get:6 [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports Release.gpg [189B]
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/main Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/universe Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/restricted Translation-en_US
Get:7 [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates Release.gpg [189B]
Ign [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty Release
Hit [url]http://wine.budgetdedicated.com[/url] feisty Release
Hit [url]http://archive.canonical.com[/url] feisty-commercial/main Packages
Hit [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/main Packages
Get:8 [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates Release.gpg [189B]
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Get:9 [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security Release.gpg [189B]
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates Release
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://wine.budgetdedicated.com[/url] feisty/main Packages
Hit [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/restricted Packages
Hit [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/main Sources
Hit [url]http://security.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/restricted Sources
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/universe Translation-en_US
Ign [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty Release
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports Release
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/main Packages
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/restricted Packages
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/main Sources
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/restricted Sources
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates Release
Hit [url]http://wine.budgetdedicated.com[/url] feisty/main Sources
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/main Packages
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/restricted Packages
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/main Sources
Hit [url]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/restricted Sources
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security Release
Hit [url]http://wine.budgetdedicated.com[/url] feisty/main Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/universe Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/multiverse Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/main Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/restricted Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/universe Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-backports/multiverse Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/universe Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-updates/multiverse Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/main Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/restricted Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/universe Packages
Hit [url]http://archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty-security/multiverse Packages
Fetched 9B in 1s (6B/s)
Reading package lists... Done

I don't understand why update returned so many URLs. Apparently it has nothing to do with the sources.list I cleaned out and has everything to do with what packages are already installed on my system.

Your recommending I create a new 1 gig partition and designate it /home and /swap for a new install. Is that correct? Right now 7.04 occupies 5GB out of a 17GB drive. Would I then use the other partitions from 7.04 ? Sorry I'm so slow with this. You'd never guess that I'm a whiz with partitioning and installing Windoze systems. Please advise.

mhumm2

[jglen490]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

I'll try not to stomp on Fintan's wisdom, but what he is suggesting is a fresh install of Gutsy. But take it slow, make yourself a checklist if you need to. The object is to not lose any of your data.

However, before proceeding, check to see if you already have /home on a separate partition.
If you do, then follow his advice about moving .kde to .kdeold. You can then install Gutsy without the need to re-format /home. Gutsy will do its thing and put all the new stuff it needs onto your /home, but in a new .kde directory. Once the install is done, you can copy stuff such a config file from .kdeold to your new .kde - just be careful, and if you have any questions or concerns ask first.
If you do not have /home on a separate partition, then copy your current /home stuff somewhere (i.e., CD, DVD, USB device, it doesn't matter, just save it to some place off your computer - AND DOUBLE CHECK TO BE SURE IT IS ALL ACCOUNTED FOR). Then re-partition your drive with a fresh /, a fresh /home, and a fresh swap. At that point install Gutsy. Once done, copy the configurations and other files from your backup. Again, take it slow and easy. I know - I've rushed this process before and lost 6 months of work. It's a bummer when that happens.

[Fintan]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help

You're correct, since Automatix is not a package, I don't know how to remove it from the terminal nor do I know where it is exactly in my file system.

It is not just automatix but also ALL of the stuff you installed with automatix gutsy or Hardy for that matter does not like and tracking all of that down and removing their traces is a big pain.

jglen is right, I am suggesting a fresh install, but with Hardy (8.04) This for two reasons:
- The automatix and third party issues
- Upgrades from feisty to gutsy have been known to have problems.

Backing up is always a prerequisite.
Backing up:
As already suggested what ever is best for you CD, DVD, USB or another Partition if available.


So here is the checklist I would humbly suggest:
Rename .kde to .kdeold (this is a hidden file within/home so you will have to activate view->view hidden files in Konqueror)

Partitioning/moving home:
- /home= the rest or as much as you want format as ext3
you will want to do this first and leave the next steps for later.

Use the gparted live cd and read the partitioning documentation on the page.
Basicly you have to resize your 17gig drive to 7gig and make a new partition for /home s large as you like and format as ext3. Write down the partition number for that partition (hdax) where x is a number.

Next reboot into your system, if that is still possible after all your upgrading failures or boot up a live cd (Hardy is best for this)
Now you will have to mount your partitions from system settings->harddisks&files.
Mount the partition you made for /home as /newhome and follow these instructions you can also find here:
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/01/29/move-home-to-its-own-partition/

Quote from above link:

(You have to change the “hda5″ in the above to the correct partition label for the new partition. Also, the above assumes that the new partition you created is formatted as an ext3 partition. Change the “ext3″ to whatever filesystem the drive is formatted to.)

Now, Copy files over:
Since the “/home” directory will have hardlinks, softlinks, files and nested directories, a regular copy (cp) may not do the job completely. Therefore, we use something we learn from the Debian archiving guide:

$cd /home/
$find . -depth -print0 | cpio –null –sparse -pvd /mnt/newhome/

Make sure everything copied over correctly. You might have to do some tweaking and honing to make sure you get it all right, just in case.

Next, unmount the new partition:

$sudo umount /mnt/newhome

Make way for the new “home”

$sudo mv /home /old_home

Since we moved /home to /old_home, there is no longer a /home directory. So first we should recreate a new /home by:

sudo mkdir /home

Mount the new home:

$sudo mount /dev/hda5 /home

(Again, you have to change “hda5″ to whatever the new partition’s label is.)

Cursorily verify that everything works right.

Now, you have to tell Ubuntu to mount your new home when you boot. Add a line to the “/etc/fstab” file that looks like the following:

/dev/hda5 /home ext3 nodev,nosuid 0 2
(Here, change the partition label “hda5″ to the label of the new partition, and you may have to change “ext3″ to whatever filesystem you chose for your new “home”)

Once all this is done, and everything works fine, you can delete the “/old_home” directory by using:

$sudo rm -r /old_home

Michael, Russ and Magnus posted this solution on the ubuntu-users mailing list a few months ago.

Now you can reboot the gparted cd and do the rest:
- / = 6-7 GIG format as ext3
- /swap max. 1GIG

Okay you are set to do a fresh install with the hardy live cd (choose installation from the live cd boot menu) and choose the manual partitioning choice when you get there (I think it is step3).

Here you will choose those partitions you made and give them their mount points accordingly (DO NOT format /home!!!!!!!)

Finish your installation as usual.

I hope this helps

[mhumm2]

Re: Trying to Upgrade From 7.04 to 7.10 Please Help RESOLVED !

OMG!!! I have some work to do ...and to think that I wanted to be a Linux user

I will have to study your post more carefully Fintan and Jglen, but in the mean time, I will burn a Hardy 8.04 CD for the install.

From your post, I assume that I can also get a gparted live CD and since I'm working on my HD, I will be using the gparted CD to run the application.

Issue 1:
Please understand that I intend to follow your instructions and suggestions to the best of my ability, but understanding the reason behind those instructions allows me to grow and mitigate the need to ask similar questions. The most difficult part for me to get my brain around is understanding why I need to rename, repartition and copy my /home partition off of the HD only to copy the data in it back into the new partition after the install.

Doesn't it accomplish the same result to just copy the data from /home (off HD of course) and then install Hardy (with automatic partitioning) and then copy the old /home data files back into the new /home partition created automatically by Hardy? Again, I'm a former Windoze user so if there's some important detail I'm missing, don't hesitate to educate me -- I'm very teachable right now!

Issue 2:
Since I did use Windoze for some many years, I have all my data files safely stored off of my boot HD so I'm not worried about those files. From your instructions, I assume that all the applications I've installed are stored on my /home partition; is this correct? Are the apps stored in those hidden "dot" folders (e.g. .gubg, .automatix, etc.). If so, that certainly does make it easier to backup a Kubuntu HD. Then all I have to do is get those dot-folders back into my /home partition and it's the same as having those apps installed? Somehow I think I'm missing something here. Hardy will install upgraded versions of a lot of those apps so how do I prevent conflicts?

Issue 3:
This actually goes along with Issue 2. You both mentioned config files. That's a huge concern because it took a long time for me to "tweak" those files to make things work. Wouldn't it be a good idea to save those files off of the HD as well? Off the top of my head, I can only name two: Xorg.conf and fstab, but I know there are a lot more in other partitions like /etc. Please advise and thank you both so much.

mhumm2