Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

[ckapsl]

I am presently running Kubuntu 7.10 Server AMD-64 (Gutsy) on an AMD Athlon X2 server 64-bit machine. I have VmWare running on this box to host Windows XP for some legacy applications. The machine is also a network file and print share. So I have to schedule downtime with it and can't fiddle too much with it or unhappiness will result

Questions:
1) Which Kubuntu should I upgrade to? 8? 9? What happened to the LTS release?
2) Should I upgrade from 7.10 to 8 and then to 9?

Thanks in advance,
Kevin

[ckapsl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

Bump.

Any ideas? I appreciate your help in advance

[Guest]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

Going from 7/64bit to 8/64bit broke alot of things for me so I personally wouldn't recomend it unless you have a day or so to clean up the mess.

[dibl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

8.04 was the LTS release, AFAIK.

I'd think long and hard about whether and why to upgrade that server, if it is mission-critical. Can you set up another server offline, and then swap it in for the 7.10 server? Can you take the 7.10 server offline, set up 9.04 on a different hard drive on the same platform, and then copy over the data, without disturbing the 7.10 hard drive? I think trying a straight upgrade of the 7.10 system has less than 50% chance of success, if the zillion posts about upgrade problems (for every version) are to be believed.

[sithlord48]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

thats a mighty large upgrade. i wouldn't do it either, dibl's off line suggestion is very good.if you can do that. if that is not an option. i would start reading in the 8.04 board and perhaps look in to just upgrading to HH (the current LTS version, 9.10 is the next one), i didn't ever do an upgrade from 7.10 to 8.04 but (again as dibl said) there are lots of reports of issues durring sed upgrade. after that is all done you could always upgrade from 8.04 to 9.10 after its complete.

[ckapsl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

Updates for 7.10 have dried up, which is why I would like to have this system stay current. The 8.04 LTS sounds like a reasonable option.

I have the ability to install a new OS on a new partition, configure it and then switch over to it one day. But I run a lot of applications (see below) and reinstalling them will be a bear. Although reconfiguring them if they break will also be a bear. Ugh, bad choices.

It sucks that an upgrade from 7.10 to 8.04 is so difficult. I have a lot of applications set up and configured on 7.10 It doesn't seem reasonable to require users to keep installing a new OS and reconfiguring everything from scratch. It will restrict Ubuntu to just hobbyists.

This is the stuff that I run on this box that I would have to reinstall and reconfigure:
MD RAID + LVM
VNC resumable sessions
Vmware
Subversion version control of system config files
smbldap which supports Samba, Windows and Windows authentication
phpldapadmin
Postfix
CUPS printing support for Windows clients
A Brother laser printer and scanner with scanning support
Apache + MySQL
UPS support

So a fresh install to get back to today's exact functionality is most certainly about 2 days worth of work.

So do I pay the devil now or later? And will this situation change in the future? Ubuntu has to be more upgrade friendly or it isn't worth it for any Production system.

[sithlord48]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

i did recently upgrade my server from 8.10 to 9.04 (mind you my server runs gnome and is not bound to any kde related issues) and the upgrade went very smooth, on my server i run the following things.

samba shares
nfs shares
ssh
NX
vnc (mainly for local admin of the two gui programs the machine is running)
lamp
hfs (via wine)
custom xorg (so vnc is not stuck @ 640x480 because there is no monitor)
/etc/network/interfaces is manually bound to an ip as well as custom resolv.conf as well (my router does not support dhcp w/ static clients).
i am sure i have left a few things out i have configured a lot of this system by manually editing config files.

after the install i didn't have to change ne thing. every thing worked as it did before the update.

i also have a laptop that i upgraded from 8.10 that does run kubuntu and that also went incrediblly smooth. only thing needed after the update was to re-enable my "extra repos" and remove adept(for some reason it leaves it on the upgraded machine)

that being said i think that the upgrade process is getting much better. you could always install ubuntu-desktop and set up gnome then upgrade that (gnome has not undergone as many changes as kde between 7.10 and 9.04), but i would still stick w/ 8.04 untill the next LTS version is out.

if you take the route of install another os on the machine you should be able to move most if not all of you config files for the things that you need like your smb.conf and vmware disk(s) and other related data.

[dibl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

I support a relative's Kubuntu system that I built for her, originally as 7.04. I typically wait until a few weeks or a month after a new release, and then do the "full-upgrade", and it has never failed. I updated it last weekend to 9.04 and it seems to be working fine. But it is a light-duty desktop, not a server.

But, starting with 7.10 when the current release is 9.04 is a different proposition -- it's three versions old. That's why I don't offer good odds of success. I don't think Ubuntu is to blame for a person's choice to wait 18 months to upgrade either -- it is a core, publicized principle of Canonical to release a new version every 6 months, and a new LTS every other year or so. They don't say "wait three versions, then plan for a successful transition to the current version".

It doesn't seem reasonable to require users to keep installing a new OS and reconfiguring everything from scratch.

That's not really the case -- where's the "requirement"? If your server is functioning satisfactorily, there's no need to update it.

[ckapsl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

There's no requirement, other than the need to keep up to date For instance, 7.10 has only Firefox 2. There are some other issues with 7.10 - the kernel has some issues with my IDE CD drive, and Samba is pretty old too with some issues with DFS support. At some point, even servers need to be updated. Else, I would still be running Windows NT 3.5 Advanced Server

It may be that upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04 is not going to be a huge deal. I can easily budget a full day for it and do it on the weekend, and just fix the things that break. I already have a checklist of tests to run before and after the upgrade. When I went from Ubuntu 6 to 7, about 80% of the functionality worked and 20% needed some fixing.

What do you think of this upgrade path in general:

• Upgrade now to 8.04 LTS
• Wait for 1 year, skipping the intermediate 6 month releases
• Upgrade to the next LTS, by upgrading to each 6 month release in succession
• Repeat.

Is this reasonable and feasible for Production systems?

[ckapsl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

By the way, this link below shows two years between LTS releases:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...elease_history

[dibl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

Yep, "every other year" = once every two years.

I don't know exactly what will happen if you push the "Full Upgrade" button on your 7.10 system. If we were talking about it in May of 2008, I would know that you will get 8.04. Today, I'm not so sure ... :P

I would advise to prepare for the worst, and then give the button a push and see what happens. If you end up installing from scratch, at least you'll be prepared with your CD and some time for the project.

For a production system, I'd install 8.04. As you know, if you have checked, KDE 4.2 is the DE that was released with 9.04. But KDE 4 is still rather developmental, as compared to KDE 3.5.9 or 3.5.10. Plus, KDE 4 is a very different beast than KDE 3.5. So, you probably don't need a big learning curve for the DE on top of configuring a new server to replace the 7.10 server. That's why I'd advise to install 8.04 and configure your server on it and be done. Then maybe you can install 9.04 on a personal computer or something and get familiar with KDE 4, so when the next LTS comes out you'll be ready for it.

[flarson]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

I agree that "pushing the button" is something of an unknown quantity at this time. People with 8.04 that did that a few weeks ago ended up going straight to 9.04 with much breakage. I think that you should manually edit your sources.list to change everything to 8.04 and do the upgrade with aptitude. You will almost certainly have a more pleasant experience and you will be assured that you will go to 8.04.

[ckapsl]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

Thanks. I found this link:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades/Kubuntu

Is it still valid? Or should I manually edit the sources.list file first? I looked but cannot find any documentation for a manual edit. Any pointers are appreciated.

[flarson]

Re: Upgrade path from Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy AMD64?

Thanks. I found this link:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades/Kubuntu

Is it still valid? Or should I manually edit the sources.list file first? I looked but cannot find any documentation for a manual edit. Any pointers are appreciated.

That is the whole point of our posts. Is it still valid? or will it now try to take you to 8.10 or 9.04? Other than that it is still using adept, which uses the apt libraries and will probably do a decent job of upgrading.