[resolved?] Don't Update!

[personman]

Some updates seem to render the system somewhat unuseable. There is discussion on the ubuntu boards about it:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1267040

-Andy

[GreyGeek]

Re: Don't Update!

Some report it as a video configuration problem. Others report it as a KnetworkManager problem.

It cold be both.

One person solved the internet connection problem by using an ethernet cable connection to the back of their wireless, which is what I usually do when the wireless fails to connect. Switching to wicd has eliminated any KNetworkManager problems.

The possible video problem is a different beast. One suggested editing xorg.conf. The only problem with that is that Karmic does NOT use xorg.conf any more. Ubuntu decided to use HAL to configure the video chip/card automatically. Even the old standby, "dpgk-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg" does not work any more (althoiugh -plow does) because no dialog is offered to allow the user to select the video chip, resolution, bits, etc.... Even "dpkg-reconfigure -HAL" merely reruns the HAL and gives what was given before.

The only opiton I know of, if the video driver was updated and is the reason for the video failure, is to check your local deb archive for your previous video driver: /var/apt/cache, and if it is not there then download it from some package repository and install it. Roger 131, Dibl or Snowhog probably have better answers.

[personman]

Re: Don't Update!

Just to clarify, you can probably do an "aptitude update" and even a "aptitude safe-upgrade," but not "aptitude full-upgrade"

GreyGeek: I'm having some quite strange problems...USB keyboard and mouse failing to function, and a time and date that seem to go backward by 4 hours after some reboots, causing fsck to give errors about dates being in the future...in short, a mess. After a bit of messing around, I've managed to get to a root prompt with networking via the recovery mode. I'm checking for updates every so often.

[personman]

Re: Don't Update!

Some people on the ubuntu boards are claiming they are having issues after only a partial upgrade.

It seems to be related to the initialization scripts, which is probably why it causes such a wide variety of seemingly unrelated problems.

[dibl]

Re: Don't Update!

Just to clarify, you can probably do an "aptitude update" and even a "aptitude safe-upgrade," but not "aptitude full-upgrade"

I would agree -- either that or apt-get update -- neither should break anything, but apt-get dist-upgrade will bring in any new packages released for the distribution, and possibly (since 9.10 is still pre-release/testing) break it.

a time and date that seem to go backward by 4 hours after some reboots, causing fsck to give errors about dates being in the future...in short, a mess.

I recognize this -- this is an issue coming from upstream (Debian Sid), I think. It is affecting me in both Kubuntu and sidux. Basically the UTC timestamp is used on the filesystem during a normal shutdown - some problem caused by udev (see link below). It affects me if I shutdown one OS and immediately try to reboot into the other OS -- the second one complains that the timestamp is in the future, which it is, by 4 hours.

http://sidux.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-...04.html#135904

Until it is fixed in Debian, you'll have to cope by fsck'ing the affected partitions prior to booting the other OS (or you can wait 4 hours + 1 minute ).

I see the reports of Nvidia problems on Ubuntu Forums -- I'll check my system tonight and see if there's any problem there. It was fine this morning, after updating.

[personman]

Re: Don't Update!

I had no problems prior to today's updates. I have to fsck just to get in with write access, and on the next boot, i'll be another 4 hours back in time and have to reboot and fsck again. Seeing as this all cropped up suddenly I'll probably just wait and hope an update corrects things, rather than trying to correct all these various problems manually and individually. If all else fails, I may have to wipe them and reinstall :/

-Andy

[personman]

Re: Don't Update!

A couple updates have shown up that at least allow me to get to KDE and the fsck/time thing seems to have gone away. Still issues with networking.

I believe the updates were upstart and mountall, just FYI.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Don't Update!

mmmm.... that sounds familiar to in incident during the Jaunty alpha in which folks began updating their installations AFTER the developers started uploading the new changes, but BEFORE the uploads were completed. I was one of those eager Beavers but when I redid the update the next day everything was straightened out.

In this case, if the bad update hosed the internet connection it may take some fiddling to get things working again so the updates can be completed.

[personman]

Re: Don't Update!

That seems to be the case here as well, just bad timing for a full-upgrade on my part. I was able to get the network running with "sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager start" hopefully things will resolve themselves as the updates trickle in.

The adventurous with test boxes might try updating now and see how it goes. If you need a functional machine though, may wanna hold off a bit and see what the feedback is.

-Andy

[dibl]

Re: Don't Update!

Apparently I got lucky -- I ran a dist-upgrade this morning (US Eastern timezone) and then shut it down, and tonight it booted correctly -- I see no problems at all. I think I'll not upgrade for 24 hours now.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Don't Update!

This reminds me of "Jaws!"...

OK, whose going to be the first to dip their toe into the digital pool tomorrow night?

[dibl]

Re: Don't Update!

OK, whose going to be the first to dip their toe into the digital pool tomorrow night?

Heh heh heh -- yep, that is true.

Well, I'll probably try it tomorrow. This is a testing system, after all -- there's no "mission critical" data on it, that I don't have backed up elsewhere. But, so far I'm encouraged that this Karmic system might just hold together through the release in October. (crossing my fingers here ....)

[GreyGeek]

Re: Don't Update!

Me too. I am running this Karmic petition JUST to test it and give feedback via the launchpad. The situation just reminded me of the Jaw movie, and Personman was the guy who yelled "Shark!" The rest of us ran as fast as we could to shore. Unfortunately, there is blood in the water.

rof,lll the analogy just rolls on.


But, no use getting ones toe bit off if one knows that the jaws are still open. But I'm wagering that by tomorrow the developers will have a handle on the situation and good downloads will be in the pipe tomorrow.

I've been a programmer for 40 years, but the guys who roll out a distro as fine as Kubuntu is are an amazing crew! My hat is off to them!

[flarson]

Re: Don't Update!

For anyone who is stuck the problem is /bin/sh. When bash gets upgraded the symlink fails causing all init scripts and others that use /bin/sh to fail. Get a root shell and run

dpkg --configure -a

. You may need to run it twice. Then try

aptitude -f install

At that point most everything should be fixed and when you reboot uor init system will run, starting all the services that failed to start before.

Then run

aptitude update

and

aptitude -f full-upgrade

or safe-upgrade if you prefer, until everything is as it should be.

Some of you will probably see messages about your filesystem being read-only. If you do , run

sudo mount -o remount /

to remount it read-write so you can proceed.

[olembe]

Re: Don't Update!

Since updating this morning, I'm having problems where my system clock is being shifted one hour at shutdown, causing fsck checks at reboot. Am hoping for updates soon which will sort things out.

I propose an option for this forum which automatically prevents idiots like me from seeing any mention of alpha and beta versions of software. In this case it would block any posts mentioning 'Koala' until 22 October, thereby keeping us safe from temptation...