Its that time again, where more and more folks are trying out the development version of Kubuntu 18.10, Cosmic Cuttlefish. This has its thrills, but it will also have its spills 
, so a few suggestions and warnings are warranted.
It goes without saying -- but I’ll say it anyway -- backing up your important data is vital, as is having a known good live CD or USB hanging around for rescue purposes.
In the early stages of development there is a rapid and constant flow of changes that at some point might break your install, at least temporarily. The earlier you try it out, the greater likelihood that you will experience breakage. Usually these clear out quickly with the next batch of updates, but it can be a day or more in many cases.
Often it's a new bug in an updated system library or application, but just as often it's simply that all the required packages haven't been uploaded to the repositories and their mirrors just yet. Outdated or incomplete binary drivers frequently bork desktops.
Again, this can take time to resolve, depending on how fast the creators (AMD and nVidia, for example) can fix things. We recommend avoiding proprietary drivers until they've been updated for this release, and even then there may be problems, so be prepared and forewarned.
Updating and upgrading:
So with that in hand, happy testing and pleasant breakages!
---
Please do post any issues you have had, especially if you have resolved them. Also, please remember that if something is broken now does not mean it will be that way later on, or that something is going to remain in a certain state in the final release. So with these things in mind, please try to keep the complaints about broken bits to a minimum. Kthxbai.
, so a few suggestions and warnings are warranted.It goes without saying -- but I’ll say it anyway -- backing up your important data is vital, as is having a known good live CD or USB hanging around for rescue purposes.
In the early stages of development there is a rapid and constant flow of changes that at some point might break your install, at least temporarily. The earlier you try it out, the greater likelihood that you will experience breakage. Usually these clear out quickly with the next batch of updates, but it can be a day or more in many cases.
Often it's a new bug in an updated system library or application, but just as often it's simply that all the required packages haven't been uploaded to the repositories and their mirrors just yet. Outdated or incomplete binary drivers frequently bork desktops.
Again, this can take time to resolve, depending on how fast the creators (AMD and nVidia, for example) can fix things. We recommend avoiding proprietary drivers until they've been updated for this release, and even then there may be problems, so be prepared and forewarned.
Updating and upgrading:
- We recommend using the command line for updating and upgrading. Using sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade will give you proper warnings with useful info that will help greatly. For example, any packages "held back" most likely indicate that an updated dependent package has not yet made it into the repositories. Generally, this is because the package is waiting in the build queue, or currently building, or waiting in the upload queue.
- Good links for possible issues to check out regularly are the Cosmic release notes (when posted) and the Kubuntu wiki. These do not always have Kubuntu-specific information, but do detail the underlying system changes that could cause problems for any Ubuntu-based system.
So with that in hand, happy testing and pleasant breakages!
---
Please do post any issues you have had, especially if you have resolved them. Also, please remember that if something is broken now does not mean it will be that way later on, or that something is going to remain in a certain state in the final release. So with these things in mind, please try to keep the complaints about broken bits to a minimum. Kthxbai.