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Thread: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

  1. #1
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    Arrow 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    Alright, here are a few things to think about before upgrading to 12.04 regardless if you're completely comfortable with Ubuntu or not. I just finished my upgrade from Xubuntu 11.10 to 12.04 even though the upgrade manager calls it an Ubuntu 12.04 upgrade (understandably so). Today was the first time since Ubuntu 9.04 that I used the Update Manager to do everything automatic by clicking the upgrade button. I keep referring Linux/Ubuntu to others, even Seniors, and I wanted to make sure that I can safely recommend the automatic upgrade ... which sad to say, I can't.

    In the past I always backed up my home folder (all of my other stuff is on external drives anyway), followed by installing the new upgrade from an ISO image on DVD. Another reason why I didn't do that this time is because I've really customized my desktop and didn't want to spend an hour to an hour and a half reconfiguring my 6 custom panels, personally created icons, and so on. As far as timing is concerned, that would have been a far better choice ... even though my automatic upgrade worked flawless with zero problems the first time around.

    Okay then, so why wouldn't I recommend the automatic upgrade option?

    In my opinion an automatic upgrade should be exactly that, in order to avoid confusing any (millions) users with commands that they may not be familiar with. There's just no point to an automatic upgrade if it isn't actually fully automatic ... click the button ... go to bed ... wake up and everything is fine (or not) ... For someone with little experience the fresh ISO installation would be better choice (even for beginners) because it would save literally hours of your time while possibly being less confusing too. Remember, I stated that I had zero problems with the upgrade, but here's what I experienced from beginning to end ... which took 5 hours and 50 minutes on a 40 mbps connection, beginning at 07:00 AM this morning Eastern time (04:00 AM California time).

    First, keeping the terminal view option (tiny arrow, left side) open during the upgrade proved to be a lifesaver because when libc6 was being retrieved, the upgrade process literally came to a halt. I didn't notice it for about 15 minutes, so that's when I opened up the terminal option only to find that there was a prompt which required me to hit the enter key for OKAY. Had I not done that, I'd be sitting at that spot right now over 6 hours later. This was followed by 2 or 3 more okay functions that I had to respond to within the following 5 minutes or so.

    Then, about 5 hours later I had to respond to a query about my old Network Manager. A little while after that I had to respond to a query about my Grub configuration which might have turned into a nightmare for any inexperienced user who's hoping that the automatic upgrade button does exactly what it implies. Luckily those last two queries appeared in a small window so that couldn't be missed like those first few queries.

    Aside from compiz there are no other oddball applications (heavy 3D games, Wine for Windows compatibility, Virtual Box, etc.) on my machine. So again, I want to stress that the upgrade did complete perfectly after almost 6 hours (already compensated for the lost 15 minutes). If I had done a clean installation from an ISO image the installation would have taken roughly 30 minutes, followed by an hour and a half or so of customizing, installing backed up applications, and so on. So either upgrade option appears to be just fine, as long as you're aware of the fact that A. the automatic upgrade takes substantially longer, and B. you'll need to keep the terminal view open during the upgrade to make sure that you don't miss any important (clib6) prompts.

    So should you upgrade at all? Well, I can't speak for anyone else but my computer which was already really fast to begin with, now appears to be even faster yet. No regrets, I'm happy. But if you're already content with your current setup, then you might want to hold off for awhile and enjoy that which is already working for you. I hope this helps someone ...

    .
    PLEASE ... don't waste anyone's time (your own included) with foolish or utterly useless comments!

  2. #2
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    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    Two days later ...
    Okay, I am experiencing some problems, but nothing that I'd consider a major issue.

    1. I have random application crashes every few hours, even for applications that I'm not using. Last night for example I received a crash report on my system for the Totem movie player ... but I haven't used Totem for at least a week before doing the upgrade. Weird stuff. The Software Center generated a couple of crash reports ... even though it appears to be working just fine. There was another one but I can't remember what that was about anymore ... sorry.

    2. Twice I've checked for software updates and twice I received the "System must be restarted" message even before the update check had completed. Restart icon appears in the tray too. Now that's kind of annoying since it's not certain whether or not the system actually does need to be restarted. I ignored it the second time ...

    3. My sound hardware doesn't work properly any more. It does work just fine, but only after I change the hardware settings if the machine was rebooted. In other words, the settings aren't saved to the system, so every reboot requires that I manually enter the sound settings, followed by selecting my surround sound setup.

    4. Oh, and this is totally trivial but I'm a big fan of kshisen, the KDE tile game. Well, for some reason this game, and only this game out of everything else that I've tested so far, now performs like a slug ... sometimes requiring several seconds before two marked tiles drop away ... on a quad core system with 8 GB of RAM.

    .
    PLEASE ... don't waste anyone's time (your own included) with foolish or utterly useless comments!

  3. #3
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    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    Quote Originally Posted by WinRiddance View Post
    ... In the past I always backed up my home folder (all of my other stuff is on external drives anyway), followed by installing the new upgrade from an ISO image on DVD.
    If your home directory is on a separate partition then all of your data is safe if you do a clean install of Ubuntu. I have used every single version of Ubuntu since the inaugural 4.10. I always do clean installs instead of dist-upgrades and I never have problems.
    Quote Originally Posted by WinRiddance View Post
    Another reason why I didn't do that this time is because I've really customized my desktop and didn't want to spend an hour to an hour and a half reconfiguring my 6 custom panels, personally created icons, and so on. ...
    If your home directory is on a separate partition, then all of the hidden config files that contain your personal settings in you home directory would be preserved.

    To reinstall all of the programs that you use after a clean install you can use these dpkg commands: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...75&postcount=5
    Registered Linux User #422464 http://linuxcounter.net/
    Use the search engine that respects your privacy rights: https://startpage.com/

  4. #4
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    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    That's interesting. On a much slower connection the installer announced a 5 hour upgrade for me, too, only to tick the minutes back in seconds.

    The upgrade from 11.10 to 12.04 took something less than 2 hours, and that was the day of the release. I was present and I answered a few questions. TTF from MS and a question from Adobe come to mind, and my answers were correct since I' writing this from the upgraded computer.

    YMMV, is an expression. For people with a plain vanilla system who want an upgrade in a week or two I can really recommend the automatic upgrade.

    And for the experts who know the difference: make up your own mind.

  5. #5
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    Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    thanks WinRi, this exactly what happended to me, at the same point, i just wasted two hours wainting, i click enter and it resumed, this post should be pinned, i have seen many people having trouble because of this AUTOMACTIC upgrade, thanks again; like popcorn?
    intel quad 6600 Bo 8G ram, asus PK5dluxe, 1@500G and 1@1tb sataII JBOD, asus ati 5450 @500mb ddr3

  6. #6
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    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    @tommcd

    Thanks, but you were missing one of my main points ... the fact that I recommend Ubuntu/Xubuntu to others, including Seniors who don't have a clue about computers. There are literally millions of them. My parents would never be able to buy some cheap computer followed by inserting the ISO CD and understanding even that simple process to install Ubuntu/Xubuntu. It's one thing that the Linux community likes to forget about since "they" are so used to "everyone" being able to install with a CD. The CD is great if you have at least a little bit of limited knowledge and if you know how to back up your home folder in the first place. Seems like that should be simple enough because we take our own experiences far too granted, it's not that simple though when you've never owned a computer or installed the first piece of software yourself ...

    And it's not just "certain seniors" either. Anyone who's uncomfortable about computers or not keyboard proficient at all or totally 100% new to computers ... would have a much more enjoyable experience with an upgrade button, as opposed to a CD. That's the main reason why I chose the button upgrade, to see if I could recommend it to some of the Seniors whom I know. Personally, I've installed at least haf a dozen flavors of Linux at least 100 times so it doesn't make a difference to me if it's a clean install or not ...

    @gabrielaca ... Thanks for the popcorn.

    .
    PLEASE ... don't waste anyone's time (your own included) with foolish or utterly useless comments!

  7. #7
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    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    Quote Originally Posted by WinRiddance View Post
    Two days later ...
    Okay, I am experiencing some problems, but nothing that I'd consider a major issue.

    1. I have random application crashes every few hours, even for applications that I'm not using. Last night for example I received a crash report on my system for the Totem movie player ... but I haven't used Totem for at least a week before doing the upgrade. Weird stuff. The Software Center generated a couple of crash reports ... even though it appears to be working just fine. There was another one but I can't remember what that was about anymore ... sorry.

    2. Twice I've checked for software updates and twice I received the "System must be restarted" message even before the update check had completed. Restart icon appears in the tray too. Now that's kind of annoying since it's not certain whether or not the system actually does need to be restarted. I ignored it the second time ...

    3. My sound hardware doesn't work properly any more. It does work just fine, but only after I change the hardware settings if the machine was rebooted. In other words, the settings aren't saved to the system, so every reboot requires that I manually enter the sound settings, followed by selecting my surround sound setup.

    4. Oh, and this is totally trivial but I'm a big fan of kshisen, the KDE tile game. Well, for some reason this game, and only this game out of everything else that I've tested so far, now performs like a slug ... sometimes requiring several seconds before two marked tiles drop away ... on a quad core system with 8 GB of RAM.

    .
    I have the same problem with kshisen, my laptop has 6GB, icore5, I think is some library error stuff. Please tell me when is resolved at apolinux at gmail dot com. thanks.

  8. #8
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    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    Well, the kshisen problem hasn't actually been resolved yet, but in a German Ubuntu forum it was mentioned that if you disable the sound in the game everything else (in the game) works perfectly afterwards. Tried it myself and sure enough, the tiles are dropping quickly like they're supposed to.

    Sadly I had to switch from Xubuntu to the Mate-Desktop recently.
    Xubuntu has the best standard panels of all the distros out there, I use them a lot.

    I don't know if it had to do with the 12.04 release of Xubuntu that I installed, the fact that I had Compiz running, or something else ... but in the past 10 days or so I've been experiencing complete system (not mouse) freezes, causing me to have to hard reset the computer which I try never to do. This became an almost daily experience, even after getting up in the morning when the computer had no applications running on it all night long. No reaction to anything, nothing at all. The application crash reports for some apps like Opera, Pasaffe, Pyrenamer, and others never stopped either. The computer was always fine when I went to bed and I'm not using a screensaver, suspend, or sleep function either. I just turn off the display at night. The laptop has tons of cooling and it's a quad core intel chip with 8 GB of ram, so outdated or not up to par hardware doesn't apply here either.

    Tried Linux Mint with Cinnamon but Cinnamon is too buggy for me, almost as limited as Unity which doesn't provide me with the true "freedom of Linux" that I prefer for my desktop experience. Tried different panels too ... avant, cairo dock, etc. Only cairo dock would work flawless with cinnamon but it has too much baggage for me. I like cool & pretty, but also a bit simplistic of an approach. I liked Docky the best and it appeared to work too ... until I rebooted ... and all of my custom placed app icons were gone again (2 hours of work down the drain). The latest Mate-Desktop seems to be my answer for now. It provides a true Gnome 2.0 environment and runs just fine with compiz enabled. Don't try cinnamon with compiz, you'll regret it ... yes you will.
    The weird Kshisen bug is still there though, have to disable the game sound.

    .
    PLEASE ... don't waste anyone's time (your own included) with foolish or utterly useless comments!

  9. #9
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    Re: 12.04 UPGRADE ... Automatic or Fresh ... TIPS

    After I tried to upgrade from 10.04 to 12.04 using Update Manager and being unable to get the LTS release to even show up, I have been waiting around trying to decide if I want to go through the process of trying to use the terminal to download and install the upgrade. And as a "senior" who is a little better (but not much) than clueless, I wasn't looking forward to that process. I think I will go with the clean install option, after all, since I have everything backed up, and haven't done a lot of customizing. Hopefully all will go smoothly.

    I'm really glad I found this post. Thanks!

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