do-release-upgrade -d and now my server won't boot

**MAFoElffen** · May 5th, 2013

Did you follow my instructions? Is it now saying it's 13.04?

To answer your previous, which you don't need anymore, see the second half of post #3 of my Graphics Resolution sticky (link in my sig line).

If you followed the instructions I posted... and no other packages are being held, no broken dependencies, etc... What I would do then is to boot on a previous kernel, remove/purge the last installed kernel version (I believe it was linux-image-3.8.0-19-generic) and reinstall it fresh. That will rebuild initrd and rerun update grub on a fresh installed current kernel, which is usually the last step in the do-release-upgrade process. That would be my best guess without seeing those errors.

Another thing to look at, archive and attach to a post would be the "log" files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ Those are the logs written during that process. Somewhere during the process, it copies that last files from that directory into a subdirectory with a date/time timestamp. (those are the previous files)

**darkod** · May 5th, 2013

After the do-release-upgrade -d I believe it's 13.10 actually. In post #2 kernel 3.9.0 is mentioned in the output.
Unfortunately there is no way to downgrade as far as I know. So you will have to fix 13.10 or reinstall clean another version. Even if you fix 13.10 I wonder how stable it will be, especially if this is a production server.

It's one thing if it's a server to play with, it's another if it's production.

You can try pruging the 3.9.0 kernel as Mike says, and reinstall it again. But I don't think you can downgrade fully.

**Maheriano** · May 5th, 2013

Originally Posted by MAFoElffen

Did you follow my instructions? Is it now saying it's 13.04?

To answer your previous, which you don't need anymore, see the second half of post #3 of my Graphics Resolution sticky (link in my sig line).

If you followed the instructions I posted... and no other packages are being held, no broken dependencies, etc... What I would do then is to boot on a previous kernel, remove/purge the last installed kernel version (I believe it was linux-image-3.8.0-19-generic) and reinstall it fresh. That will rebuild initrd and rerun update grub on a fresh installed current kernel, which is usually the last step in the do-release-upgrade process. That would be my best guess without seeing those errors.

Another thing to look at, archive and attach to a post would be the "log" files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ Those are the logs written during that process. Somewhere during the process, it copies that last files from that directory into a subdirectory with a date/time timestamp. (those are the previous files)

I did this, thank you. I did all the updates and upgrades you posted, everything completed and all the packages were installed, there were no broken dependencies. I also purged the latest 3.9 kernel and am now booting into the previous 3.8.0.19 kernel with a mess of file not found errors at the beginning. But it does bypass those and boot.

Now when I SSH into it I get this which is very strange. It tells me I'm on Saucy Salamander but it's STILL telling me there is a 13.04 release I can upgrade to which is what started this mess. It was doing that right after I successfully completed upgrading to 13.04.

Code:

Welcome to Ubuntu Saucy Salamander (development branch) (GNU/Linux 3.8.0-19-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/

  System information as of Sun May  5 11:37:27 MDT 2013

  System load:    0.05             Processes:           153
  Usage of /home: 0.0% of 1.60TB   Users logged in:     1
  Memory usage:   14%              IP address for eth0: 192.168.1.29
  Swap usage:     0%

  Graph this data and manage this system at https://landscape.canonical.com/

0 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.

New release '13.04' available.
Run 'do-release-upgrade' to upgrade to it.

Last login: Sun May  5 00:04:50 2013
integrity@integrity-quote-server:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade
[sudo] password for integrity: 
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
No new release found
integrity@integrity-quote-server:~$

**MAFoElffen** · May 5th, 2013

No!!!! Don't do "it" again... So is everything working now?

I can tell you that 13.10 is only a month into the cycle so is still in pre-alpha right now (I have 2 test servers on it). So is 13.04 (with 13.10 branding) with a month of dailies But in +1, pieces go in and out in the dailies, with the good pieces all put back together the day before release. Between now and 14.04LTS, there's going to be a lot of changes in python... for when python 2.x support goes away. 13.04 would be okay comparatively, but if 13.10, "I" would try to back it off of a production server.

Darko's sort of idea--
Getting back to 12.04? If you backup the system and data... Export the package list.

Code:

dpkg --get-selections > installed-software

Look at the package list and edit it to basic server app package names instead of the whole list with all plus server app package-versions. This would be the major portion of the work and would require some research. Backup the settings and server app conf files. Everything in the basic system framework is still functionally the same between 13.10 and 12.04- as for server system config settings files that we change.

Then- Reinstall 12.04LTS fresh. Import the edited package list.

Code:

dpkg --set-selections < installed-software
deselect

Replace the settings & app conf files. Replace the data...

Not easy. Some work... but that sounds possible, right?

**Maheriano** · May 5th, 2013

Yes, everything is working to an extent but I'm afraid of it breaking again so I don't want to bring it back to its home until it's more stable. It's only a web server for a quoting system for a building company so I've decided to copy out all the files, export the SQL and just reinstall everything fresh. So far I've copied out the /var/www folder to get all the web files and I've exported the database (which is huge) from PHPMyAdmin. I opened the SQL file with NANO to be sure that it includes the insert data statements and not just the table structure so that's good. I'm going to install the database here on a local development server to make sure it completes fine and is usable, then I'll wipe the production server and reinstall 13.04, then set up Apache again.
Sorry, I'm not trying to ignore your help, I just don't completely understand some of what you posted and since it's a fairly simple server I think I can reinstall quite easily. I appreciate all the help so far.

**MAFoElffen** · May 6th, 2013

Good deal. Happy things worked out.

I'm on to other things then... I'm here if you need other help.

**Maheriano** · May 6th, 2013

Thanks. I have a new problem now with a blank screen and blinking cursor on boot even though the install was successful. I've started a new thread for this new problem here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2142515. If you have any idea why that is happening, any information would be appreciated.