Upgrade Ubunut 8.04

[lataak]

I have Ubuntu Hardy(8.04) on my laptop. Last week, I tried to upgrade and it was not successful. Since then, the sound system is very bad -produces tirrrrrr sound in addition to the real audio. I was also trying to record sound but couldn't for unknown reason.

To solve all these, I am planning to upgrade to latest versions of Desktop Ubuntu. What do you advice me? Is it possible to upgrade without losing data and installed programs? Which Ubuntu version should I upgrade to (8.1, 9.04 or 9.1)? Thanks in advance for your response.

[bgc]

I'm not sure about this, but I don't think you can jump from 8.04 to 9.10. If you sequentially upgraded from 8.04 -> 8.10 -> 9.04 -> 9.10 then your home folder (documents and files) will be safe. However settings might change depending on what changes with each release. The preferable way to update, I suspect, is to backup your settings files and home folder and do a clean install, but before you do that just burn a live cd with either 9.04 (if you want to be safe) or 9.10 (which might still have some issues since it is so recent) and check that your computer works well with it.

[lataak]

The preferable way to update, I suspect, is to backup your settings files and home folder and do a clean install,...

Sure, it is safer if you back up and clean install. My problem is that I have a data more than 120GB and have no external storage to back up all this. That is why I planned to upgrade than ... Settings may get lost, that doesn't matter, I only need to keep my programs and data.

Thank for your response bgc.

[bgc]

In that case, I believe that programs and data will stay. So you should be able to upgrade all the way. It will take a long time, though, and also consider you will need some space for downloading the upgrades. Good luck!

[bgc]

In any case, I would still check with a live cd that upgrading solves the initial problem with sound. I upgraded to 9.10 and am having problems configuring it. In any case you're probably better off upgrading anyways, regardless of the sound.

[lataak]

Is it really possible to upgrade from CD? I have Ubuntu 8.1 and that is nice if I can use that CD to upgrade without connection.

[bgc]

It is, using the alternate CD, see:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/getubuntu/upgrading

However, I meant burning a live-cd, and booting from it. It'll give you an idea whether your hardware still works, and whether the sound (in its default configuration) works better.

[lataak]

I visited the link and it good news that I can upgrade from CD. It is always easier to use CDs than internet (slow). I got your point that I can check if the sound works or not without the need to upgrade using live CD.

Regarding sound recording, I think there is no hardware problem. Both the built-in sound chipset (Intel) and the mic works fine. I think the problem lies in the software.

Thanks for your response again bgc.