9.04

[mrsj1984]

Hi again all,

Ok so I have successfully installed the version that we had on disk (gave up on USB booting) lets just say as with everything else in this office it is obsolete.

So now the tricky part begins it seems, the version our IT director had is 9.04, now from what I've read there is no easy way to upgrade. I know what you're all going to say, why not just install 12.04 from scratch.

Let me explain a little more, I'm running the pilot for standard usage on Ubuntu however we have 2 servers that have been running it for years so my job is 2 things, firstly to get it running and make sure it can handle the daily processes that we have and secondly how to safely upgrade from this version to the newer set up.

We recently ran a vunerability test on our servers and needless to say it wasn't the best result, mainly because the version we have is so low. We have te option of moving everything from the server and doing a big reintall from scratch but with the type of business we are in it's not really the way we want to go.

So here's my question, how do I upgrade without burning a disk for each upgrade, for example 9.10 - 10.04 and so on?

I would really value your experience and help :)

Linz
x

[Rex Bouwense]

In theory you could upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 to 10.04 which is a LTS and is still supported. From there you can directly upgrade to the next LTS which is 12.04. This can be done over the net but with that much upgrading, Murphy's Law is bound to enter the scene. That being said, you must back up all of your data (if you really want to have it when you are finished upgrading.) Sounds like you are between the proverbial rock and hard space.

[Frogs Hair]

I clean installation of 12.04 has a good chance of being less difficult and time consuming then multiple upgrades. If you decide to do either check system hardware requirements which have changed since 9.04.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

This is just my opinion; however, whoever decided to use 9.04 rather than 8.04 LTS, and didn't upgrade to the next release (9.10) until they reached the next Long-Term-Support (LTS) release (10.04) made the first mistake. 9.04 was not LTS.

The test you have been asked to perform is likely to experience what Rex Bouwense called Murphy's Law.

You could edit the sources.list file to use the http://old-releases.ubuntu.com repositories until you get to 10.04 LTS and upgrade from that to 12.04; however, I doubt you will suceed. If modifications were made to the default configuration of 9.04 during its use; then, the likelihood of an upgrade failure increases.

I would warn the IT director that it is not likely to succeed.

If I understood your original post, it appears you have a test system to use for this experiment; therefore, you could give it a try.

[mkstallings1]

Since this is a fresh install, it would be much easier to just grab 12.04LTS from the ubuntu website and install that. You would be up and going in no time.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

Since this is a fresh install, it would be much easier to just grab 12.04LTS from the ubuntu website and install that. You would be up and going in no time.

That was my first thought; however, after reading the original post again, I'm not so sure. This is what makes me think it may not be a fresh install; therefore, not that simple.
...we have 2 servers that have been running it for years so my job is 2 things, firstly ..... and secondly how to safely upgrade from this version to the newer set up.

The original poster needs to clarify what they have and what they are trying to do.

[mrsj1984]

Hi all thanks for your comments.

You are right it is a test on our system, I'm installing it on my machine to test to see how well it works and if it can handle exactly what we want BUT it is also a tester to see if we can upgrade through from 9.04 which is what our servers are running on therefore skipping straight to 12.04 on my machine would be defeating the point. The guy who first set up the servers left the company 2 and a half yrs ago and so nobody really knew how to deal with what he had done or really enough about Linux to be able to update or change what was set up

The company runs a few different servers for our marketing and financial customers which we run with the help of Webmin. Everything is regularly backed up and although we can move what's held on the servers temporarily to upgrade it's not something we really want to have to do.

As for how it's working on my system so far all is going well, I can access everything I have needed, getting used to the apps and although it's obsolete 9.04 is actually really good!!!

I only have one question from your posts, how would I update the sources.list. I really am a Linux novice so any help would be appreciated.

Linz

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

There is a wiki for End-of-Life (EOL) upgrades here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades/

Good luck!

After reading through the wiki, you may decide a fresh install of 12.04 and restoring data from the backup would be easier. With your test machine you could give both a try.