upgrade failed, want to copy text from terminal and paste into chrome browser

[uschmuntu]

Chromium browser is installed and is horrible, messes up email, I hate it.
Cannot install firefox, failed to retrieve some packages.
tried update and clean commands and trying various commands, but cannot even copy the error messages and search the internet for solutions. tried ctrl shift c and ctrl insert, shift insert.

I just want to use a common clipboard between terminal and other applications. Actually, so does everybody else. That's the whole point of a clipboard.

you see Ubuntu was nagging me to upgrade, so I click upgrade and it failed and left system unbootable, crashes in the first ten seconds.
typical.
then I tried to boot Mint from an external hard drive, but it started booting and then changed it's mind and continued booting from the xbmclive cd!?? Believe it or not it booted the XBMCBUNTU live distro but required Mint login credentials! That's linux security in action, an accidental hijacking.

So I re-boot live CD XBMCBUNTU and click install and then select upgrade as opposed to clean install. I got a clean install anyway, old account info ignored, permissions problems all over the place.

now I have repository shambles so many error messages i don't know where to start. I am sick of doing clean installs every couple of months as only repair option for operating systems which fall apart at the seams, and upgrade/updates which render the system useless.
For the past fifteen years I have never had a computer work for more than three months before being forced to start from scratch.
Although i will never run windows again, linux is actually worse in this regard.
I no longer take operating systems seriously, and put any valuable files on external media and am used to booting live cd's because there appears to be no point trying to install an OS with persistence.
Who has time to try out hundreds upon hundreds of linux distros? Who has time to solve all the issues and make a distro usable? I don't.
Who is going to trust that an upgrade script will work? cross one's fingers?
How does one save their account info and files for use with these different distros instead of starting from scratch over and over and over again?

windows or mac or linux : Computers are like an etch-a sketch, all your beautiful work, gone in an instant.

[cariboo]

Moved to Ubuntu, Linux and OS Chat, as this really isn't a support question.

[mastablasta]

.
For the past fifteen years I have never had a computer work for more than three months before being forced to start from scratch.


Doesn't seems to me that the issue here is in the operating system.


Who is going to trust that an upgrade script will work? cross one's fingers?


it works on install with no PPA's added or no special additional setups.


How does one save their account info and files for use with these different distros instead of starting from scratch over and over and over again?

you can use Linux mint backup tool for example. or install home folder on it's own partition. you can then reinstall or install new OS on root partition. again i don't think your issues come form the OS.

carefrully reading documentation, learning on consequences of actions from it and understanding what will happen (this goes for any OS) is a good way to avoid potential future troubles. which is why it's a good thing if you help someone with for example a command line that you also tell them what will happen after inputing the command and what the command (or instruction) does.

EDIT: Use LTS editions to avoid constant upgrades or CentOS for really long term support.

[cariboo]

It looks to me that most of your problems are of your own making. You don't have to upgrade, if what you have is working correctly even if update-manager tells you that there is a new version available. It's pretty simple to turn of the notification, if it is bothering you.

You didn't say how or why the upgrade failed, but it is fairly easy to solve most problems using a Live CD, or if you have another distribution installed.

[uschmuntu]

I "want to copy text from terminal and paste into chrome browser"

but it's

"not really a support question"?

And a failed upgrade is not an issue with the operating system?

And no-one thinks it's strange that I managed to boot my computer to XBMCBUNTU live CD but could only log on with mint's username and password? No explanation?

can't be a problem with linux, of course

[23dornot23d]

I "want to copy text from terminal and paste into chrome browser"

Copy and paste works for this or at least it should if the system is installed ok.
Select the text with the mouse ...... and use the middle mouse button to paste it somewhere

Failed upgrades can come from a problem system or hardware malfunctioning as well as bad
application installs from some conflicting ppa's being added to a system .



And a failed upgrade is not an issue with the operating system?


If its booting into the wrong system something sounds to be seriously messed up on the hard drive.

Give us some system information to go on ....... how is the hard drive partitioned and what else is on it.

What computer - what versions of Ubuntu were you going from to ........ 12.10 is showing on the screenshot

Could be something other than Linux being the problem but need some more information
on what you were trying to do and what the system was set up to do .....

What desktop are you trying to run and what graphics card do you have.

http://i.minus.com/j1Ge44eZIvYfm.jpg

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Install_XBMC_for_Linux