9.10 update didn't work for me

[phrostbyte]

Maybe there is some merit in a rolling release.

[longtom]

Maybe there is some merit in a rolling release.

Maybe there is - and than you can go ahead and use one. Many around to choose from.

Ubuntu will not be one for the foreseeable future...

[bulldog]

Well,I only can speak for myself,and after some disappointing adventures with upgrades,I did something rather radical and made some adjustments on the partition part.
I made two partitions for the / part,each 10GB,one swap 2GB and a /home 150GB

I installed 9.04 on one 10GB partition using swap and /home of course.
Then I installed the 9.10 Beta on the other 10GB partition,using the same swap and /home,only using a different username and password.
This will create a new folder in your /home with no interference of the 9.04 install,so nothing can be messed up.
You can copy all you need from the 9.04 to the 9.10 folder,but you have to re-install any application you used in the 9.04 install,that's the down side.
If,for any reason my 9.10 should fail,I simply use my working 9.04 and can take the time to fix the 9.10 if I feel to it.

You can imagine the next step I presume?
If the next ubuntu comes to download,and 9.10 is running well at that time,I remove the 9.04 folder from my /home,and install the next ubuntu the same way as I did the 9.10,using another username and password as the 9.10.

Doing things this way,will cost only some hdd space,but you always have a spare ubuntu on hand.

[vaxman-]

OK... I did a clean install of 9.10 to see what OTHER problems I can look forward to before trying to actually use it.

LEFT-HANDED MOUSE setting does not work. This is really annoying and, apparently, I'll need to wait for some time for a fix. This alone is going to send me back to 8.10.

I did find a discussion and a command:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true

To fix the login dialog menu and restore username & password dialog.

Items in my Desktop folder no longer appear on my desktop. I haven't located any functional work-around for this yet.

I'll report as I find more annoyances and nuisances.

[Ozor Mox]

I don't know why people complain about the update tool every time a new release is out. Updating half the packages on your machine is a pretty complicated process, and I think expecting it to run completely flawlessly every time for every single computer is quite unrealistic. I use a very simple process:

1. Backup stuff.
2. Run upgrade.
3. If computer explodes, go to 4.
If computer works, go to 5.
4. Do a clean install using CD.
5. Profit.

[Dark Aspect]

I had to fresh install karmic to take advantage of :
1. ext4
2. grub 2
among other reasons.

Is there a way to get these without a fresh install?

Both of which are beta, I have no problem with grub 2 but I am still running ext3.

As for the op, use a clean install.

1. Backup stuff.
2. Run upgrade.
3. If computer explodes, go to 4.
If computer works, go to 5.
4. Do a clean install using CD.
5. Profit.

Or avoid the trouble with:

1. Buy an external hard drive
2. Move home folder to the new drive
3. Avoid the upgrade button
4. Clean install on the main hard drive
5. Move home folder back over
6. Profit

[whoop]

I don't know why people complain about the update tool every time a new release is out. Updating half the packages on your machine is a pretty complicated process, and I think expecting it to run completely flawlessly every time for every single computer is quite unrealistic. I use a very simple process:

1. Backup stuff.
2. Run upgrade.
3. If computer explodes, go to 4.
If computer works, go to 5.
4. Do a clean install using CD.
5. Profit.

I partially agree. I don't agree with "3. If computer explodes, go to 4."
Whenever my computer "explodes" I try to figure out what happened, what went wrong, You learn nothing by reinstalling.
For me it's more like:

I do a fresh install when:
1. The computer does not have ubuntu installed. This can happen due to a first install of ubuntu on the machine (this happened loads of times for me) or if I had some hardware failure with a primary disk (this happened a couple of times for me)
2. The system seems messed up beyond repair, I posted bugs, tried workarounds and nothing worked. (this never happened to me).

My upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 had two hiccups.
I tried to figure out what caused them, and figured out it was due to the fact I had installed grub2 when still using Jaunty. I devised workarounds for both hiccups and posted bug reports for both issues (including the workarounds off course):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...pt/+bug/445653
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/440633

The bugs aren't fixed (yet), which is too bad, but at least the problems are known and documented, and people can use the workaround as well (if the don't figure it out on there own).

If I had done a fresh install I would have learnt nothing and this information could have been lost.
It is also interesting to note that the bugs occurred because I had some (albeit very slightly) unusual set-up (jaunty with grub2)

[vaxman-]

It appears that the support for KeySpan serial devices was removed from the 9.10 kernel too. Plugging the device in gives me no /dev/ttyUSB* device.

I'll be checking out the Sierra Wireless AC597E EVDO in a short while.

[vaxman-]

It appears that the support for KeySpan serial devices was removed from the 9.10 kernel too. Plugging the device in gives me no /dev/ttyUSB* device.

I'll be checking out the Sierra Wireless AC597E EVDO in a short while.

Progress...

1. KeySpan issue sorted out.
2. Desktop icons issue sorted out.
3. AC597E EVDO works but there is something amuck in the rules I had for the device in /etc/udev/rules.d/60-symlinks.rules which have worked fine to define SYMLINKs for the 3 /dev/ttyUSBn devices instantiated when the EVDO card is inserted. The rules were created to avoid various naming conflicts.

Still an issue:

1. Can't make trackpad mouse buttons left-handed.

[vaxman-]

Well, there doesn't seem to be any resolution to the left-handed mouse issue anytime soon so I've elected to fix it myself.

In my .Xmodmap file, I added

pointer = 3 2 1

and set the mouse back to being right-handed in the "System/Preferences/Mouse" settings.

Another mouse bugger... plugging and unplugging an external USB mouse seems to be problematic in 9.10. Sometimes the mouse is recognize; other times it is not. lsusb shows that the mouse can be seen when it isn't being recognized as a pointing device. I've not yet tracked down a way to work around this, especially since it is intermittent.

Oh, BTW, the udev issue with the EVDO card is fixed. A minor change in the information as displayed with "udevadm" showed the way.