How to backout 11.10

**emnhtml** · October 25th, 2011

I did a search "backout 11.10" which yields no results. Can we post directions for backing out the upgrade to 11.10 to get back to a previous stable (in my case 11.04) install?

11.10 does not appear to be an upgrade, as most of the apps I had are now broken, and the machine pretty unusable.

Thanks

**alphacrucis2** · October 25th, 2011

Originally Posted by emnhtml

I did a search "backout 11.10" which yields no results. Can we post directions for backing out the upgrade to 11.10 to get back to a previous stable (in my case 11.04) install?

11.10 does not appear to be an upgrade, as most of the apps I had are now broken, and the machine pretty unusable.

Thanks

Upgrade went fine for me but some people do seem to have problems. While it is technically possible to do a downgrade, you will most likely end up with a system even more broken than it is now. Your best bet is to back up your data and then do a clean install of either 11.04 or 11.10. (You may find that a clean install of 11.10 works fine even though the upgrade was borked). Once you have the clean install of either 11.04 or 11.10, then restore you data.

**haqking** · October 25th, 2011

Originally Posted by emnhtml

I did a search "backout 11.10" which yields no results. Can we post directions for backing out the upgrade to 11.10 to get back to a previous stable (in my case 11.04) install?

11.10 does not appear to be an upgrade, as most of the apps I had are now broken, and the machine pretty unusable.

Thanks

Sure, instructions are simple.

fresh install.

And when you do turn off the release upgrade option in your update settings, and before trying an upgrade use a Live CD/DVD/USB before hand or a Virtual machine to make sure you like it before upgrading.

And always have a backup of your data.

Hope this helps.

peace

**Vgui** · October 25th, 2011

Yep it sucks to hear but backing out of a full dist upgrade is rather messy. I second the idea of always testing new releases via a Live CD first, or on a separate partition just for that purpose. Then again I'm all about the LTS versions...must be my Slackware upbringing.

**emnhtml** · October 29th, 2011

This is surprising. I cannot think of any other software that on an update:

1. Changes to a non-standard user interface (i.e., desktop)
2. Breaks all existing apps.
3. Cannot be backed out.

I'm sorry, but Ubuntu looks like a hobbyist product to me. I guess I am forced to CentOS or SUSE if I wish to stay with Linux. It's this kind of issue that prevents Ubuntu from being taken seriously in the professional world. Could you seriously propose Ubuntu to a client with this sort of unmitigated risk?

**haqking** · October 29th, 2011

Originally Posted by emnhtml

This is surprising. I cannot think of any other software that on an update:

1. Changes to a non-standard user interface (i.e., desktop)
2. Breaks all existing apps.
3. Cannot be backed out.

I'm sorry, but Ubuntu looks like a hobbyist product to me. I guess I am forced to CentOS or SUSE if I wish to stay with Linux. It's this kind of issue that prevents Ubuntu from being taken seriously in the professional world. Could you seriously propose Ubuntu to a client with this sort of unmitigated risk?

I could seriously propose it to anyone, by trying it first

What is a standard UI then ? It uses Gnome 3 with a Unity Shell, you can change the shell or the DE. Gnome changes are down to Gnome not Canonical.

There is always risk, you mitigate it by proper planning and preparation, which you clearly didnt undertake.

A hobbyist product ? is that in your expert lack of preparation opinion ?