[OT] Ubuntu 8.10: headaches and nothing else.

[Mikey]

I'm a Hardy->Intrepid survivor, so here goes

As someone who has gone through a variety of issues with a Hardy to
Intrepid upgrade (I started a thread on the Ubuntuforums about it),
the most common problem is with unused package uninstalls.  If toward
the end of the Intrepid upgrade you answer "yes" to "uninstall unused
packages" (or whatever the question is), you are faced with a variety
of woes, and most of them are bad.  What winds up happening is that
necessary packages for Intrepid are not installed, either, and you
wind up with mush that you have to bootstrap back up.  It can be done
(I did it, and I figured most of it out myself because I wanted to
learn how to do it), but by far the easiest thing to do is to do a
fresh install of Intrepid over Hardy after making a boot/install CD.

Things that were also recommended:

1) Make a separate partition for GRUB (HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended).
2) Have separate partitions for each major release that you're using
(also highly recommended)
3) put /home in its own partition (recommended, with some reservations
- fresh installs with old setting files - it's just like using 3.0 and
2.9 on the same stacks - sometimes things don't go well)
4) consider putting /usr/bin in its own partition (I think it's
/usr/bin - where you put applications that you install, isn't it?  I
forgot).  I haven't done this yet but it makes sense, and I will do it
with my new box when it arrives.


I have not gone back to Hardy since (finally) successfully upgrading
to Intrepid.  I've only visited Vista once or twice since doing it,
too.

Don't go it the long way and try to fix your Intrepid install.  Just
do it from scratch.  It doesn't take that long, it's a lot less
hassle, and it actually works better (there are drivers that get
installed with the fresh install that don't come even with the upgrade
that doesn't break your box).


As you know, Ubuntu is not for wimps.  There are things that still
don't work after three releases (Gusty, Hardy, Intrepid), for example,
wireless can be hit or miss.  However, as you also know, it's
screaming fast and the eye candy doesn't suck either.