Maybe, It Should Be Called "U-BOOM-Tu"

***Geek Warning ***

If you are not wanting to read of my misadventures in Linux, you may want to browse some other blog.

I decided to upgrade geekbox, my main Linux computer last night. I had installed Xubuntu (the XFCE version) on 2 other boxes and upgraded the one at work and all three went very well. The big difference between geekbox and the others is that geekbox is a dual-boot WinXP box that mostly my wife uses and Ubuntu 6.10 Linux which I use. Version 6.06 has been out for a couple of weeks and I was wanting to upgrade geekbox when I had time. Last night, I had time.

I started by backing up my home directory. I figured if all went bad, at least I would have my mail and settings. I then modified my /etc/apt/sources.list to reflect the repositories (dapper instead of breezy). I noticed a few of the repos were not the supported ones, so I rem'ed them out. I then did an apt-get update and then an apt-get dist-upgrade. Things went bad from there.

I am not sure why, but the upgrade started to de-install a lot of apps and a huge chunk of Gnome. Some new files were installed and configured, but not nearly enough to call it an upgrade. The other three boxes took about a hour just to download, install, and configure the packages. I rebooted, hoping that would wake up something. The log off screen (usplash) was there, so I was hopeful. Upon reboot, I got a lot of X errors and was only able to get into terminal mode. I tried starting X and it told me their was no driver. Hmmmm, ok, so I run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg then dpkg-reconfigure gdm. Same thing. I eventually get to a pseudo-desktop (the little terminal in the corner of a useless desktop) and realize I need to log on to megaserver and start looking on the web for more help. I found a lot of answers here, but not all my issues have been resolved. I finally after about 30-40 minutes of reading and trying little things able to get a usable desktop. A few more changes and I was able to do another apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. Now the packages were beginning to flow. Lots and lots of packages! I sat back and allowed apt-get to do its thing. A reboot and the GUI was back, but I was missing a lot of things on the menu bar.

The "upgrade" removed Firefox and Thunderbird, but not my settings, so I was in pretty good shape. The drawback is that none of the apps work via the menu bar, so I need to command line all of them. My wife was getting antsy so I had to make few changes (removing the outdated, non-bootable kernel) and reboot again to make sure all was stable. After that, I rebooted yet again into Windows so my wife could work. It was 10:30 and I had been at this for a few hours and was not going to play anymore.

When I got finished with walking the dogs and brewing a pot of coffee, I went to check on the condition of geekbox. The more I looked at it, the more I figured I would need to do a fresh install. I am not very happy about that, but I do seem to remember that a couple of times in the past, megaserver had to be wiped and reloaded because of a not-so-perfect upgrade. Once I do this one, I think I will just keep 6.06 until a NEED to upgrade to a higher version. While Linux is my OS of choice, upgrading versions has only been painless once out of 4 times. 25% is not a average.

When I blow away the current Linux install and start fresh, I have a couple of things to keep in mind:

1) I am dual-booting and Windows *must* stay stable so my wife can work. While most of her data is on a completely separate HD, her Mozilla profiles are not. I need to back them up. She only has mail and bookmarks (plus a little tweaking) to worry about.

2) Do I use the Xubuntu install disk I D/L'ed and burned or wait until the Official CD is shipped to me? Not much difference except except desktop / window managers. Ubuntu uses Gnome as the default but I have become very attached to XFCE in Xubuntu. Coin flip? I have the Xubuntu disk and the "official" disks will not be here for at least a month.

Anyway, I am proud of myself for going to bed and getting sleep. I would normally stay up until the bloody thing was 100% usable (though not 100% tweaked) but God gave me enough common sense to go to bed. That, and my wife needed to use the PC and was I going to disobey my wife? Are you kidding? :-)

One of these days I will have a PC of my own that is powerful enough to be my main machine. My wife wants a laptop at some point and I cannot say I blame her. She could work wirelessly from the bedroom or the kitchen...even outside if needed. However, that is a long time from now.