[ltp] How safe is ubuntu 11.10?

[Marius Gedminas]

--dDRMvlgZJXvWKvBx
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

On Sat, Nov 05, 2011 at 05:53:37PM -0500, Jeffrey L. Taylor wrote:
> Quoting Steven J. Owens <thinkpad@darksleep.com>:
> >      I have a thinkpad t520 with nvidia/optimus, Intel Core i7-2720QM
> > Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3), 8 gigs of memory and all the trimmings.
> >=20
> >      I've been running ubuntu 10.4 LTS because I found the main ubuntu
> > release to be a pain - too frequently the dist-upgrades caused odd
> > hardware problems.  Nobody mentioned the problems _before_ I upgraded,
> > but after I ran into them and did a lot of googling, I'd eventually
> > find that they afflicted other thinkpad owners.

For the record, I've been running all versions of Ubuntu since 7.10 on my
T61.  Hardware-related problems appear and go away randomly with each
kernel update; none have been show-stoppers.  I don't have NVidia, thank
$GOD, which makes things simpler.

You mentioned dist-upgrade.  I hope that was an euphemism, since the
proper way to upgrade Ubuntu is with Update Manager (or, if you prefer
the command line, sudo do-release-upgrade).  Dist-upgrade will not
necessarily do a complete job of the upgrades.

> >      However, for various reasons I need to upgrade to a more recent
> > release.  For once, I'd like to find out - *before* I jump out the
> > window - about hardware gotchas.  Anybody know how to check for this?
> >=20
> >      I'm also considering upgrading to 11.4, instead of 11.10, because
> > I've observed in the past that the hardware issues I mention above
> > tend to take a few months to get sorted out...
>=20
> The advice I heard from others is do not upgrade to 11.10, do a clean
> install.  Ubuntu moved a bunch of system directories around.  You can
> work around this problem by creating symlinks from the old location to
> the new one.

What on Earth are you talking about?

The only system directory migration I know about is the introduction of
/run.  The upgrade tool takes care of that seamlessly.

On the other hand, since upgrading from 10.04 to 11.10 would require
intermediate upgrades to 10.10 and 11.04, a fresh install of 11.10 might
save some time.  (Also, if you ask it not to format the partition, it'll
delete all the files except for /home, saving you some backup-restore
time post-install.  You do need backups still, in case something goes
wrong, or if you forget to uncheck the format checkbox.)

> Also, try a live CD first.  A lot of users, especially advanced users det=
est
> the Unity desktop.  During the installation, it tells which package to in=
stall
> to switch to the Gnome desktop.
>=20
> I did a clean install of 11.10 on my wife's Dell XPS M1330N (which came w=
ith
> Hardy Heron pre-installed).  She wants the newer Flash and other updates,=
 but
> doesn't want anything to change.  Unity lasted 1 1/2 days. She hated the =
color
> scheme (ORANGE in your face), the UI, that it was different, etc.  I'm wo=
rking
> on making it as close to Hardy Heron as feasible.
>=20
> It went fairly smoothly, except I tried to do the installation with immed=
iate
> updates over WiFi and ended up with an unusable system.  Do the updates w=
hile
> connected to a wired connection.

That sounds interesting.

There's a known bug in the upgrade process where it kicks you off wifi
and prevents flashplugin-installer from upgrading completely.  11.10
release notes recommend plugging in an Ethernet cable for upgrades for
that reason.  I haven't seen anyone mention any Wifi-related
complications for new installs before.

Marius Gedminas
--=20
As a rule of thumb, I reckon Python to be an order of magnitude more wastef=
ul
of CPU cycles and memory than my favourite low-level language, C++.
                -- Thomas Guest

--dDRMvlgZJXvWKvBx
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc"
Content-Description: Digital signature

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEARECAAYFAk6344UACgkQkVdEXeem148VqQCfZ+e6M9Ub5Bzg48WFDxqDWzc0
XtQAn2NAiiclLsz+XQxYu56+wZkg3qPm
=DzUJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--dDRMvlgZJXvWKvBx--