Ubuntu upgrade failing & my blood pressure rising

T

TrainTrackHack

VIP Member
I've done this a million times <end_slight_exaggeration> by now. I'm trying to upgrade my 7.04 Ubuntu to 7.10 (I assume this is required before I can upgrade to 8.10, since no other options are available?) However, *every* time I try it, it fails. It starts downloading, and everything seems to be going well, but it always pops up with an error message, every time at the pretty much same stage... more details on this coming soon when it fails again (trying to upgrade it right now). It was some kinda nag about corrupt/locked files, that much I can remember.

Okay, now it started nagging about failing to download the repository indexes or something like that, saying that there might be a network problem. The net works fine, though, since I'm browsing stuff (and posting here) right now.

Having yet another go at this... in the meantime, can some Linux-guru please tell me what could be wrong? Thank you beforehand...

Ah but I really have to get some sleep. I'll leave this on overnight and see what happens... back in 8 hours.
 
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but it always pops up with an error message, every time at the pretty much same stage... more details on this coming soon when it fails again
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Indeed:)

*How* are you trying to upgrade it, exactly? Via a script or by changing the Repos and playing with Terminal?
 
How am I trying to upgrade? In the update manager, it's got a little notification saying "New version is available" or something along those lines, and an "upgrade" button, right above the list of available updates. Then I just click it...

(Okay, it failed again)

It apparently fails at the "Preparing the Upgrade" stage...well it did this time... it ("Preparing the Upgrade") is highlighted in the Distribution Upgrade window, saying that fetching is complete, and with the following error message (that message appearing in a different window/dialog...):

"Error during update

A problem occured during the update. This is usually some sort of network problem, please check your network connection and retry."

(and then a list of files):
Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty-security/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz Sub-process gzip returned an error code (1)
Failed to fetch http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz Sub-process gzip returned an error code (1)
Failed to fetch http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty/universe/source/Sources.gz Sub-process gzip returned an error code (1)
Failed to fetch http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty/multiverse/binary-i386/Packages.gz Sub-process gzip returned an error code (1)

Oh and sometimes it does fail at a different stage... I can remember it saying something of locked/corrupt files a couple of times... I think so anyways.

Trying again...
 
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If you haven't already, try doing it via Terminal - usually much less of a hassle if you're even remotely familiar with command lines.

Try typing: sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list, then enter your Root password. A file will open with lines of code. Anything that's not commented out (#) should begin with 'deb (http)' or 'deb(-src) http' and list various info afterwards, including the distribution towards the end. You could try changing 'feisty' to 'gutsy', leaving everything else as-is, then saving the file, and closing it. Then, from Terminal, type sudo apt-get update and then sudo aptitude upgrade.

But the question on my mind is...unless you have some serious hard-to-do tweaks on your current install or you installed everything to /root (and are lacking a /home partition), why go through the hassle of two dist-upgrades rather than just do a fresh install of 8.04? If you have a separate /home partition, just pop in a Live or Alt-Install CD, format /root, install there, and eat cake. Much easier/quicker that way.
 
Umm... well I'm not a big Linux-genius, I didn't even think of a fresh reinstall. Since you're wondering why I'm not doing it, I assume that it's be easiest&best to go with that option...?

How would this affect programs I've currently installed? Or how would anything that I currently have be affected?

(And what are "/root" and "/home" there for anyway? Two noob Q's, I know...)
 
Since you're wondering why I'm not doing it, I assume that it's be easiest&best to go with that option...?
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In most cases, it's easier/quicker/less chance of problems that going through Upgrades; even more so when it would be necessary for multiple upgrades (as in this case Feisty-->Gutsy-->Hardy).

How would this affect programs I've currently installed? Or how would anything that I currently have be affected?

(And what are "/root" and "/home" there for anyway? Two noob Q's, I know...)
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Well, /root (and /home if applicable) are partitions on your hard drive. With Windows, you have everything on 'C:' and then 'Windows' and 'Program Files'... With Ubuntu, your /root is the same as 'C:\Windows' - it has all the necessary OS files. Similarly, /home would be kind of like a cross between 'C:\Program Files' (it would have all the stuff you installed yourself) and 'My Documents' (all your pics, music, etc.). However, since you can create separate partitions for each, a fresh install of the OS does not mean you lose all your personal stuff - everything will still be on the /home partition.

The two partitions you need for Linux are Swap (extended RAM space) and /root; everything after that is extra to keep things organized. If you create just those two, /home will be a part of /root - you'll need to physically set up and mount a separate /home partition during the Install process. After that's done, you can format/reinstall the OS to /root as often as you'd like, all your stuff on /home will be fine.

This is my HDD layout...

80GB (three partitions): XP OS, XP Software, My personal stuff
80GB (six partitions): Swap, Ubuntu Root, Ubuntu Home, Kubuntu Root, Kubuntu Home, backup of my personal files

In your case, I'd opt for a fresh install of 8.04 not only to crush any upgrade woes you're having, but also to do a bit of HDD setup to ease some potential future problems. Personally, I'd go with this...

Swap: 2GB max (old rule was Physical RAM * 2, but with RAM so cheap now most folks have enough to rarely warrant the use of Swap anymore. If you have 1GB RAM, make Swap 2GB; if you have 2GB+ RAM, you can easily get away with 1GB or even 512MB Swap.)
/root: 7GB
/home: whatever you want (usually all the rest of your free HDD space unless you want non-linux partitions or a storage/backup partition)

Quick tip...anything mounted as /media/<insert mount point here> will show up on your desktop. So, something mounted as '/media/MyStuff' will be seen on the Desktop as 'MyStuff'. This is the type of storage/backup mentioned above.
 
So...if I got this right... it'd be best to have /root in a separate partition and /home in another? How about the others (and where could I find out what they're for?)?
 
So...if I got this right... it'd be best to have /root in a separate partition and /home in another?
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Yes, you are correct.

As for the others, unless you've an excellent understanding of how Linux works regarding mountpoints and whatnot, leave them be. Really, the only four areas you need to concern yourself with are Swap (which is mindlessly simple), /root and /home (which you seem to grasp the basic concept of and be on track with), and anything 'media/<whatever>', which is great for storage/easy-access-from-the-desktop type stuff. Setting up things like /boot, /usr, etc., just steer clear of for now. If you really want to know what they're for, I'd recommend a Google, or maybe Wiki, search - they would be able to explain in a much simpler way than I would.

Edit: Sorry for the response time - I got tied up with GemStone:P I'm heading to bed in about 15 minutes or so, so best of luck until tomorrow when I'm able to check the Forums!
 
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