[Nottingham] Running Ubuntu at Nottingham Uni

[ForkBombFluf]

On Tue, 22 May 2012, Barry Drake wrote:

> On 22/05/12 13:26, ForkBombFluf wrote:
>> Upgrading in Linux shouldn't harm or rearrange anything in your bootloader 
>> (although the same can't always be said for Windows installations!) so 
>> moving to a newer long term support version should be good.  I think 
>> Barry's just advised a fresh install rather than an in place upgrade 
>> though, and I have to admit I'm curious what sort of issues he's 
>> encountered with upgrading.
>
> Most of the issues were with people who really had no idea what they were 
> doing and who didn't seem to know what 'backing up data' was.  But one or two 
> of them did get the bootloader clobbered!  Some of the problems were due to a 
> CD being made using Windows - the iso is very slightly oversized and they had 
> tried to use it to upgrade rather than the updater.  But I think the most 
> common problem was that the upgrade failed part way through possibly because 
> of connection failure and left them with an un-bootable system.

Connection failures, at the University?  Surely you jest! 
(Tongue planted firmly in cheek.)

This is a very important "gotcha" that I hadn't considered, but then again 
I would have thought it would always download and cache updates before 
trying to integrate them?  Even MacOS and Windoze have the sense do this.

In any case, one should at least be fine doing a local PXE boot/build or 
DVD install from a current release.

> Another problem was those who thought they had Ubuntu 'installed' when they 
> were using wubi.  Upgrades in a wubi system just don't seem to work most of 
> the time.

Have to admit this is the first time I've encountered Wubi, but thanks for 
the heads up, it's definitely one I'll watch out for now!  I wonder why 
updating doesn't work in it?  Sounds as if the disk image system they use 
might be a bit hit and miss, or may not play as well wtih NTFS as 
predicted!

Thanks,

-Stef