Upgrading to Hardy

And I’m set. I’m now officially running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

The recommended (and easier) way to upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 is to use Update Manager. But the servers are clotted (April 25th)… I tried it two times and it just isn’t possible at this moment (yes, I want Hardy).

So I downloaded the alternate version of Ubuntu (check bellow the “Start Download” button). This version isn’t a live cd, and it can be used to upgrade Ubuntu.

I installed (Applications > Add/Remove) Gmount-iso. This way I could use the iso file without having to burn a cd.

To make sure cd image isn’t corrupted:

• In the Terminal

md5sum ubuntu-8.04-alternate-i386.iso

• You should get the correct hash for the iso you’re checking

166991d61e7c79a452b604f0d25d07f9 *ubuntu-8.04-alternate-i386.iso

• Check the hash values here

After an hour I got the alternate version of Ubuntu 8.04, mounted the iso file using Gmount-iso and, in the Terminal:

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

And off we go. Upgrading to 8.04.

After some time the upgrade was complete and I rebooted the machine. Check bellow the aftermath:

• Several packages were marked to removal at the beginning of the upgrade. My Ubuntu 7.10 installation came from Ubuntu Ultimate Edition. I think that’s one of the reasons. I gave it a little look and kept going. If something is missing I will install it later.
• The installer asked 3 or 4 times about replacing configuration files, like smb.conf. It allowed to see the differences between the current file and the new one, and I could choose to keep or replace the files. I backed up the ones I wanted and replaced them all.
• Restarted.
• After the restart the Update Manager wanted to do a partial upgrade. It seems the alternate cd didn’t cover all packages. More packages where marked for removal.
• After the successful partial upgrade, I’m did another one.
• I then restarted again.
• I ran the Update Manager manually and check for updated and there aren’t none. I was finished. It was a long run.

Issues

• Issue 1: I was missing some software I wanted to get back. Just went do Applications > Add/Remove and that was it.

  • gVim (installed)
  • vlc player (installed)
  • VirtualBox kernel driver (to install)
  • LAMP Server (installed - check the link for details)

• Issue 2: All my preferences seems to be ok, except the mouse pointer speed (System > Preferences > Mouse) (solved)

• Issue 3: in Places > Network I see my Workgroup, but no computers (in this case a Windows machine). Still the Windows machine is accessing Linux shared folders (that I had to share again). (to solve)

  • If I use directly the IP I have no problems, but even in Places > Connect to Server I’m having no luck.
  • To pass this “problem” I created a Launcher (Location) in the Desktop to the machine (smb://100.000.0.0/).

• Issue 4: The version of Firefox that came with Ubuntu is the 3.0 beta 5. Unfortunately some of my favorite add-ons aren’t supported (just yet), so I’m gonna have to install Firefox 2.0 (to do).

• Issue 5: The time server (ntp) I had defined was gone. I had it again. (solved)

ntp02.oal.ul.pt

• Issue 6: I had some custom code in grub. I have to check it out tomorrow. (to check)

• Issue 7: Check if VirtualBox is running. (to check)