(SOLVED) Latest Partial upgrade

Hi All:
The upgrade manager has been prompting me about a partial upgrade recently. It is 371 MB and listed as a partial distribution upgrade. Around 10 packages will be removed, a like number installed and around a hundred or so packages upgraded. I finally said ok, and the upgrade manager ran for a minute or so and gave me a message that was something like " changes will take a while, the process cannot be stopped and are you sure you want to do this.

I'm running Zorin Ultimate 6 (Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit) and like it a lot. I use it more than I use Windows. I'd hate to see my good friend die. I have an older quad core AMD phenom 9600B with 8gb ram and a 250 gb hard drive, of which around 1/3 is used. I have kernel 3.2.0-74 generic and use gnome 3.4.2 desktop. So my questions are the following:

1. Is it recommended to partially upgrade?
2. Can I undo it if my system gets hosed or begins to perform badly?
3. Is this the type of upgrade I can wait for a few days for the full upgrade?
4. Is there a recommended way to backup my distribution and restore?
5. Is there a way to choose what to upgrade so it is safe?

Any and all help welcome. I had a partial upgrade earlier that caused a few boot up problems. Thankfully Wolfman and Swarfendor helped me get up and running again. I've been told that partial upgrades should be ok, but the last pop up message good me a little spooked.

all the best
Jojo

Hi All:
Based on replies to a recent partial upgrade question I checked and indeed "Settings Manager in respect of 'check for latest releases of Ubuntu' is checked to 'Never'.

As of now no changes have been applied and my system is still working well. Since I have a number of packages installed and a lot of data (almost all of which is backed up) and plugins for programs such as Libre Office and a paid for version of Crossover office installed I'd just as soon not wipe out my current version and install another one.

Hi JoJo,

do the partial upgrades and restart in recovery mode per the update guide and run DPKG then restart with Ctrl + Alt + Del.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2247

A NETWORK CABLE IS REQUIRED AND DON'T FORGET TO ACTIVATE "NETWORK" BEFORE YOU CONTINUE!.

Thanks Wolfman.
I'm not sure what your last line means:

A NETWORK CABLE IS REQUIRED AND DON'T FORGET TO ACTIVATE "NETWORK" BEFORE YOU CONTINUE!.

I am connected via Wireless internet, but I do have a network cable connection available. Is it important to connect via the cable?
When you say " activate network" do I do that from the recovery mode, as per viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2247

As per the topic you refer to, it says " you should say "Yes" as it most likely won't advance anyway in the update process" . Does that mean that it won't become a full update or upgrade but will stay in partial upgrade until I perform the partial and only do the rest after I've done the partial?

Finally, timing is important. Will I be better off waiting a week or so for the full upgrade to be assembled, or should I just do the partial now?

Thanks a lot.
Jojo

HI, no intention of hijacking, but what Wolfman is saying is that you must have network enabled before you run dpkg - with wireless it sometimes needs to look for drivers, which does not happen in the 'bash' environment (a bit like DOS environment in Windows where not all drivers will work unless a GUI [X] is working - a wired connection to your router before booting will ensure that any missing packages that 'dpkg' finds will get downloaded. Please ensure that before you attempt this that your settings manager is pointing to 'Main Server' as the source of your system packages!

Thanks Swarfendor437. I get the point about ensuring that I have networking enabled. I'll have my ethernet cable plugged in.
I would appreciate it if you could clarify what "your settings manager is pointing to 'Main Server' as the source of your system packages". Is this something in the Synaptic package manager. I opened Synaptic and under Settings --- "Software and Updates" it had five tabs, the first of which is Ubuntu Software (not Zorin Software). Under that tab I changed the "download from" from Server for the United States to Main Server. Is that what you meant or was there another setting or location I needed to work from?

On a potentially related note, I tried to open the "Software Sources" program under administration but I got a pop up that said I need to run as an administrator in the command line, so I decided not to bother unless I needed to.

Thanks for tolerating my obsessive compulsive behavior with this. I'm hoping to get this right so i don't have to reinstall my system. I can but I really don't want to. Even backing up with Clonezilla doesn't make restoration a day at the beach. Thanks again for your help and Wolfman's too.

Regarding 'Main Server' that is correct. With regards to anything in a terminal that requires root privileges remember to put 'sudo' in front of it - if you require increased privileges, 'gksudo nautilus'.

You can launch Synaptic from the Terminal with admin rights (you will be asked for your password):

Code:

sudo synaptic

REMEMBER - you cannot have more than one 'root' process running at any given time - so if you are running Synaptic and have launched via the GUI (Graphical User Interface) via the menu you will not be able to run sudo commands for something else in a terminal!

Thanks all.
Let me summarize my understandings of what to do.
1. perform the partial upgrade
2. reboot the machine and hold the shift key after the log to enter the GRUB menu
3. Select recovery mode and select the kernel Ubuntu 3.2.0-74 generic (recovery mode)
4. Select network
5. Select dpkg
6 When dpkg completes hit ctrl+alt+del to restart.

This procedure means I don't go to the root prompt terminal. If I should please let me know.

Finally, in the viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2247 it suggests I say 'yes' when asked about replacing an existing file with a new one. My question is whether, if I say no, a future upgrade will upgrade the older package if it needs to be. I got into some difficulty when I said yes earlier, but that was part of a partial upgrade. Have you seen any problems arise by choosing no, don't upgrade.

Thanks a lot for this information and for all your help. Hopefully the answer to this will provide me with all the information I need to proceed.
all the best
Jojo

Hi JoJo,

yes to partial upgrade, yes to replace files with newer versions and yes you need a network cable for this to work in DPKG recovery mode!.

All is explained in the update guide link I posted earlier!.

Thanks Wolfman and Swarfendor437. I will review the earlier link again and then I'll give it a go and get back to you afterwards. I'd like to keep this thread open until I complete the partial upgrade, which I expect to complete Thursday. (I'm away tomorrow).
Jojo

Some good news and a question.
Hi Wolfman and Swarfendor437.
I ran the partial upgrade, it completed successfully and then asked me to reboot, which I did.
During reboot I pushed shift, got a grub message along with a message something like "keyboard failure". I removed my finger from the shift key.
Much to my joy the system then booted up and is behaving well. After booting I opened up Synaptic and clicked on "repair broken packages". As usual it immediately reported all package problems fixed.

So now my questions:
1. Should I reboot again and run "dpkg" ? I'm willing and able to do that, but I also tend not to fix things that aren't broken.
2. Can I run dpkg from the command line as root and will it do the same thing?

Thanks again for all the help.
all the best
Jojo

Hi Jojo,

you can run this terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) command which is the same as running DPKG:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

The only thing the above command wouldn't do is fix broken packages, if you needed to do that from a terminal, run the following command:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Thank you very much Wolfman.

I ran both instructions in a terminal. The first instruction took a few minutes since packages were being upgraded/installed. The second ran almost instantaneously. Is that normal?
Other than that everything seems to be running well. With your help I've overcome my fear of partial upgrades.

All the best
Jojo

Hi Jojo,

good, then we can mark this as solved!.

Hi Wolfman:
Yes, definitely mark this as solved. Thank you and thank Swarfendor437 again.