[conspire] upgrade from 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS ?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting =JeffH (Jeff.Hodges at KingsMountain.com):

> Does anyone have any pointers, war stories, gotchas, etc to share
> regarding upgrading 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS ?

The one Ubuntu system I personally maintain is an Ubuntu Server
installation, that being Silicon Valley Linux User Group's Web server,
running 10.04.4 LTS 'Lucid Lynx' on a virtual machine at Linode.  
I've been deferring the move to 12.04.01 LTS 'Precise Pangolin' 
because 

1.  I want to have a full backup just before doing it.
2.  I want to be rested and have lots of free time in case things 
    blow up.
3.  Preferably, I want the upgrade process to get debugged on the
    basis of other people hitting catastrophic bugs so I don't 
    have to.

> I note there's a passel of blog and forum posts regarding it (eg
> [1]), but thought I'd also ask here.

I think you're right to be a little cautious, and probably more on a
desktop system that depends on all of GNOME to remain functional than on
the far more more modest and modular server host I run.

Note that the standard upgrade method, using 'do-release-upgrade'[1]
waits until there's a point-release, i.e., 12.04.01 instead of just
12.04, before it tells you "New release 'precise' available.  Run
'do-release-upgrade' to upgrade to it."  That _does_ reflect a fair
amount of caution and forethought on the distro maintainers' part.
You would not be getting a raw just-shoved-out-the-door major upgrade;
you would be receiving the first round of 'Oops, forgot that bit' fixes.

You were probably hoping for a simple answer, which I'm not providing.
Sorry, the reason is I'm a little conflicted on the matter, myself.

> I hear tell that the new "unity" desktop sorta messes things up for
> those who depend on Gnome's v3 user experience, but that there's
> (now?) a "Gnome Classic" setting?

Yeah.  The orthodox upgrade path for a 10.04.x GNOME-based system canot
proceed directly to a 12.04.01-based one with -immediate- availability 
of GNOME Classic (package name gnome-shell) as an alternative to Unity.
Instead, 'do-release-upgrade' on such a system converts your system to
GNOME3/Unity, and you have to then install Precise Pangolin's package
gnome-shell as a separate, subsequent step.

If that bothered you, I'm sure there pretty easy ways to bodge in the
new gnome-shell package right at the beginning.  They're just not
provided for in Ubuntu's shiny-happy GUI process.

> Hm, it seems there might be some issues with the 64-bit nvidia
> driver (working with 12.04.1) for my dell E6500 with Quadro NVS
> 160M, anyone have any experience sorting that out? (tho there's
> hints that it is perhaps a non-issue [2])

I have no personal experience, but offer a general comment.  _Any_ time
you rely on third-party proprietary driver sets, you run the risk (among
others) of severe breakage on distro upgrades.  Often but not always you
can then recover from that breakage by getting the latest proprietary
driver set.  Better, you might (or might not) avoid the distro-upgrade
breakage by installing the very latest version of the proprietary driver 
set just before attempting the distro upgrade.

I see that the Ubuntu Web forums are pushing the proprietary drivers as
they always do, and urging you to avoid the nouveau drivers.  That's _a_ 
choice.  It would not be _my_ choice.

My policy is always:  Try the best available open source drivers and see
if they are satisfactory.  Only if they really lack, with reluctance
because there will be heartache and annoyance later (not to mention 
'tainted' kernel operation so that my kernel bug reports will be quite
rightly ignored) if I have to switch to the proprietary drivers as a
last (NEVER first) resort.

Since you're already installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers, even
trying nouveau under those circumstances might be a significant hassle,
so I wouldn't necessarily advise you to jump that way.  My larger point
is that proprietary driver sets cause long-term maintenance and other
problems, so the people on Ubuntu Web forums who (characteristically) 
tell everyone to PREFER them are doing you no favour.

By the way, you might be happier with Linux Mint with the 'Cinnamon'
UI, which emulates the GNOME2 desktop metaphor that was based on
now-unmaintained GNOME Shell.  'Cinnamon' uses a fork of the window
manager on which GNOME Shell was based, one called Mutter, and provides
a GNOME2-style desktop metaphor within a GNOME3 software framework 
(that includes the leading-edge gtk+3 graphics toolkit).

Linux Mint offered a similar thing earlier with 'MATE', an outright fork
of the entirety of GNOME2 including the gtk+2 graphics toolkit.  They 
still offer that as an installation option, but I gather that Cinnamon
is their long-term preferred path forward.


And, as fair disclosure, I'm really not a GNOME fan.  Bear that in mind
when reading my advice.  _If_ you are at some point feeling just a tiny
bit adventurous, you might wish to try a different Desktop Environment,
e.g., LXDE, XFCE4, or the stunningly successful Enlightenment DE as
implemented by Bodhi Linux.

(Further fair disclosure:  I'm also a little peevish about many people
acting as if Ubuntu is all that exists, for little better reason than
relentless marketing.  Y'all might want to get out and try other things,
a bit.)



[1] Here, I'm afraid I'm reflecting my server bias.
'do-release-upgrade' is a Python script for the command-line console
that can be used for *buntu upgrading.  The recommended desktop thing
is, if I recall correctly, Ubuntu Software Centre.