| Edgy upgrade pains and fixes |
Oct. 27, 2006
 Analysis -- Upgrading an operating system is always a chancy thing. An application can stop working, a modem can freeze up, and then, when upgrading to Ubuntu 6.10, Edgy Eft, you can lose your graphical user interface: windows, icon, mouse pointer, and all... Not good.
The Ubuntu Forums are currently full of plaintive cries for help, such as: "I had no problems upgrading from Breezy to Dapper but Dapper to Edgy has left me high and dry." And: "I have big problems with X server. Ver 6.06 worked perfect, but after upgrade on my Dell Latitude D610, X server is not working at all."
How bad are the upgrade problems? According to an informal Ubuntu Forum poll, 28.37 percent of users are having serious problems such as being unable to connect to the Internet, while a whopping 27.66 percent are unable to even boot successfully.
Yikes!
While many of these problems are the kind of hodgepodge you expect to find after an upgrade -- WiFi not working, the Skye VOIP application misbehaving -- others seem to be symptoms of underlying problems.
The most noteworthy of these is that the X server seems to be really having trouble, with the result that users are often unable to get into either GNOME or KDE at all. A close look at the x.org log file, typically found in /var/log/Xorg.0.log, may turn up error messages such as:
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01:00:0
(II) ATI: Candidate "Device" section "ATI Technologies, Inc. R480 [Radeon X850$]
(WW) ATI: PCI Mach64 in slot 1:0:0 could not be detected!
(WW) ATI: PCI Mach64 in slot 1:0:1 could not be detected!
(EE) No devices detected.
Fatal server error:
no screens found
This indicates that the problem is often that the graphics drivers -- including those from ATI, NVIDA -- aren't being properly activated. The problem, however, does not seem to exist only with proprietary video drivers. Users are reporting similar problems with plan vanilla on-board Intel graphics, as well.
One possible fix is to run from the recovery console the following command:
sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-ati
Of course, you should make certain to install the appropriate video driver family for your specific PC. In this case, the command assumed an ATI video controller.
There's also a set of elaborate instructions on how to get Edgy's graphics working with NVIDA. This detailed document is also likely to help anyone fighting with Edgy Eft's video problems.
One adventurous Kubuntu 6.06 user reports that he successfully upgraded his IBM ThinkPad to Edgy by means of the following, rather time-consuming, procedure:- Begin, by following the Edgy Updates instructions located here
- Reboot the system, after which only a command prompt appears, and X does not load after typing startx or startkde at the commandline, or rebooting (as described above) -- but, have no fear!
- From command prompt, run the command:
apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
...to install the Ubuntu desktop
- Following that, reboot the system and log in at the graphical login screen
At this point, the user reports, the Edgy Eft desktop finally appears. He notes that Kubuntu users should be sure to select "KDE" from the drop-down menu on the graphical log-in screen prior to logging in, or they may end up on a (horrors!) GNOME/Ubuntu desktop. (Update on Oct. 29: our adventurous updater reports that when using the Ubuntu/GNOME desktop, as opposed to the Kubuntu/KDE desktop, attempts to shut down the system via "Log Out" result in a blank Ubuntu desktop with a frozen mouse cursor-pointer. At that point, pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del continues the shut-down process successfully. Clearly something's not quite right with the Ubuntu Desktop installation. However, the Kubuntu/KDE desktop appears to be working fine.)
Unfortunately, coming as this does on the heels of August's Ubuntu 6.06 LTS upgrade problem, these problems may dampen enthusiasm for this popular distribution.
For now, perhaps the best thing to do with the Edgy Eft release is not upgrade your Ubuntu system. There are simply too many problems to justify the move, at this point. Once the fixes are in -- or at least well-documented ways to avoid the most common problems are published -- then, and only then, will making a move to Edgy Eft be a wise idea.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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