Ubuntu Karmic Upgrades

There is a natural tension between staying with "old" tested versions with known bugs and limitations and moving on to "new" versions with different bugs and new horizons to probe. There is a further bifurcation in that we use Ubuntu both on our workstations and our servers. Another is the choice to backup and do a fresh install or upgrade the existing installation. We have moved on from our former "bleeding edge syndrome" where we would try out "beta" versions routinely. Now we wait for "released" versions unless pushed by an acute condition. So we upgrade workstations first and test for a few days. Then we upgrade the backup server and watch for another few days. Finally the time comes to upgrade the front line servers. That may happen this week.

I dutifully burned "Karmic" install CDs and inserted the appropriate desktop version. The amd64 version works for most recent AMD machines, the i386 version works for the rest but if you have installed the amd64 version you must upgrade with the amd64 version. Loading the CD on a "Jaunty" machine loads the "package-manager". A smarter choice would be the "upgrade-manager". I ran "upgrade-manager -d" and it seemed to register the CD as a package source but when I clicked "Upgrade", it did it all over the Internet. The moral is don't do that over dialup.

The installation went smoothly with a few nagging "options" where the default was always the best choice. Even on a fast connection, it took a couple of hours to finish the upgrade. LSNet dialup users are welcome to bring in their box and borrow ours.

Most applcations behaved well enough with two notable exceptions. The default audio mixer does not  know how to manage external sources (line in). That can be fixed by installing "gnome-alsamixer".  Gnumeric crashes on print to file. I fixed this problem with 13 "deb" files from Debian Sid.

You can pick up free CDs at the office. Desktop CDs have a "live" option so you can take a drive without wiping out your hard disk. Neat thing about Ubuntu and Open Source Software is that you can give it away to your friends.