5 ms·

I upgraded my 13.04 system this morning and now it is unfortunately unusable. Any time I try to switch users, it consistently brings me to a black screen with a

by gw 13y ago

I upgraded my 13.04 system this morning and now it is unfortunately unusable. Any time I try to switch users, it consistently brings me to a black screen with a frozen mouse pointer that I cannot get out of, even when hitting Ctrl+Alt+F#. I'm downloading the iso now to try a fresh install.

leeview 13y ago
I upgraded today too and I tried to reproduce your bug: mine didn't freeze but it still raised some errors to be reported to Canonical when I switched back to the initial user. OTOH they fixed some bugs in Rhythmbox (playing music from shared folders over network was very buggy and now just works). Also Unity seems snappier and they seem to have fixed some bugs related to pinning applications on the launcher.
hpaavola 13y ago
Mine (Asus Zenbook ux31a) doesn't even boot to dekstop anymore with the default kernel. X server just says fatal error, no screens found. Using kernel 3.8 now and things seems to work.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- hpaavola 13y ago
  And it's a kernel bug: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59841 https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59841
Daishiman 13y ago
I have always found that continous upgrade eventually break the system. A clean install should be the recommended choice.
- Theriac25 13y ago
  That's just beyond retarded. I weep when people have been conditioned by Canonical (and Microsoft) to accept this.
  - Daishiman 13y ago
    It's not all Canonical's faults. A highly customized install with a few extra libs here and there and some proprietary softare can easily wreck havoc on a system.
    - gw 13y ago
      The same problem persisted after I did a fresh install, so in this case there is something that it doesn't like about my computer, a Lenovo G780.
    - zanny 13y ago
      I had a continuous Arch install for 4 years without massive breakage through half a dozen major switches, including the fs layout and the systemd transition. I just upgraded to an SSD and decided to clean slate rather than carry extra fs creep baggage that isn't linked to a package to remove, but I still have that partition around, and I'm pretty sure if I upgraded it it might still boot. It is why I like rolling releases - rather than have catastrophic breakage every half year, you continuously migrate upwards. It means occasionally you need to pull up a web browser to see why your desktop is missing, but its better than doing a dist-upgrade and getting an unbootable system.
    - icebraining 13y ago
      My Debian installation has been the same for six years and survived moving from Gnome → XFCE → Fluxbox → Awesome and installing bleeding-edge mesa and radeon drivers, plus other kinds on tinkering. Oh, and moving to an SSD.
  - bashinator 13y ago
    Especially since the upstream distro (Debian) is absolutely phenomenal when it comes to in-place major upgrades.
  - 13y ago
- sampo 13y ago
  I have been updating my Lenovo laptop every 6 months since 7.03 and it's still going fine.
  - chrismorgan 13y ago
    And I since 9.10. Sure, I've had my problems with it due to certain customisations applied, but to the best of my knowledge nothing that I haven't brought on myself, and I've been able to sort it out each time without significant trouble.
  - aclevernickname 13y ago
    7.04 install upgraded to 13.10 here. Worst I had to do was apt-get -f install after an apt-get dist-upgrade. So six years now.
- kolev 13y ago
  Yes, same experience. Unfortunately, for the peace of mind, you should always rebuild - in-place upgrades for Desktop never work smoothly.
  - kintamanimatt 13y ago
    I've only ever had one hose my system but that's because I locked the screen while the upgrade was in progress. The upgrade never finished because I couldn't unlock and answer any of its conflict resolution questions. Today's upgrade was pretty smooth and uneventful.
  - asveikau 13y ago
    I guess I should stop using my Debian machines where I did an install in previous decades (decades, plural) and copied the setup from hard drive to hard drive across several physical machine rebuilds. Up to now I had no idea that this never works smoothly.
    - kolev 13y ago
      Debian != Ubuntu
      - asveikau 13y ago
        So?
        kolev 13y ago
        We're talking about Ubuntu here - that was my point. I've been upgrading Ubuntu Desktop for years (a decade, singular) and I've always been struggling - especially if I ventured to install an alpha and then keep upgrading that. Compared to OS X, on which I always upgrade to the first Developer Preview and keep upgrading on, although OS X comes with problems, too, the GM usually fixes it all up. With Ubuntu, it's best to script your environment and rebuild clean. At least my experience. Garbage always piles up otherwise!
bloopletech 13y ago
Nvidia, AMD, or Intel? Proprietary or open source drivers? I often have problems during upgrades using the proprietary drivers. The solution is usually: 1. Uninstall proprietary drivers. 2. Reboot, make sure the fallback mesa/vesa works (i.e. you can boot to graphical login). 3. Install proprietary drivers again. 4. Reboot, make sure the graphical login works, then run glxinfo | grep -i opengl, and make sure the renderer is GeForce or Radeon or whatever, NOT "Mesa". Yes, it's stupid, and yes, we shouldn't have these problems in 2013, but the proprietary drivers tend to just have more compatibility issues.

by gw 13y ago

leeview 13y ago

I upgraded today too and I tried to reproduce your bug: mine didn't freeze but it still raised some errors to be reported to Canonical when I switched back to the initial user. OTOH they fixed some bugs in Rhythmbox (playing music from shared folders over network was very buggy and now just works). Also Unity seems snappier and they seem to have fixed some bugs related to pinning applications on the launcher.

hpaavola 13y ago

Mine (Asus Zenbook ux31a) doesn't even boot to dekstop anymore with the default kernel. X server just says fatal error, no screens found. Using kernel 3.8 now and things seems to work.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
hpaavola 13y ago
And it's a kernel bug: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59841 https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59841

Daishiman 13y ago

I have always found that continous upgrade eventually break the system. A clean install should be the recommended choice.

Theriac25 13y ago
That's just beyond retarded. I weep when people have been conditioned by Canonical (and Microsoft) to accept this.
- Daishiman 13y ago
  It's not all Canonical's faults. A highly customized install with a few extra libs here and there and some proprietary softare can easily wreck havoc on a system.
  - gw 13y ago
    The same problem persisted after I did a fresh install, so in this case there is something that it doesn't like about my computer, a Lenovo G780.
  - zanny 13y ago
    I had a continuous Arch install for 4 years without massive breakage through half a dozen major switches, including the fs layout and the systemd transition. I just upgraded to an SSD and decided to clean slate rather than carry extra fs creep baggage that isn't linked to a package to remove, but I still have that partition around, and I'm pretty sure if I upgraded it it might still boot. It is why I like rolling releases - rather than have catastrophic breakage every half year, you continuously migrate upwards. It means occasionally you need to pull up a web browser to see why your desktop is missing, but its better than doing a dist-upgrade and getting an unbootable system.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    My Debian installation has been the same for six years and survived moving from Gnome → XFCE → Fluxbox → Awesome and installing bleeding-edge mesa and radeon drivers, plus other kinds on tinkering. Oh, and moving to an SSD.
- bashinator 13y ago
  Especially since the upstream distro (Debian) is absolutely phenomenal when it comes to in-place major upgrades.
- 13y ago
sampo 13y ago
I have been updating my Lenovo laptop every 6 months since 7.03 and it's still going fine.
- chrismorgan 13y ago
  And I since 9.10. Sure, I've had my problems with it due to certain customisations applied, but to the best of my knowledge nothing that I haven't brought on myself, and I've been able to sort it out each time without significant trouble.
- aclevernickname 13y ago
  7.04 install upgraded to 13.10 here. Worst I had to do was apt-get -f install after an apt-get dist-upgrade. So six years now.
kolev 13y ago
Yes, same experience. Unfortunately, for the peace of mind, you should always rebuild - in-place upgrades for Desktop never work smoothly.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  I've only ever had one hose my system but that's because I locked the screen while the upgrade was in progress. The upgrade never finished because I couldn't unlock and answer any of its conflict resolution questions. Today's upgrade was pretty smooth and uneventful.
- asveikau 13y ago
  I guess I should stop using my Debian machines where I did an install in previous decades (decades, plural) and copied the setup from hard drive to hard drive across several physical machine rebuilds. Up to now I had no idea that this never works smoothly.
  - kolev 13y ago
    Debian != Ubuntu
    - asveikau 13y ago
      So?
      - kolev 13y ago
        We're talking about Ubuntu here - that was my point. I've been upgrading Ubuntu Desktop for years (a decade, singular) and I've always been struggling - especially if I ventured to install an alpha and then keep upgrading that. Compared to OS X, on which I always upgrade to the first Developer Preview and keep upgrading on, although OS X comes with problems, too, the GM usually fixes it all up. With Ubuntu, it's best to script your environment and rebuild clean. At least my experience. Garbage always piles up otherwise!

bloopletech 13y ago

Nvidia, AMD, or Intel? Proprietary or open source drivers? I often have problems during upgrades using the proprietary drivers. The solution is usually: 1. Uninstall proprietary drivers. 2. Reboot, make sure the fallback mesa/vesa works (i.e. you can boot to graphical login). 3. Install proprietary drivers again. 4. Reboot, make sure the graphical login works, then run glxinfo | grep -i opengl, and make sure the renderer is GeForce or Radeon or whatever, NOT "Mesa". Yes, it's stupid, and yes, we shouldn't have these problems in 2013, but the proprietary drivers tend to just have more compatibility issues.