upgrade from 9.04 - 9.10: the most broken Ubuntu / Debian upgrade I have ever experienced

[Derek Broughton]

Davyd McColl wrote:

> 1) libc6 upgrade requires the restart of gdm. Which in turn requires the
> termination of the X11 server. Which, in turn, requires that the upgrade
> process proceeds in a never-ending loop as the actual installation of
> libc6 doesn't complete properly. Not a problem for a vet with some
> experience -- a big problem for the "average joe" that Ubuntu is normally
> so well-suited for. Whilst I can switch to a VT and use apt, I don't have
> the confidence that the average user out there could, although they would
> have been presented with the same "upgrade now?" question by
> update-manager 2) When I finally got the process started, there were
> several (read 10+) rounds of the following:
>   apt-get dist-upgrade
>    [apt breaks because of package dependencies or other issues, such as

yeah, but you aren't supposed to be doing that, and I agree - the average 
user won't know enough to get _into_ that situation.  I haven't figured out 
whether you actually tried upgrade-manager.  If not, it's not a problem for 
the "average user", and if you did, it's a single bug: upgrade-manager 
didn't work, for whatever reason.
 
> Flame me if you will -- this release has not been good for the Ubuntu
> image. Still, I live in the hope that Things Will Get Fixed. And, where I
> can, I would dearly like to help -- if only I can boot my machine again
> sometime soon...

I've never seen a release with so few questions on the user lists.  Seems 
like it's been pretty reliable to me.  I can never understand why people who 
run into problems automatically assume that everybody is having just as much 
trouble.  I realize that at least 90% of the people who _do_ have trouble 
won't report it, but it's so quiet out there that you _must_ be an isolated 
case.
-- 
derek