[ubuntu-uk] comprehensively messed up by updates

[Tony Travis]

Rowan Berkeley wrote:
> But I would have lost all my applications if I had done what Tony
> suggested earlier, here is what he said:
> 
> "Did you try my advice of booting the kernel originally supplied by LC?
> [...]

Hello, Rowan.

No you wouldn't!

You can boot different kernels under the same 'distribution' of Linux:

The kernel is more or less independent of the rest of the distribution. 
You can update your 'userland' (i.e. all your applications) but still 
run the previous Linux kernel.The modules used by a particular kernel 
are stored in a folder under /lib for that particular kernel. if you 
list them in reverse order like this, you should see the same list you 
get in the GRUB menu at boot-time:

> ls -rl /lib/modules
> total 12
> drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2009-02-11 12:28 2.6.24-23-generic
> drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2008-12-07 15:22 2.6.24-22-generic
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-01-14 10:03 2.6.24-16-generic

In my case, the oldest kernel is 2.6.24-16-generic. My suggestion was 
that you try to boot the Linux kernel that came with the LC product 
recovery disks, after having upgraded the rest of the distribution.

All you have to do is select the kernel at boot time by pressing Esc at 
the GRUB prompt (i.e. when you computer boots). Look down the list and 
select the oldest kernel at the bottom of the list. Knowing how to do 
this might help you solve problems in the future caused by a kernel upgrade.

Bye,

	Tony.
-- 
Dr. A.J.Travis, University of Aberdeen, Rowett Institute of Nutrition
and Health, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK
tel +44(0)1224 712751, fax +44(0)1224 716687, http://www.rowett.ac.uk
mailto:a.travis at abdn.ac.uk, http://bioinformatics.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt