Make the switch to Edgy?

[Eamonn Sullivan]

On 11/3/06, Amichai Rotman <amichai at iglu.org.il> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I am trying to decide - should I switch to edgy?
>
> I am running Ubuntu LTS 6.06 perfectly on an
> Intel Pentium 4 Celeron with 512 MB RAM
> Here is my lspci:

[snip]

> According to what I've read so far on the list, I am not sure it's a good
> idea to upgrade, on the other hand - the list of new features is
> intriguing....

I've upgraded through every release, from Warty on, and it often isn't
pretty. Upgrading above who-knows-what configuration changes and
software is a problem of basically infinite complexity, so I don't
blame the developers one bit. Backing up your data and doing a clean
install is *always* going to be easier.

That said, the transition from Dapper to Edgy was the *least*
troublesome I've had since using Ubuntu. I did it on two PCs. If
you've done a ton of customization and the thought of doing it all
over again concerns you, then I'd suggest:

1. Back up your home directory (so that you can reinstall Dapper if it
all goes pear-shaped).

2. Comment out all non-ubuntu repositories in your
/etc/apt/sources.list or disable them via Synaptic. (Theoretically,
the upgrade process I'm describing below does that for you
automatically, but do it anyway.)

3. Make sure the meta-package "ubuntu-desktop" is installed.

4. *Really* read the release notes [1], especially the part about
using update-manager to upgrade. Don't do the usual suggested method
of changing all dapper references to edgy and dist-upgrading.

5. Say a little prayer or sacrifice a small animal, depending on your
religious persuasion.

6. Run gksu "update-manager -c"

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EdgyReleaseNotes

-Eamonn