Ubuntu upgrade gone bad

[Chris Mohler]

On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 12:15 PM, Curtis Vaughan <cavaughan at gmail.com> wrote:
> I was updating to 8.10 from Hardy Heron. It was already installing the
> software (so it was nearing completion) when I lost power. Now the
> computer won't boot. I don't remember the exact error, but something
> to the effect that something's wrong with the kernel.
> I decided to download the 8.10 CD, but it turns out there is no
> recovery mode on it. I'm wondering what actions I can take to restore
> something so I can complete the update.
>
> Thanks for any input!

Wow - that's sticky.  I would try booting from a live CD (any should
do, but 8.04 or 8.10 might be best).

Then, mount your old root partition and use the chroot command to
chroot to your old / filesystem.  Then I would take a peek at your apt
sources list and see if it's already set to use Intrepid.  If so, try
reinstalling the latest kernel through apt (still in the chroot).  If
you have a separate /boot partition, that might get a bit hairy.  If
the apt sources still point to hardy, see if you can do an apt-get
upgrade - again, if you have a separate /boot partition that's going
to be tricky.

I've not had to do anything like this in years, so take all of this
with a grain of salt.  I have not even googled around.  Maybe it would
be easier to try the recovery mode on a 8.04 CD to repair the kernel
first, then see if you can get it to boot and finish the upgrade.
Just throwing ideas out there....

Good luck!

Chris