My 1st October update: what to expect?

[thomas]

If there is a failure the computer won't work. How can one
seek help?

Andrew Farris wrote:

> On Wed, 2009-09-23 at 22:25 -0500, Doug Saylor wrote:
>   
>> So how does this work? I'm assuming the October update is no automatic?
>>  More details for a 1st timer please? Thanks!
>>     
>
> If by 'october 1st update' you mean the update to ubuntu 9.10... I dint
> think it's actually going to be on the 1st... probably a few weeks into
> October.
>
> But either way, yo're right: it's not 'automatic' per-se.  By 'Not
> Automatic' I mean that the update wont happen w/o your express
> permission. Anyway...basically what will happen when 9.10 comes out, is
> there will probably be a few updates to 9.04 (update manager will notify
> you). then once all your packages are up-to-date, an extra bar will
> appear on Update Manager telling you that "A new Release is available"
> and I think it lists the name/version number.  If you want to upgrade to
> the release (which if you're running 9.04, you probably will) click the
> "upgrade now" button, and update manager will download an update tool,
> and handle the upgrade automatically (i.e. little/no user interaction,
> at least until the very end). 
>
> At the very end, you might be required to give some input depending on
> if you've got customized packages/config files, but nothing terrible.
> The default options are usually the best. The only exception to this
> though, in my experience, is if it asks you about replacing your grub
> menu.lst. I've found that (in my case at least), choosing the 'install
> package maintainer's version' is usually the best option, as your kernel
> boot options get properly updated that way... and despite the sound of
> it, you don't actually loose any customized menu options.
>
> Overall, I've rarely had any problems with upgrades, and the
> difficulties I have had were very minor and easy to resolve. I'd
> actually recommend waiting a week or two (I usually wait about a month
> or so) to actually do the upgrade though, just because theres a ton of
> people that try to upgrade on the first day, and so the servers can get
> pretty bogged down. That and any obvious errors/issues that made it
> through the beta phase have a chance to get fixed/patched before you
> upgrade.
>
> The only other thing to note is if the upgrade fails for some reason,
> immediately seek help on the forums, or here to resolve the issue before
> you try rebooting. Make sure to be descriptive as to exactly what failed
> so you can get help ASAP. Otherwise, if you reboot first, you could be
> left with a partially broken system, which can be hard to fix for
> someone who isn't familiar with linux (never impossible, and usually
> easy, but still more complicated than normal sometimes).
>
> hope that helps! 
>