A Plethora of problems with Karmic 9.10 upgrade

[Rafiq Hajat]

Dear Friends,
I must confess utter dismay and despondency at the slew of trials and
tribulations visited upon my hapless head brought about by the innocent
action of updating my system. The woes are as follows:

1) My login screen has become erratic - it sometimes appears and at
times I have to use 'startx' at the prompt. This is despite numerous
attempts to install Grub2 and update relevant files according to the
instructions gleaned here as well as on the net.

2) When I use the startx command...I have no sound and no printing
facilities at all. When I'm fortunate enough to get a gui login - the
sound's distorted (Intel HD audio bug) and I still can't print because,
CUPS, for some esorteric reason, does not start! I can't find the
command to start CUPS and am left gnashing my teeth in frustration
whilst important documents can't be printed and the Windows users in the
office are ginning from ear to rear (the typo is deliberate!);

3) Today I find that though my mail is still available in Evolution, my
contacts, memos etc have all disappeared - what a f***ing disaster! 

Surely updating software should not lead to all this misery? I'm really
in a bind here and would appreciate some guidance and advise on how to
restore my system to a modicum of functionality - maybe a kind of
universal default switch? This may be the appropriate time for a mercy
killing!
  

Rafiq Hajat
Executive Director,
The Institute for Policy Interaction
P. O. Box E14, Post Dot Net ,
Blantyre - Malawi.
Cell: +265 999 968800
www.ipimalawi.org