howto upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 (and newer) today (june 2011)

[Ric Moore]

On Thu, 2011-06-23 at 09:27 +0200, Nils Kassube wrote: 
> Gilles MISSONNIER wrote:
> > I should have done this a while ago but... here I am now, seems like
> > that 9.04 is so old that it can't even upgrade itself...
> > 
> > update-manager -c
> > says that 10.04.2 LTS is available,
> > but it can't get it...
> 
> If you really want to do an online-upgrade you could have a look at this 
> page: <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades>.
> 
> However, as you will probably want to use 10.04 LTS or even 11.04, that 
> would involve 2 to 4 upgrade cycles consuming a considerable amount of 
> time. I would recommend to decide which version you really want to use 
> now and then make a fresh install of that version. You can keep your 
> home directory if you select manual partitioning and don't let the 
> installer format the partitions. Probably I don't need to tell you that 
> you should make a backup of your valuable data first. And please read 
> the release notes of the new version to avoid unpleasant surprises.

If the OP is going to make a risky jump like that, I SURE wouldn't
advise keeping old config files around in the /home/$USER directory
or /etc. That's just ~begging~ for massive problems. Then we'll have
another round of "Ubuntu sucks!" and much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Spare us, please. 

Just back up mission critical files and let all the rest of the crufty
~old crap~ go cleanly bye-bye. Heck, at this point a clean install would
be much more preferable, as grub and the file systems went through major
upgrades during the period as well. Be done with it. Go forth boldly
into the night, ...and install fresh. Then ye shall sin no more, will
you? :) Ric


-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256