problems upgrading 14.04 to 14.10 (configuration failures in sysv-rc & grub packages)

[Marius Gedminas]

On Wed, Nov 05, 2014 at 10:41:17AM +0000, Adam Funk wrote:
> On 2014-11-04, Marius Gedminas wrote:
> > Aptitude is not recommended for Ubuntu, try apt-get upgrade instead.
> 
> I'm making progress with this --- thanks for the advice.  But I don't
> get the "aptitude is not recommended" thing:

I don't have a link ready, but I seem to remember Ubuntu developers
recommending apt-get over aptitude.  Aptitude uses a different
dependency solver and sometimes asks the user to choose between multiple
incomprehensible and usually wrong solutions.

Sometimes it is useful, but I'd be hard pressed to define when.

> the upgrade just got
> stuck on 'sudo apt-get upgrade with something like "the following 690
> packages will be held back, 0 to install, 0 to remove"; running 'sudo
> aptitude safe-upgrade' instead came up with a solution & is now
> upgrading those packages.

apt-get upgrade never installs new packages.  Use apt-get dist-upgrade.

In 14.10 you can also use 'sudo apt upgrade', which is more or less the
same as aptitude safe-upgrade (installs new packages, doesn't remove
any).

The rule of thumb is:

- it's safe to use apt-get dist-upgrade as long as you're not trying to
  upgrade to a newer Ubuntu version (i.e. don't edit /etc/apt/sources.list
  by and and apt-get dist-upgrade will be fine)

- for upgrades to newer Ubuntu versions use do-release-upgrade

Marius Gedminas
-- 
I am right now in the process of reading the Xft source code (the suspense near
the end of Chapter 7 is unbearable) [...]
	-- Juliusz Chroboczek
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 190 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20141105/84566a6a/attachment.sig>