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

[Adam Funk]

On 2014-11-05, Marius Gedminas wrote:

> 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

Thanks!  I'll file this for future reference.