[xubuntu-users] Upgrade for GP...FYI stuff

[Fred Roller]

I did the upgrade through updater, just for GP, resulting in a complete 
crash.  I have and Aspire 7520 with dual AMD K8 Athlon64 processors, 4 
Gb RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7000M, and Broadcom BCM4311 (not factory), and a 
second monitor attached to the laptop.  2x 500 Gb hdd (sda1 = / , sda2 = 
/tmp , sda3 = swap , sda4 = /Isolibrary (data), sdb1 = /Crypt (data).

I usually just do a fresh install so I thought I would give the update a 
spin for reporting purposes.  Generally updates go smooth but this one 
went south in a blink.  I made it through downloads and a good deal into 
installation when the laptop primary screen went black and the second 
screen was filled with alternating carrot and ampersand (^@^@^@^@^@^@ 
etc. etc.).  Caps lock was flashing which typically has been a kernel 
panic.  System was non-responsive.

Installing 14.04 using "Something else"  from a Unetbootin built 
thumbdrive worked as advertised until reboot then I confirmed kernel 
panic, at least in the build scenario.  I get at boot, sequence number 
was consistant in every attempt at 1.6 ish :
[  1.610263] Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing 
init= option to kernel.

Final solution was to dd the iso to a thumbdrive and build as usual and 
here I am.  There is nothing to solve here, just did it for testing.  My 
system is from 2007 but has plenty of juice left.  I have had kernel 
panics in the past derived from trying to load the bcm additional 
drivers for the broadcom.  My wifi has to be activated via

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree

So if 14.04 tried to load those drivers then it would explain the 
crashes.  I did see what looked like bcm activity during the thumbdrive 
installation processes so was thinking this may be the culprit.

Willing to answer questions or post bug if necessary.

Fred