Anyone having issues installing 12.04?

[Stephen Rees-Carter]

Hi all,

Is anyone testing 12.04 and having issues with the installer?
I'm trying to install over the top of an 11.10 install and I keep
getting the installer hanging at: "Removing conflicting operating
system files".

I think it is occurring because I am asking the partitioner to install
over the / (root) partition while leaving the /home partition, but I
can't confirm as yet.
I'm testing at the moment, but it's going to take some time to get it to work.

I have a bug report at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/924660

Thanks,
~Stephen

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[danyJ]

On Fri, 3 Feb 2012 09:02:34 +1100
Stephen Rees-Carter <ste...@rees-carter.net> wrote:

Hi Stephen,

Not sure what you mean by installing "over the top of 11.10"? I'd say its best to do a proper upgrade,
or ask it to reformat everything and wipe off 11.10. (you would have saved your data files?)

If you are already running 11.10 and want to *test* 12.04, I'd suggest you run in a Virtual environment:
VirtualBox or KVM. It does mean though that you will be stuck no 2D environment. (although VirtualBox may
allow the 3D environment, if u want to try out full Unity 5.2, but its very slow).

Daniel.

> Hi all,
>
> Is anyone testing 12.04 and having issues with the installer?
> I'm trying to install over the top of an 11.10 install and I keep
> getting the installer hanging at: "Removing conflicting operating
> system files".
>
> I think it is occurring because I am asking the partitioner to install
> over the / (root) partition while leaving the /home partition, but I
> can't confirm as yet.
> I'm testing at the moment, but it's going to take some time to get it to work.
>
> I have a bug report at:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/924660
>
> Thanks,
> ~Stephen
>

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[Stephen Rees-Carter]

Hi Daniel,

Sorry, let me explain my "over the top of" :)

My HDD is partitioned into three: a root (/) partition, a /home
partition and swap.
So what I am doing is telling the installer to format my root
partition and leave the /home unformatted but mounted as /home.

Make more sense?

I prefer to do a clean install keeping my home directory, but I am
considering the upgrade method.
As for a clean install, although I have a good backup method, it will
still take effort :)

Thanks,
~Stephen

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[Chris Robinson]

It's been doing that for a while, even if you specify to format the / partition (but re-use the /home partition)  My feeling is that it's config stuff like compiz that it's removing.  This is a *good*thing* if so, especially if it works this way for an LTS  dist upgrade as well.  It might stop the mountain of support problems in the forums and launchpad like we had with 11.04 and 11.10, where the old compiz settings completely messed up unity so that things like the launcher and top panel were completely missing.  This is going to be a big one, with lots of people upgrading from 10.04 LTS.

I don't think it's a bug - I think someones actually thought it through (fingers crossed).  I think I'll make an effort to verify this next time I do a test install.

By the way, literally doing an install "over the top of" without formating is a legitimate and useful option for people now.  For those that did a single partition install they can now install on the same partition without formatting, and conflicting files should be removed but their /home/username will be left intact.  In practice I generally don't recommend it as the first option, because I have had a broken system once from doing this as a test. I have recommended it as a repair option with some geat successes.  Don't let users do it without backing up data however - bad things or fat fingers can still happen.

Chris

---

From: Stephen Rees-Carter <ste...@rees-carter.net>
To: Ubuntu AU List <ubun...@lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Friday, 3 February 2012 8:02 AM
Subject: Anyone having issues installing 12.04?

[Stephen Rees-Carter]

> I don't think it's a bug - I think someones actually thought it through
> (fingers crossed). I think I'll make an effort to verify this next time I
> do a test install.

Um... it hangs and cannot proceed any further than that message. I've
left my machine sitting on it for an hour or two, and nothing has
happened.

It sounds like a really useful feature, given what you've said about
it. Maybe the problem in my case is that my user folder(s) are all
Encrypted?
Maybe it's hanging because of that, but I've never had the issue
before and I've been using Encrypted home directories for years.

> By the way, literally doing an install "over the top of" without formating
> is a legitimate and useful option for people now.

I haven't tried that option in ages. When I first used it, it always
broke, so I've been doing the clean install trick ever since.
Also, I kinda like having a clean and fresh install every couple of
months. I have a script which installs all my programs and such so I
can easily restore my machine to the same state it was in before I did
the clean install (assuming my home directory is still in tact).

To tell you the truth, I've been having so many issues with 12.04.
It's looking the opposite of "super stable" that everyone is going on
about - although a couple of them are issues with my Thinkpad L520 and
the kernel not supporting Sandybridge.

Thanks,
~Stephen

[Paul Gear]

On 03/02/12 11:34, Stephen Rees-Carter wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Sorry, let me explain my "over the top of" :)
>
> My HDD is partitioned into three: a root (/) partition, a /home
> partition and swap.
> So what I am doing is telling the installer to format my root
> partition and leave the /home unformatted but mounted as /home.
>
> Make more sense?
>
> I prefer to do a clean install keeping my home directory, but I am
> considering the upgrade method.
> As for a clean install, although I have a good backup method, it will
> still take effort :)

> ...

>
> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 11:27 AM, danyJ <dany...@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

>> ...

>> Hi Stephen,
>>
>> Not sure what you mean by installing "over the top of 11.10"? I'd say its best to do a proper upgrade,
>> or ask it to reformat everything and wipe off 11.10. (you would have saved your data files?)

The method you're using makes perfect sense, Stephen, and should work.
My suggestion is to install just to / and don't tell it about /home
until after you've installed (i.e. edit /etc/fstab when you're done).

I would question Daniel's assertion that "its [sic] best to do a proper
upgrade". Debian and all derivatives are designed to upgrade smoothly,
and Ubuntu has an excellent track record on this. Saying that a clean
install is better nowadays is borderline FUD.

Paul

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[Joel Pickett]

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I initially has issues clean installing to 12.04 lalpha 2 due to the installer not adding the STA Broadcom driver. Even after installation and connecting to a wired network to install it via jockey, it wasn't showing up. I needed to initially install via a wired network (which borked the first time right at the end) to get a proper install

Joel Pickett

[Chris Robinson]

---

From: Stephen Rees-Carter <ste...@rees-carter.net>

To: Chris Robinson <fabri...@yahoo.com>
Cc: Ubuntu AU List <ubun...@lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Friday, 3 February 2012 12:59 PM
Subject: Re: Anyone having issues installing 12.04?

> I don't think it's a bug - I think someones actually thought it through
> (fingers crossed).  I think I'll make an effort to verify this next time I
> do a test install.

>Um... it hangs and cannot proceed any further than that message. I've
>left my machine sitting on it for an hour or two, and nothing has
>happened.

______________________________________________
Sorry, I missed that.  Serves me right for reading email during lunch break on the 9" Asus screen and starting from the middle of a conversation...

___________________________________

>It sounds like a really useful feature, given what you've said about
>it. Maybe the problem in my case is that my user folder(s) are all
>Encrypted?
>Maybe it's hanging because of that, but I've never had the issue
>before and I've been using Encrypted home directories for years.

___________________________________
Actually, yes I can see how that would be a problem, in which case it is indeed a bug if it's not able to handle it a bit more gracefully.  It won't be able to do what it needs to do with the encrypted partition, but it shouldn't come to a screaming halt either.

_____________________________________

> By the way, literally doing an install "over the top of" without formating
> is a legitimate and useful option for people now.

>I haven't tried that option in ages. When I first used it, it always
>broke, so I've been doing the clean install trick ever since.
>Also, I kinda like having a clean and fresh install every couple of
>months. I have a script which installs all my programs and such so I
>can easily restore my machine to the same state it was in before I did
>the clean install (assuming my home directory is still in tact).

_____________________________________

I've seen it fail here, with 11.04 I think it was.  I've found that it can be a great way to recover a system for non-technical users who have a default single partition install - I do suggest it if other fixes a proving too difficult over the forums or Launchpad Q.  Of course you tell them to back up data first just in case but I have to wonder how many of them actually do.  After all, they just tried to upgrade their systems on line without backing up (usually) and are in the jam because someone pulled the power cord out before it was finished.

_______________________________________

>To tell you the truth, I've been having so many issues with 12.04.
>It's looking the opposite of "super stable" that everyone is going on
>about - although a couple of them are issues with my Thinkpad L520 and
>the kernel not supporting Sandybridge.

_______________________________________

Well it's not just you, they've dropped some real clangers early on.  I don't think 12.04 is that stable overall yet, and "super stable" doesn't seem to be the best way to describe it.  Some bits are great and I really do think they are on the way to a good LTS release.  I already think it's faster than 11.10 by a long way, even with all the debug symbols still being part of the compile etc and I'm looking forward to see how the final release goes.  I'd only recommend the 12.04 alpha to the seasoned tester at this point however.  I have a test install that that was only installed off the alpha 1 image on day one and it's had nothing but updates ever since.  The fact that it's still working and still updating is more a matter of good luck than masterful management on my part.  If I'm feeling bit clever because I just fixed it (again) I normally only have to wait for the next update to bring me back to reality.  I have to configure Xorg manually because I'm running two systems through a KVM switch, and it's give me a really challenge on a couple of occasions - they seem to be playing around with Xorg quite a bit.

Chris