25 Mar 08 Upgrade

I decided to try and keep a little ahead of the game, so I tackled an Operating System Upgrade on one of my desktops.

It currently runs Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), and I went for the next release, Hardy Heron, which is still in beta, with a final release due out in April. This continues the policy of Canonical Ltd, the makes of Ubuntu to bring out a new release every six months.

Now, for Windows users, the though of an upgrade usually instills fear and dread. Will it work, or will I get the eternal Blue Screen of Death?

Will my existing software work, or will I need to spend hundred of dollars and as many hours upgrading all that too? Will I be able to use my printer, my camera and so on.

Well, this is how I upgraded my Ubuntu system.

Remember it’s free anyway, and none of this activation nonsense. You don’t need to call anyone.

Firstly, bring up a terminal window. Oh no, I hear you cry, not command line stuff! Relax it’s is really so so easy.
I run the KDE desktop, and I use Kate as my editor.

So the first line we type in the terminal window is:

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

The system will ask you for your password. You know that, it’s the one you used when you logged on six months ago. Seriously, I’ve had Linux systems run that long without a reboot. Try that with Windows!

OK, Kate comes up in its own window, with the sources.list file loaded. This file tells the system where to go and get updates. Do a find and replace, changing the word “gutsy” to “hardy”. Save the file. Quit Kate.

Back in your terminal window type:

sudo apt-get update

This command tells the system to go off to the repositories (which you just changed from gutsy to hardy), and find any files that need upgrading.

When that’s scrolled thru a lot of lines, and dropped you back at the command prompt (that $), you type this line:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

This applies all the files it’s found. This will take quite some time. It takes longer than when you first installed Ubuntu from CD, as it has to go through finding and replacing each file that needs updating.

When its finished, probably 30-40 mins later, you type this:

sudo shutdown -r now

Your system will shut down. Restart it, and you’ll have a nice new upgraded system. Of course, it’s not only upgraded the Operating System, but (with a very few exceptions) all of the software on it. Remember too, that Ubuntu comes with Firefox, and OpenOffice, and a whole host of other programs too.

Now, perhaps you wonder less why I so prefer running Linux to Windows.

Tags: blue screen of death, canonical ltd, desktops, dread, existing software, gibbon, gutsy gibbon, heron, kde desktop, linux systems, new release, nonsense, reboot, repositories, scrolled, six months, software work, sudo, terminal window, windows users