How to update really old Ubuntu install?

Post #434,086 by drook 5/21/20 9:58:51 AM 5/21/20 10:00:50 AM Reply	How to update really old Ubuntu install? I finally found the source files for my books, but they're on an old box with Ubuntu 10.4 LTS, so the update manager won't do the update. I've tried manually updating the repositories to list the current version, but when I run the update I get W: Failed to fetch http://ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal/main/source/Sources.gz Undetermined Error [IP: 2001:67c:1562::1f 80] Any ideas how to do this? Just blowing away with a new install isn't an option. I've got the whole toolchain to build the output, which I need to update. -- Drew Edited by drook May 21, 2020, 10:00:50 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #434,087 by boxley 5/21/20 10:25:02 AM 5/21/20 10:25:02 AM Reply	what happens when you use wget to get that file? "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
Post #434,088 by pwhysall 5/21/20 11:06:00 AM 5/21/20 11:07:43 AM Reply	Don't go straight from $ancient_version to $modern_version, if possible I don't know about Ubuntu, offhand, but Debian at least maintains a few versions of stable. https://www.itmanagement101.co.uk/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-10-4-10-10-maverick-to-the-latest-version-of-ubuntu-linux/ I'm going to grab an ISO of 10.4 and have a go :D Edited by pwhysall May 21, 2020, 11:07:43 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #434,089 by pwhysall 5/21/20 11:23:48 AM 5/21/20 11:29:22 AM Reply	Working, please wait... Interestingly if you use OOTB 10.4, the internet is mostly broken, due to SSL issues in Firefox. Also, the bidirectional clipboard in Virtualbox is a lifesaver. Edited by pwhysall May 21, 2020, 11:29:22 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #434,090 by drook 5/21/20 11:28:41 AM 5/21/20 11:28:41 AM Reply	You must be bored, but ok and thanks I'm still thinking like it's the early 2000s and you just sed the sources list and update. I'm so glad they've "improved" the process. -- Drew
Post #434,092 by pwhysall 5/21/20 12:13:19 PM 5/21/20 12:13:19 PM Reply	Well, that's Linux for you :D Apparently, if you're a lunatic, you can upgrade from Windows 1 to Windows 10, having many adventures along the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH1BKPSGcxQ
Post #434,094 by drook 5/21/20 3:09:00 PM 5/21/20 3:09:00 PM Reply	I noticed I would search, find a reference on Ubuntu Forums, but couldn't actually get to them. -- Drew
Post #434,099 by pwhysall 5/21/20 5:21:11 PM 5/21/20 5:21:11 PM Reply	So, it works. Fresh install of Ubuntu 10.04LTS upgraded to 20.04, and the only third party tool I had to use was a gparted boot ISO, because I stupidly made the initial vmdk image far too small. 32GB should be your minimum; at 10GB you're going to hit capacity issues. As per my advice to drook on Slack: Ensure you have quite a lot of time set aside. This will take at least a couple of hours; quite a lot more if your storage is rotating rust and/or your network is embarrassingly slow Ensure that you have at least 10GB spare disk space and/or do "apt-get clean" between versions; the upgrade is not stupid and checks first I had to comment out the third-party repository in sources.list If this machine is virtualised, consider removing the VirtualBox additions (other virtualisation solutions with similar auxiliary packages are available) - could have been coincidence, but I had a hard lockup at the GDM screen when upgrading 10.10 -> 11.04. The order of releases it chooses is a bit weird at first - Mine went 10.04LTS, 10.10, 11.04, 11.10, 12.04LTS, 14.04.LTS (and so on) - just roll with it Remember to pass the flags for saying "yes" to everything if you want this to be even slightly unattended-flavour Also note you can give do-release-upgrade, which is very conservative by default, a kick by adding the "-d" option. Original uname: `Linux mavtest 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:09:38 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux` current uname: `Linux mavtest 5.4.0-31-generic #35-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 7 20:20:34 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux`
Post #434,108 by drook 5/22/20 11:19:32 AM 5/22/20 11:19:32 AM Reply	About to punt do-release-upgrade stalls on building data structures. Updating the sources and update/upgrade stalls downloading a source. If I can track down where that source is and disable one repo I'll try again, otherwise I'm going to do a fresh install. -- Drew
Post #434,109 by pwhysall 5/22/20 11:24:13 AM 5/22/20 11:24:13 AM Reply	What's in the logs?
Post #434,113 by drook 5/22/20 5:31:26 PM 5/22/20 5:31:26 PM Reply	Wood. HAAAAAHAHAHA!!!! Actually I haven't had time to mess with it today. Might try tonight. -- Drew
Post #434,124 by drook 5/22/20 10:06:38 PM 5/22/20 10:06:38 PM Reply	Nothing useful I was about to start a clean install, but it indicates you need 2 Ghz dual-core and 4G RAM to run the default (Gnome) desktop. This box is far short of those specs, and I don't trust the installer not to brick it. Besides, I like the current desktop on this thing. Now I'm thinking I'll just keep it disconnected from the net, do the book updates I want, then wipe and get rid of it. My inner nerd is screaming at me to not let this hunk of metal beat me. My inner adult is telling my inner nerd to piss off. -- Drew
Post #434,125 by Another Scott 5/22/20 10:19:42 PM 5/22/20 10:19:42 PM Reply	OS/2!! ;-) Ok, maybe not. Maybe ChromeOS? https://www.howtogeek.com/217659/how-to-get-a-chrome-os-like-operating-system-on-any-pc/ ;-) Cheers, Scott.
Post #434,127 by Andrew Grygus 5/23/20 1:52:46 AM 5/23/20 1:52:46 AM Reply	OS/2 is Old! Dumped it (well - sort of) a couple of years ago. My two former OS/2 computers (my two main computers) now run ArcaOS - the 2017 update from OS/2. Only problem I have, the running version of Firefox is pretty long in the tooth, I couldn't get the Firefox beta to run (thought other people have). Firefox development has pretty much stopped, and the promised Falkon browser (in active development) isn't quite finished yet. Porting all the libraries from Linux has been the problem.
Post #434,128 by drook 5/23/20 2:28:01 AM 5/23/20 2:28:01 AM Reply	Progress! I think ... maybe I had tried all the Ubuntu graphical package tools, and the command line. On a whim I tried Synaptic. I watched it fail to pull the translation files - which is what kept stalling the command line update - but get everything else. I kicked off a dist-upgrade before heading to bed. -- Drew
Post #434,130 by pwhysall 5/23/20 5:12:11 AM 5/23/20 5:12:11 AM Reply	I have had some success with Aptitude for apparently-borked apt issues
Post #434,134 by scoenye 5/23/20 12:40:10 PM 5/23/20 12:40:10 PM Reply	2nd this The interface can be rather infuriating but you get a good view at what is broken/stuck. And it groups the packages so you can deal with one area at a time.
Post #434,131 by pwhysall 5/23/20 5:12:41 AM 5/23/20 5:12:41 AM Reply	What's the toolchain you're trying to resurrect, btw?
Post #434,133 by drook 5/23/20 8:54:39 AM 5/23/20 8:54:39 AM Reply	LaTex / Lyx plus several plugins for formatting -- Drew
Post #434,138 by pwhysall 5/23/20 6:12:55 PM 5/23/20 6:12:55 PM Reply	Can't just lift config and make files? I don't imagine that LaTeX has changed that much.
Post #434,141 by drook 5/23/20 8:01:15 PM 5/23/20 8:01:15 PM Reply	I set it up (apparently) 10 years ago I remember having to manually recreate some of the settings through a couple of upgrades. I really don't favor having to relearn any more of that than necessary. -- Drew
Post #434,144 by pwhysall 5/24/20 3:37:38 AM 5/24/20 3:37:38 AM Reply	Let a lazy bastard help First thing I would try is to install LaTeX and whatever plugins I think I need on a current Linux install. Then I'd just run the makefile (or whatever it is you do; considering I did my university dissertation in LaTeX, you'd think I'd remember, but apparently not) and see what breaks. If it's fixable by "apt install somethingorother" then we're done. I think that getting the current source building on a modern install is going to be less work than walking the elderly install forward ten years.
Post #434,147 by drook 5/24/20 9:20:46 AM 5/24/20 9:20:46 AM Reply	Lyx / LaTeX doesn't fail so usefully The plugins I used were for formatting. If they're not there, nothing will be "broken" but the pages won't look the same. In any case, I may be bricked. Yesterday the first upgrade had completed so I ran the second dist-upgrade. Some hours later I checked back and it was stalled. Activity monitor wasn't moving, and it was unresponsive to the keyboard. I power cycled and it came back up, but still the keyboard doesn't do anything. I'm guessing/hoping it's not liking USB, and I'm going to go down this morning with a PS/2 keyboard and see if I can get it going again. -- Drew
Post #434,148 by Another Scott 5/24/20 11:07:27 AM 5/24/20 11:07:27 AM Reply	I had an old PC act up recently... Was trying to move from XP to 7 to 10 on a PC with 3 PCI slots. Lots of weird issues trying to update things. Turned out it was the video card. If you've tried everything else and want to try a hail Mary, that might be one final route. (I assume you've checked the motherboard for things like swollen capacitors with brown junk leaking out the tops already.) Good luck! Cheers, Scott.
Post #434,149 by drook 5/24/20 1:16:38 PM 5/24/20 1:22:16 PM Reply	PS/2 keyboard works, but ... I can't find an old (not-USB) mouse, so I'm looking for keyboard shortcuts. And it's not letting me switch to alternative terminals. Eg: ctrl-alt-F2. Nor is there an option for selecting boot mode. [edit] Shortcut worked. Currently running dpkg reconfigure. Fingers crossed. -- Drew Edited by drook May 24, 2020, 01:22:16 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #434,151 by pwhysall 5/24/20 5:20:12 PM 5/24/20 5:20:12 PM Reply	Also... ...consider a P2V transition. You can then experiment to your heart's content with multiple copies, run it on much faster compute and storage, etc.
Post #434,152 by drook 5/24/20 5:27:41 PM 5/24/20 5:27:41 PM Reply	Maybe once I drop the coin on a new box I've been using work laptops for the last decade. The one I'm recovering now is the last desktop system I've used, and my current laptop is Windows. -- Drew
Post #434,159 by crazy 5/25/20 8:08:46 AM 5/25/20 8:08:46 AM Reply	This^^^^ The minute you start spinning up virtual instances on absolutely standard hardware that the drivers are always just there for since the OS writers have been pairing it up for years, yeah hell of a run on, your life will be changed. seriously, administration becomes so damn easy as compared to trying to match drivers and hardware and everything else that comes into play. then add into the fact that you can bring them up and drop them down in a minute or two and you'll have a standardized fresh play space. You can do anything for a short while with absolutely no harm to anything else possible. You're not an admin of a system because you want to be, you are because you have to be. You're trying to achieve a goal of an application. The system is just baggage. Go virtual and all that time will be returned to you. or at least new time won't be stolen.
Post #434,160 by drook 5/25/20 9:38:47 AM 5/25/20 9:38:47 AM Reply	Ok, so how? Two questions: 1) What's the host system and how often does that update? 2) Is it possible to turn my current live system into an instance on the current drive? -- Drew
Post #434,161 by crazy 5/25/20 12:15:02 PM 5/25/20 12:15:02 PM Reply	It's been years for me since I've done this stuff So while I can recount experience with tools in those days it would be useless to you. So I can give you some general direction and manage expectations, but Peter or someone else would have to give you specifics. I just know I was doing it for the preceding 10 years with ever increasing expectations that s*** worked and worked well. It was touch and go in the beginning and then it matured about 5 years and then it was a matter of just choosing the cheapest implementation. And there were always free options for home users.
Post #434,162 by crazy 5/25/20 12:18:37 PM 5/25/20 12:18:37 PM Reply	If possible choose default instance environment. Some packages enable you to roll up a current hard disk and then roll it out into their environment. The problem with that is they will be forced to provide the outside shell for all the true physical device drivers of that environment. If instead you install Linux from scratch, windows from scratch, whatever OS from scratch into the default instance environment you will be assured of perfect device driver activity. Also it will be much faster because they can take shortcuts and just put in stubs for stuff they know they won't need to do.
Post #434,163 by pwhysall 5/25/20 12:34:47 PM 5/25/20 12:36:08 PM Reply	Re: Ok, so how? 2) yes. I've done it for a failing Windows laptop containing needed applications. I've not done it for Linux, but imagine that it's probably simpler. If you google up "p2v" you will find a smorgasbord of information about the topic. For the avoidance of doubt, I'm talking about the Physical to Virtual transition, where your separate standalone running computer is transferred to a virtual machine image. There are tools to do this. Edited by pwhysall May 25, 2020, 12:36:08 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #434,166 by Another Scott 5/25/20 1:02:20 PM 5/25/20 1:02:20 PM Reply	Nice. Thanks for the pointer. E.g. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows I would dearly love there to be a way to migrate A2D/Digital IO/RS485 comms ("DAQ") PCI interface cards to a VM. We've got a bunch of custom machine control software written in Delphi 7 that is almost impossible to upgrade because later versions of Delphi use Unicode strings which break the comms, the in-house author hasn't figured out to get around that, etc., etc. It runs Ok on Win 7 and should run on Win 10, but it's always a pain to get things reinstalled on moving to new hardware when a machine dies... (sigh) Cheers, Scott.
Post #434,170 by scoenye 5/25/20 9:38:37 PM 5/25/20 9:38:37 PM Reply	2) depends on your current active kernel Linux switched to a lightweight VM model where the guest OS can access the hardware without emulation. Current kernels are "paravirtual" ready. Older ones may not be and need virtual hardware drivers just like Windows. If yours is already paravirtualized, I think you'll be able to run it as a guest OS without making changes (although for safety, image the partitions an work off the copies.) For 1): the update schedule is that of the distribution chosen as the hypervisor. I've run the open version of the Xen hypervisor for a number of years. There is no immediate need to keep the hypervisor and guest OS in step. Kernel updates to the hypervisor would require a hardware reboot.
Post #434,171 by drook 5/25/20 10:17:55 PM 5/25/20 10:17:55 PM Reply	May not matter, I believe I've bricked it After the last release upgrade it ended on an error. I tried to finish the install and it said I needed to restart to complete the upgrade. When I rebooted it won't come up. If I can find a thumb drive with enough space I'll try a current install and just overwrite the whole thing. I backed up /home to an external USB hard drive before I started the whole process. Wait, duh, external USB hard drive. Going to see if I can make a bootable image on that. -- Drew
Post #434,172 by pwhysall 5/26/20 2:21:18 AM 5/26/20 2:21:18 AM Reply	10.04 works like a dream in VirtualBox The guest additions are a nice-to-have, not a have-to-have.
Post #434,362 by crazy 6/5/20 7:36:13 PM 6/5/20 7:36:13 PM Reply	Just came across this https://www.qubes-os.org/intro/ Looks very interesting.
Post #434,377 by drook 6/8/20 5:20:23 PM 6/8/20 5:37:15 PM Reply	Turns out there was an easy solution I found a 2G thumb drive and put the lubuntu ISO on it. The installation asked if I wanted to overwrite the existing installation or install alongside. Chose "B", repartitioned to give the new install maximum space, and started. It's just about done. I should still have /home and be able to see what's on the old version. Winning! [edit] And I'm now posting from the reanimated box. Time to see if I can still access the old book files. -- Drew Edited by drook June 8, 2020, 05:37:15 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #434,380 by Another Scott 6/8/20 8:44:33 PM 6/8/20 8:44:33 PM Reply	Neato. Today I fired up an old Lenovo T61 laptop that I'd installed Linux Mint 13 on (mumble) years ago. I was surprised that I was able to get it going because my last notes were that something was broken with the video drivers, but it is working fine. No obvious issues (except it's running hot). 19.1 is next... Good luck. Cheers, Scott.
Post #434,389 by scoenye 6/9/20 6:22:48 PM 6/9/20 6:22:48 PM Reply	On running hot That is more than likely due to a clogged exhaust. If nothing else, the CPU will be throttled back to keep the temperature under control.

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