Ubuntu 8.10 Upgrade Saga
Like most other Ubuntu devotees, I was eagerly awaiting the release of the latest version of the best free and open source operating system, Ubuntu 8.10 (codenamed Intrepid Ibex).
As I was getting married on November first, I wasn't able to get around to upgrading my laptop (Acer Travelmate 4150) until a few days later. I initiated the upgrade from the update manager and left the machine to do its thing while I spent the evening socialising with family.
When it came time to boot into the newly installed version I noticed some peculiar symptoms. It seemed that shortly after launching the Gnome desktop environment the processor activity would increase to around 95-100%.
I investigated the actual process CPU consumption using the system monitor as well as the top command and was surprised to see that the total CPU usage of active processes was only round the 20% level. It seemed that the processor was inaccurately reporting activity. This seemed to be confirmed when it became evident that the machine was still responding fine. I could start new programs and perform actions as normal, EXCEPT that the system fan was constantly working at maximum.
After considerable research on Ubuntu forums and other community sites and bug tracking systems such as launchpad I was no closer to a solution. Since my original Ubuntu installation a couple of years ago (round version 6 something) I had simple upgraded to each successive version so decided to try a clean install of the 8.10 version.
This required careful consideration and before wiping away my operating system I decided to try the live CD version to be sure my machine would handle it ok. The test proved positive and I felt that a complete install of the operating system was the way forward. First I made sure to backup some of my important stuff:
Backup
- Home directory and program settings
- System configuration files for apache, postgres and php
- fstab file where mount points are defined
- Synaptic repository sources list and cached packages (/var/cache/apt)
- Postgres Data (pgdump)
Feeling somewhat nervous I booted from the live CD, entered the setup wizard and manually configured partitions before leaving the system files to install. The install only took about 15 minutes and soon the machine was rebooting into a fresh new desktop. I listened carefully until the fan powered off then checked processor usage, around 17%. It seemed all was well.
Finally I migrated back all relevant settings and data from my backups and followed this guide (http://www.dailygyan.com/2008/11/10-things-you-should-do-immediately.html) to get my machine back to a usable and familiar state.
Install
- Open Office.org
- Simple Backup for scheduled backup - sudo apt-get install sbackup
- Banshee Media Player
- VLC Media Player
- Partition Editor
- Picasa
- Google Earth
- Wine - Emulate windows programs
- Apache
- PostgreSQL
- PGAdmin
Power tools
Nautilus Context Menu Actions
- sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions
- sudo aptitude install nautilus-open-terminal
- sudo aptitude install nautilus-image-converter
SSHFS - Mount remote locations over SSH (secure shell) protocol
Install and configure Gnome time recorder called hamster
Eye Candy
Colourize Me - Shiki from GnomeLook.org
