upgrading to 9.10 64 bit

At the time of writing, ubuntu 9.10 64 bit is not available for download from the ubuntu site but you can upgrade from 9.04 (64 bit) to 9.10 (64 bit) via the UpdateManager.

So, I tried.

Mostly it was OK but there were a few glitches.

The installation failed for me because it attempted to remove an old version of linux that was not there. For me this was linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-11-generic

In order to delete it you would normally

$ sudo apt-get remove linux-restricted-modules*

then

$ sudo apt-get autoremove

But that did not work. The remove task complained that certain files did not exist. So I simply created the following folders:

# /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic

# /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile

created a file in volatile

# touch /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile/dummy.txt

copied an existing System.map file in /boot to :

# /boot/System.map-2.6.28-11-generic

copied an existing initrd.* file from /boot to:

# /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

Then I ran the apt-get commands again and it stopped complaining

Then I removed the files I created and some others that were put there during the apt-get

# rm /boot/System.map-2.6.28-11-generic

# rm /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

# rm /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile/dummy.txt

# rmdir /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile

# rm /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/*

# rmdir /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic

Seemed to work for me since when I next ran Update Manager and this time it finished working without an error.

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit - slow graphics performance with ATI

After researching this topic for a while it seems that a the ATI graphics driver is crippled by the removal of a feature from Ubuntu 8.10.

Apparently, in 8.10 the ubuntu team found that a particular function in the driver caused instability with Intel graphics chips. So, they removed the function. Trouble is that the same function is used to keep the ATI nice and zippy.

As a result, when using Compiz Fusion with 9.04, machines with ATI graphics chips suffer considerably with several seconds delay in minimising, maximising and restoring windows.

Now you CAN have a go at putting a patch to the Xserver in 9.04 but talk on the forum says that it will be back in 9.10.

Personally, I can wait for 14 days.... Cause I don't want to ruin a perfectly running machine...