I can't update from ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 nor install new applications, I get the following message:

The server is up and I can open the files myself.

Can you give the output of:

dig www.ask.com

Thanks

Hi :)

This is the 2nd question about this today but it all appears to be up & running
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/110682
I had an update for Synaptic & the Update Manager but both went quite smoothly and i was even able to install & remove something after the update. Sometimes these things do happen and fix themselves after a couple of days, of course sometimes it's a bit more urgent to find the cause! Is it just today you have been having troubles?

Regards from
Tom :)

I installed ubuntu on Monday 10th and installed some programs for drawing and music, and saw an update to go from ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04 and decided to make the upgrade and I couldn't get it to boot up, so I installed 9.04 again and wanted to update to 9.10 which was stable for me and it wouldn't update, nor would it allow me to install the same art programs, I kept getting the error message I posted above.

I got fed up with waiting and re-installed ubuntu 9.04 with the live CD and it updated just fine, so I guess the problem was solved. Thanks!!!

Hi :)

Glad to hear you managed to get it working again. Sorry it was a hassle tho! Do you have a separate /home partition? If not then it is definitely worth considering it soon
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving
it makes upgrading and reinstalls much safer and easier because it allows you to keep your data&setting safer more easily.

I usually find it is better to download the Cd and then try a LiveCd session before risking an upgrade
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
Then adding it as an extra part of the dual-boot to give myself time to get used to it while still having access to my older install seems to be a smart move
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

The main thing is getting your /home folder onto it's own partition
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi :)

I am not sure what kind of FUD you are likely to find by trying to google about moving the /home. With some stuff like this you have to remember that however new or lacking in knowledge you feel yourself to be that is only because you are comparing yourself to how knowledgeable you think me or ActionParsnip or other answerers might seem to be.

However, if you look through the Answers Section you will notice that many of us keep to very specific areas of knowledge and even ask questions ourselves about even slightly different areas. For anything about sound, networking, wireless or graphics i tend to ask questions because i really haven't a clue about those areas. I seem to be quite good at getting a basic install working and getting Windows to co-operate in a dual-boot or about getting various versions of linux to share stuff in a multi-boot. Luckily Mark wrote an excellent trouble-shooting guide for sound so i just give people the link to that and the Medibuntu people have given an excellent page that helps sort almost all multimedia issues so i give people that but that doesn't mean i understand those issues myself.

Some people say that MicroSquish has 98% of the desktop market, some say that Apple has 20% of the desktop market but i think most people agree that linux currently only has about 1 or 2% of the desktop market. So you already know more about linux than 98% of desktop users purely because you have used it & they haven't. Also you have managed to overcome some initial problems without fear and without giving up. Google & other search engines are great but you have to remember that some of the stuff you find is from the 98% you are already better than.

We have worked quite hard at making the
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving
link easier to understand but if you use the search feature at the top of the page you will find other community & official documentation about it. Community Documentation can always be improved on and there are some parts of the HomeMoving page that could do with a lot of straightening out but hopefully it just about makes sense at the moment?

Welcome in and good luck from
Tom :)

Thanks so much, you've been a great help friend. I will check those links, and I can't find a driver for my dvd burner, so I'll be checking that link as well. I'm most grateful and hope to keep you as a reference for any future questions if any on your expertise. God bless!!!

Hi :)

Now you have installed Ubuntu afresh and got it connecting to the internet it might be worth working through the Medibuntu page
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
to get your multimedia sorted out. It might fix the problem with the dvd-player too. It helps you install "libdvdcss" to allow you to play commercial/rental dvds along with a lot of other things.

I think just reading the intro paragraphs on that page will help you decide whether to try moving the /home and should explain how it would help. Posting questions in here usually attracts attention from people that enjoy helping out with whichever type of question you ask
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion
but sometimes questions get missed so after a couple of days it can be worth trying the other forums
http://www.ubuntuforums.com
and
http://www.linuxquestions.org
and then maybe re-posting the question in here again.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Gracias amigo!!! I'll keep in touch, got plenty of questions in the future.

HI :)

Cool. I think once you have Medibuntu sorted then you are probably all set up well for plenty of stuff and might not need much help for a while. So don't worry about not contacting. It's just good to know you have options :)

Regards from
Tom :)

Hey Forum, I tried the partitioning and home moving and I couldn't get too far with it.

Problem #1:

 I have 2 hard drives, one for The OS ubuntu 9.10 (80GB) and the other for files (250GB) wich has nothing but windows files in it. The weird part is that it shows its own HD icon under places, but instead of saying 250, it shows as 19GB for some reason. I'm assuming 19 represents the total amount of windows files occupying the HD at the moment.

Problem #2:

when I follow the link tomdavies04 so kindly supplied me: (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving) I can only get past the first step. and this is what it shows when I input the sudo blkid command:

"/dev/sda1: UUID="2a1bd870-e4ef-4799-bc1a-4c7855e0426a" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda5: UUID="8d308973-8b7b-4e15-a235-ad691e19bd3e" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="c164f22d-ff40-4bd3-a251-e73b69918e11" TYPE="ext3" "

So, what is it I need to copy paste in order to complete step 2? no matter what I've tried, it gives me an error message.

Thanks ahead of time. ps, I'll post this in a new question in the forum as well to speed up the process

Hi :)

The 19 on the other drive is a 19Gb partition that you have created alongside the Windows data partition. The Windows partitions are not getting mounted when you boot up into Ubuntu which is unusual but not a problem.

Please could you give us the output of

sudo fdisk -l

so that we can see all the partitions on all the drives in your system?
Since you have already got a separate partition for data for Windows would you like to use the same one for Ubuntu data? Then Windows and Ubuntu could both use the same data.
Please let us know!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000d4906

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9327 74919096 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9328 9729 3229065 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9328 9729 3229033+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe4eae4ea

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 2327 18691596 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 2328 2434 859477+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 2328 2434 859446 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Hi ?

This is looking very strange.
We can't see Windows at all!
Can you boot into Windows?
If not then we need to work at data recovery in Ubuntu using the guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Please let us know!
Regards from
Tom :)

Sorry, if I misled you. I got rid of windows, all I have for an operating system is Ubuntu 9.10. The windows files I kept though, in the slave drive(250GB)

I just went to places/ 19GB filesystem or 250GB icon and got this message:

Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 32: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail or so

Hi :)

Ok, this is not looking great so take care not to write anything to sdb. It is beginning to look as though the current priority is data recovery for the 2nd drive! Please try this on the command-line

sudo apt-get install gparted

and then go up to the top taskbar/panel and click on

System - Administration - "Partition Editor"

to open gparted and have a look at sda. Hopefully you will see the drive is 3/4ths empty grey space? At the beginning should be the 19Gb blue box for Ubuntu? Just after it should be a tiny very light-blue box showing the "Extended Partition" and inside that should be the red swap partition?

I have a feeling you might see something completely different tho so please let me know
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I took a snap shot of the screen, but I don't think I can send attachments through this website. I didn't see any thing red though, and /dev/sdb5 sector has a warning triangle saying "Unable to detect file system"

could you pidgin IM me through one of these? vmf07@Hotmail IM, pescadorusa@yahoo IM, or vmf007@gmail IM

Hi :)

I really don't like IMs at all, sorry. To deal with sdb5, since it is only a swap partition just right-click and delete it. Then make a new one in it's place. I have emailed you so you can send attachments directly to my email address

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)