Upgrading Ubuntu 8.04 on a USB memory stick

Asked by ChrisCS

Hi,

I installed Ubuntu 8.04 on a 16 GB USB memory stick so that when I am away from home, and using another computer, I can still use Ubuntu and have all my e-mails etc. to hand.

I thought recently that it was about time to upgrade Ubuntu on the memory stick to 8.10 so I booted up using the memory stick and ran Update Manager which told me that 8.10 was available. Having upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10 on line on my desktop machine, I tried to do the same thing with the memory stick. The upgrade started and then I got an error message saying that there was not enough room on the memory stick. I find that hard to believe because all there is on the (16GB) memory stick is Ubuntu 8.04, Thunderbird (I have removed Evolution) and some e-mails. The upgrade program suggested that I remove some software to make more room.

When I ran update manger, as well as saying that I could upgrade to 8.10 it also said that there were some updates available. I am wondering now whether I should have downloaded and installed these before trying to upgrade. I didn't do the updates so might this be the cause of my problem?

I have three problems now. One is that I don't know what programs I can safely remove if this is what I need to do; the next one is how to get at them to remove them and lastly how can I persuade the upgrade program that there is (I am sure) room on the memory stick to upgrade Ubuntu. I tried to remove all the games but got an error message saying that there weren't any even thogh I can still play them all.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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ChrisCS (chriscro) said :
#1

Hello again,

Please ignore the above message. I have just used to memory stick to boot my computer and got the following message:

    "Server authorisation directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/lib/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart GDM"

and instead of a desktop I end up with a command line.

I have no idea what this message means or how to correct the problem it mentions so I think it is time to abandon the project of having a copy of Ubuntu on a memory stick. It seems to me that it is only too easy to render Ubuntu unbootable.

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d1bro (d1bro) said :
#2

log in and try following in the console:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install gdm
sudo shutdown -rn now [for reboot]

hope it works then again;)

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