Upgrade from 7.10 to 8.04 failed

I join your question.
Me too have to upgrade aserver.

Err please back up your data and settings by saving the entire /home folder to external drive or dvd's.

Then try tricking the installer by using a normal Cd of 8.04 (or 9.04 in a few hours) to install but choose "Manual Partitioning" when you get about halfway through. Crucially make sure that all the partitions are UNticked in the "Format Partitions?" column. Also make sure that your main Ubuntu partition is edited so that it's "Mount Point" is set to "/" if you have separate /home partitions or anything then please set those right to. It will give you warnings (hence the backing up earlier) but should just install without you losing anything

Good luck with this tho!
Regards from
Tom :)

first I thought that Bruce use an alternate CD.
reading another time the message I discover it's an upgrade from a normal CD.

Bruce does say Alternate Cd in there but i think this method will probably work for that too. I've just never used the alternate cd so i don't know. i've used the normal Cd for this quite a few times now and this latest time it was to change a 64bit install to a 32bit one and when i fired up firefox it even remembered posts i had been halfway through writing! I can't guarantee this will work quite sso well for other people as it seems to be an extra hidden feature and it feels like cheating when i use it.

Good lck and regards from
Tom :)

>upgrade my Ubuntu 7.10 Server to 8.04LTS Server

Bruce,
you may try Server install CD
http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/

For recovery e.g.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/SuperGrubDiskPage.html

I need to correct my original post. The CD was mis-labeled, it was an 8.04.2 Server CD (not Alternative). That explains why it upgraded everything at once, which I was trying to avoid.

I will try the recovery CD suggested, then the repartition / install if necessary.

Awww heck, the launchpad site has crashed out just as the new Jaunty 9.04 was finally released. It's odd because they don't host the iso and the people that do. ubuntu.com, are fine.

Anyway i wanted to contact you about data-recovery although i'm sure you've already got this sorted
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Good luck and regards from
Tom

________________________________
From: Bruce <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Thursday, 23 April, 2009 15:05:04
Subject: Re: [Question #68310]: Upgrade from 7.10 to 8.04 failed

Question #68310 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/68310

    Status: Answered => Open

Bruce is still having a problem:
I need to correct my original post. The CD was mis-labeled, it was an
8.04.2 Server CD (not Alternative). That explains why it upgraded
everything at once, which I was trying to avoid.

I will try the recovery CD suggested, then the repartition / install if
necessary.

--
You received this question notification because you are a direct
subscriber of the question.

Almost done backing up the critical data. Why is it when we asked a month ago, the amount of data we were told that needed to be on the backup routine is less than half of what is now critical data since the server went down? Has always been that way, sigh.

Ran fsck before the upgrade attempt and had corrected the few errors that were found. Running fsck after the failed upgrade reported both the /var and root (/) partitions had a large number of files with zero length, deleted files that were still there, and inodes attempting to use the same block.

Since the packages used in the update were on /var not too concerned with it right now.

On the root partition, both grub and the kernel files are gone. Would really like to install these without having to run through a full install of 8.04 Server.

Am I trying to make this more complicated that it is, or is there a way to install the kernel without running through the full server install?

Hope this helps.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

I'm sure there is a way of installing just a different kernel into an existing system! It's got to be quite easy surely? I wouldn't have a clue where to start but this distrowatch article on a completely different topic covers it i think?
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090420#tips

If you do try using it i think you'll need to modify it a bit. that's specifically aimed at reverting to older kernels where you will want newer ones!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Sorry to take so long to close this, got busy and forgot.

Quick answer is: the file system on the root partition became corrupt and could not be written to, even though it behaved as if files could be written. New files would appear to be on the partition, show up in list (ls), and appear to take up space on the drive, but the files could not be read and disappeared after a reboot. Fsck, even when booting from a live CD reported no problems with the file system.

Solution: Format the affected partitions.

Long answer: After applying the Linux kernel update for Ubuntu Security Notice USN-751-1, April 07, 2009, the free space on the root partition decreased more than it should have. Verifying all the files from the update showed they were all the correct size. Did discover a few files that had incorrectly been placed in the root partition by our internal processes. Moved the files off the root partition but still the free space was not what it should have been. Ran fsck but did not find anything unusual nor anything to explain the missing space. Virus scans are performed daily and were not showing any suspicious files. System was running OK and their were other priorities so added this mystery to the list of items to be researched later.

Before upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04 fsck was run on all the partitions. Nothing unexpected was found.

During the upgrade process the root partition ran out of free space. Found the upgrade process was attempting to archive the Linux 2.6.22.16 kernel files. The archive was at 87MB and growing. Still, there should have been enough free space.

Booting from the 8.04 upgrade CD and running fsck showed and fixed numerous errors as I listed above. Subsequent boots from various repair CD's, and an 8.04 Live CD and running fsck did not find any more errors. Yet, the root partition remained corrupt.

Been thinking we needed a customized repair CD but have not known what to put on it. With the suggestions above and this experience I now have a good start on creating a customized repair CD.

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Bruce

Wow!! Nicely done! Thanks for posting the answers back in here :)))
Congrats and regards from
Tom :)))