display manager fail on upgrade

Asked by Janine

I was upgrading from 10.04 and heading towards the latest version 12.04 but got cauught at 11.10 (I think I could have gone directly from 10.04 to 12.04 but didn't realise at the time)

My computer now only displays as terminal which I am useless with.
So, I could see there was a 'fail' against the display manager. There was also instruction how to upgrade to the next version but this fails with a system error: E: encountered a section with no package: header
E problem with merge list
(continues)
...command detached from window
command terminated with exit status1

Desperatly in need of help, the sort a non-terminal user can understand and carry out. I didn't even know how to shut down the computer from terminal so just had to turn it off.
Felling very dim at the moment.

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Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu update-manager Edit question
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Solved by:
actionparsnip
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Best actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

You can go from 10.04 to 12.04 as it is LTS to LTS upgrade. This is very supported. The error you give should be resolved with:

sudo fuser -vvv /var/lib/dpkg/lock
sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
sudo cp -arf /var/lib/dpkg /var/lib/dpkg.backup
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/available-old /var/lib/dpkg/available
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dpkg/updates/*
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists
sudo rm /var/cache/apt/*.bin
sudo mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists
sudo mkdir /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
LANG=C;sudo apt-get clean
LANG=C;sudo apt-get autoclean
LANG=C;sudo apt-get --purge autoremove
LANG=C;sudo apt-get update -o APT::Cache-Limit=25165824
sudo dpkg --clear-avail
sudo dpkg --configure -a
LANG=C;sudo apt-get -f install
LANG=C;sudo apt-get --fix-missing install
LANG=C;sudo apt-get update -o APT::Cache-Limit=25165824 && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Revision history for this message
Janine (redreactions) said :
#2

Thanks for your quick reply Andrew.
Yes, I now realise that I had my updates set to LTS upgrades only, but, long story, new laptop bought pre-installed and I saw the 12.04 LTS available, wondered then why I didn't have that on my main computer etc etc, change my update settings and started to upgrade via previous versions instead of straight to LTS. I know I know, I am a fool!

Fortunatley for me there are people like you who give time to the foolish. Thank you.

It's currently in the middle of doing whatever it is doing. I'll be back to (hopefully) report my success.

Again thank you

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#3

No problem, hope it's ok

Revision history for this message
Janine (redreactions) said :
#4

Right - it seemed to be going well, lots of stuff happening and I was just popping back to check on it periodically.
At one visit back I was there to see 'error' whizz by but it went so quickly I didn't see what it was related to and then about a minute later it stopped doing it's thing and gave me a command line, you know the computer name and waiting for me to type something in?

So, assumig there is an error but don't know what. The last couple of lines prior to the command line were:
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
Processing triggers for resolvconf ...
Processing triggers for menu ...

Sorry to be a pain. Can you help?

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#5

Looks ok to me. If you run:

sudo apt-get update

Is it smooth? Also if you run:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install nano

DOes it install ok?

Revision history for this message
Janine (redreactions) said :
#6

with sudo apt-get update it did some fetching and then said done.

with sudo apt-get reinstall install nano it did some stuff and ended with:
Setting up nano (2.2.6-1) ...
Processing triggers for menu ...

then the next line was the command line again.
Is this right? it doesn't say if it is installed or not. Just ends with what I put above, processing triggers for menu

Sorry don't know what you mean by 'is it smooth'?

What do I do now?

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Janine (redreactions) said :
#7

Sorry clicked wrong button. above message was providing more info (aagghh how much more can I do wrong?)

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Janine (redreactions) said :
#8

Just noticed too that there are some dpkg warnings
file list file for package 'vamps' missing, assumig package has no files currently installed
and ditto for 'videotrans' 'ubuntu-xsplash-artwork

these were listed before the 'processing triggers for menu' which I said about earlier.

I take it that nana didn't install.

Revision history for this message
Janine (redreactions) said :
#9

OK.
After re-booting it is now displaying desktop, windows etc.
Something still isn't right though. On start up it has the ubuntu 11.10 logo rather than 12.04 but once it opens to the sign in page it says 12.04.
Then the rest of it isn't running too smoothly.

so...this has been partially solved. ie that it's now displaying windows.
I could still do with some help to finish getting 12.04 fully installed correctly.

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Janine (redreactions) said :
#10

OK I'm going to close this thread as my display is now working, which was the original problem.
Thank you helping.

Revision history for this message
Janine (redreactions) said :
#11

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.