[tlug] Kubuntu 8.04->8.10 Upgrade: Two for Two

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

Regular readers may recall my adventures trying to upgrade a basic 
Kubuntu v.8.04 (Horny Hamster) installation on my ThinkPad to v.8.10 
(Irritating Idiot).  At that time, the first reboot produced no login 
combobox and all attempts to correct the problem failed.  Well, idiot 
that I am, I decided to upgrade my desktop to 8.10 after stabilizing my 
laptop.  There are enough useful changes to make it desirable. 

This is my first post from the new desktop. 

-  Upgrade failed again.  No combobox on the login screen.  Kubuntu 
Forums (KF) discussion had advice to manually reinstall the headers for 
the new kernel from the repair console ... except I found myself locked 
out of my files and none of the KF instructions on how to unlock the 
files by typing instructions from the command line worked.

-  All attempts to use apt-get and dpkg commands resulted in error 
messages that files were locked.

-  Tried to access and edit files using both a v.8.10 installation disk 
and Knoppix 5.3.1 but nothing saved to disk permanently.  Found the temp 
files and attempted to replace the locked files but was refused access. 

-  The solution, as recommended by KF as the Official Act of Last Resort 
(tm) was to do a clean install from a virgin HDD (my HDD has now been a 
virgin at least 25 times and is probably eligible for permanent 
residence in Thailand).

-  Because  I backed up the key files from v.8.04, I was back up and 
running in about 30 minutes after giving up and doing the clean reinstall. 

-  Like my laptop, the desktop install still does not like my Python 
development files, but runs Python-based programs and processes just fine.

-  I still have to figure out:
   a.  Why the system sees and loads data CDs but not audio CDs.
   b.  Where the hardware setup permissions are stored as they are no 
longer conveniently stored in System Settings.
   c.  Why all windows display a scrambled signal (horizontal lines) 
for almost a second on opening before resolving into the proper image. 
   d.  Why the optional video players -- M-Player and Kaffein -- do not 
install on the system.
   e.  Why it does not appear as though my line length settings for 
T-Bird are working (sorry about that, but it seems to be a problem all 
of my PCs are currently having despite being set to 72).

All-in-all this upgrade seems to be about as big a PITA as the upgrade 
from WIN3.1 to W2K was ... but that was a long time ago, now ...

--
CL