Ubuntu Tips n Tricks

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Posted: 03 Oct 2009 01:42 AM PDT

The final release version of Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed "Karmic Koala" won't come out until the end of the month but already tons of people are testing the development version, which is currently in Beta. I'm sure a lot of you out there are also thrilled to get your hands on Ubuntu 9.10 because it is filled with great and innovative features.

If you are by now using Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope", you can quickly upgrade to the latest version without having to worry so much about messing things up. Before I'll show you how to do the easy upgrade, let me first take this opportunity to enumerate some of the main features of Ubuntu 9.10:

Improved Boot Performance
To further enhance the boot performance of Ubuntu, they replaced System-V init with Upstart, which handles starting of tasks and services during boot. They are aiming for 10-second start-ups but a report is already telling us that it can boot for a mere 5 seconds with an SSD. Other changes or improvements that are related to the boot-up process include a new splash screen and the use of GRUB 2 by default.

NOTE: Ubuntu strongly suggests to have an Ubuntu 9.10 LiveCD available, or create an Alpha 5 USB startup disk before doing an upgrade just in case something bad happens.

New Graphical Software Manager
The Ubuntu Software Manager, which replaces Add/Remove application, promises to make installing, removing, and updating software a lot more intuitive and user-friendly.

Ubuntu One
Ubuntu One, the web storage application and service will allow users to store and sync files online and between computers. An Ubuntu One account with 2 GB of storage is offered for free while an upgrade to 50 GB will cost $10 a month.

Now if you are already excited, here's how you can upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10:

1. First and foremost, you need to backup all your important files and remember what I've noted above just to be safe.

2. Next, make sure the repository is updated:

sudo apt-get update

3. Open the Update Manager with this command:

sudo update-manager -d

The Update Manager will open and you will now see the upgrade option. If you are brave enough just go on.

4. Now sit back, relax, drink some free beer, or you can simply pray and hope for the best.