10.10 --> 11.04 update fails, leaving computer unusable

[Ken Turkowski]

Binary package hint: update-manager-core

I upgraded from Ubuntu 10.10 to 11.04, and I get a black screen with a grub prompt.

I tried upgrading on another machine a few weeks ago without luck. At that time, the upgrade process didn't succeed. and I ran the upgrade a second time. That version never booted. Unfortunately, I didn't make a backup, so I had to wipe out the disk and reinstall from scratch, which did work.

But it is crazy to require users to wipe out their disk just to go from version 10.10 to 11.04. I assumed that this was just a buggy release, and that it would eventually get fixed.

So I tried upgrading another machine. This time I backed up the disk. This time, the upgrade proceeded almost automatically. However, there were two dialogs that came up that asked me whether I wanted to keep some modified files. Since I hadn't modified either of these files, I said that it was OK to overwrite these with fresh new copies.

When rebooting after the upgrade, I get a black screen with a couple of lines of white text.

 GNU GRUB version 1.98-1ubuntu5

Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible device or file completions.
grub>

typing
   reboot
brings me back to the same screen.

What is grub, and what am I expected to do with this?

Please fix this upgrade software. It will really give Ubuntu a bad name until then.

Is there any way to perform a successful upgrade from 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) to 11.04?
As noted above, I attempted twice in the last month without success.

delance said on 2011-05-20: #3
"I had to wipe out the disk and reinstall from scratch, which did work." No, now Natty 11.04 allows to upgrade system from CD without removing user files. Use "upgrade" choice at boot. Grub2 is the boot loader who loads Ubuntu (or Windows, more precisely Windows boot loader). Sometimes it is badly configured after distribution installation or delivery of a new kernel. In this case, reinstall it from CD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

It sounds like you are saying that I can install 11.04 by downloading the CD and then booting off that to upgrade. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe it is easy. I am doing this in VMWare on a Mac, but it is probably no different than a non-virtul OS.

However, this doesn't get around the fact that the
   System > Administration > Update Manager
offers to upgrade the system to 11.04. This is the notification that users will see. They do not have a CD. What magic incantations are needed in the Update Manager in order to have a successful upgrade, i.e. one that boots into Ubuntu instead of the GRUB shell?

Think of lawyers, and businessmen, who are not hackers. Auto-update is perfect for them -- as long as it is reliable. Think of the user experience for 99% of the Ubuntu users, not the 1% who are hackers and can go through.

I will *not* upgrade to 11.04 and a new grub from the CD, because 10.10 works fine for me. I will instead wait until the Update Manager is fixed, and I can do an alpha test on two machines to verify it (though I will still make a backup).

[Ken Turkowski (turk)]

This is a CRITICAL bug. Attempting to upgrade disables Ubuntu altogether. Proliferation of this bug can wipe out most of the Ubuntu community.

[Vinas (vinas03)]

Hi. I just upgraded from 10.04 LTS to 10.10 then finally to 11.04. To do the upgrade I went to System -> Administration -> Update manager.

The system upgraded fine to 10.10, but unfortunately the upgrade to 11.04 has left me with an unusable system. I am stuck at an all black screen that reads as follows:

GNU GRUB version 1.98-1ubuntu5

Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible device or file completions.

grub>_

Please help!!! Is my system hosed? If I don't hear back soon I will recover my system back to 10.04LTS but that will have waisted a lot of time and bandwidth...

[Walter Garcia-Fontes (walter-garcia)]

Sorry that the issue got unattended for a long time. This issues of fixing the upgrade experience are high priority for the 12.04 release. I'm closing this bug for now but please subscribe to the active open bugs on this issue. See Bug #876146 .