Hello,
The purpose of this note is to relate my recent experience in moving a laptop from UM 22.04.5 LTS to UM 24.04.1 LTS. Perhaps it will be helpful to others.
The machine in question is a System76 Lemur, about 7 years old, 16 GB memory, 1 TB NVMe drive, i7 Intel 8550 cpu, Intel Mesa graphics. Basically a Clevo N240WU. I like this machine. Never has given me any trouble. The machine was recently updated to the most recent UM 22.04 release. It was connected to the web via an ethernet cable. I used the software updater to initiate the upgrade after doing a full backup.
The first effort was an abject failure, which appeared to me to be due to some sort of problem with the web connection part way through. I did not record the details, but I could tell that the installation was incomplete. An attempt to do a repair install of 24.04.1 from a bootable USB stick also failed. Both of these problems appeared to be related to the installer. I ended up doing a fresh install (nuke and pave) from the USB, and the result has been very good.
After doing a little research in this forum and the Ubuntu one, I have a strong suspicion that the (well known) problem lay/lies with the installer, which I realize is not a UM product. The UM desktop works well. I have used and liked it for years.
So, to my purpose – I want to reiterate a warning to back up everything before upgrading to 24.04.1. Prepare for a failure. This is certainly not new advice. It should be standard practice.
And, I want to express my hope that the installer will be cleaned up by Canonical and that steps will be taken to avoid similar problems in the future. Perhaps I have missed something and my criticism is unfounded. I will confirm this as I update two additional machines and take better notes.
My thanks to the UM team.
