Upgrading from Hardy

[Nils Kassube]

Gregory Gamble wrote:
> I had tried the apt-get approach to getting to Lucid, but I think I
> did one step too many ... and it won't boot from the disk. So I tried
> the CD I burnt ... it seems I can't install from it as it wants to
> repartition. Fortunately all my home area and /usr/local stuff seems
> to be intact.

Well, it wants to know the partition(s) to use for the new install,
which usually means to repartition. However at the step where you select
the new disk layout, there is also the option to manually select the
partitions. Use this manual partitioning option. Then you have to select
the partition for "/". Check which file system type is used on you
current "/" partition - IIRC the default was ext3 for hardy. Then select
the partition and make sure to select the same file system type which is
in use now. Furthermore, you should make sure that the option to format
the partition is NOT set. Only if it doesn't format the partition, it
will preserve "/home" and some other directories.

> I can boot a trial Lucid from the CD I burned.
> 
> I tried using gparted etc as mentioned in [1] to create a boot-able
> USB, and I believe it's configured exactly the way you describe.
> 
> It looks as if I can't configure to boot from USB ... I tried to get
> it to configure booting from removable media in the BIOS, but it
> doesn't seem to want to do that.

If there is no boot option in the BIOS which really mentions USB, the
BIOS doesn't know how to do it. Then "removable" media is limited to
CD/DVD and floppy.

> Is it possible to configure "Restart..." in the ubuntu logout menu to
> load from /media/boot-usb (that's the label I configured it with).

I don't think there is such an option. But you could use the method I
used to boot from an ISO file on the USB stick to boot from the ISO file
located on your hard disk. Please have a look at [1] for the details.
Then you reboot and select the new entry from the boot menu.

> I did also try 'Install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS' but I quit at Step 5 when it
> wanted to re-partition the hard disk which I thought would just erase
> my /home area and /usr/local.

See above - the repartitioning step is where you must make sure that the
partition will not be formatted.

> And what about repairing my Lucid installation so it boots from HDD ?

You could start the lucid CD and from the live system reinstall grub to
the hdd. Please have a look at [2].

> ... or perhaps installing Trusty from:
> /media/boot-usb/isos/ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso ?

You mean from your USB stick mounted at "/media/boot-usb"? No, I don't
think that works because after you reboot, the USB stick is no longer
mounted. But you can use the ISO file on the hdd (see above).


Nils

[1] <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot#Creating_the_GRUB_2_Menuentry>
[2] <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing#via_the_LiveCD_terminal>