I finally decided to update my ageing Ubuntu install (the one on the home computer) to 10.04(.1), Ubuntu’s latest-but-one release. So why not update to the latest and greatest in one go? Well, first things first: let’s see how this works out before taking the plunge further. On top of that, 10.04 is a Long Term Support release. Most of them aren’t but the long-term support releases are supported for 3 years instead of one year. Meaning you get all the security updates until you deserve a new computer :)
So, the update. I was somewhat worried, as my internet-via-usb-modem was hard to get working. In fact, it originally required a connection to internet to get it working… :s. In the midst of the update (which took several hours — Ubuntu: what gives?? I can understand it’s more than a 10 minute process, but hours?? where previously, there would be some poignant questions on keeping data at more or less random times during upgrade?!? but I digress…) the internet connection suddenly gave out. Note, I write “midst of the update”. That is actually a bare-faced lie — though I thought it was close to true at the time. I fiddled around, internet did not come back. Luckily, the upgrade process marched onwards without a connection (this happened after all packaged had been downloaded, but it still made me quite nervous). After the reboot, I kept my fingers crossed. Hoorah! Internet worked!
… or did it? Youtube broke, but that was easily fixed by removing and installing flash. Weird that that was necessary, it worked before. On top of that, Internet had lost its speed. It was as slow as a penguin in the desert. A quick google hinted that the problem might be related to IPv6. The easiest potential fix was apparently to tell the browser to not use that. I did (muck around in about:config, find the IPv6 setting and tell it to drop IPv6), and my internet got back into racing gear :)
So: updated, running a long term support release, and some of the important chinks have been checked and addressed. Still need to complete checking though… If I find more, I’ll let you know!