Trouble upgrading ubuntu 11.10 to 12.04 LTS after upgrading from 10.04

Question

So first I tried to upgrade from 10.04 to 11.10 and now I don't have access to the many features of ubuntu (since the upgrade did not complete successfully) so when I try to update the system with sudo apt-get upgrade (after updating) I get the following:

"Please report this as a bug and include the files /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log and /var/log/dist-upgrade/apt.log in your report. The upgrade has aborted. Your original source list was saved in /etc/apt/sources/list.distUpgrade SystemError: E : Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2) Could not install the upgrade The upgrade has aborted. Your system could be in an unusable state. A recovery will run now (dpkg--configure-a) Upgrade complete The upgrade has completed but there were some errors in the upgrade processing"

How does anyone recommend I tackle this problem? I do not really want to re-install ubuntu since it could erase all my data (most recent, but not recently saved in backup) ; moreover the following make things much weirder. For example, the system is somehow not capable of doing a backup, saving files in another usb or hard drive (saves them as 0 bytes). Please help, ubuntu one does not upload my files either (fyi). Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Ubuntu 10.04 is old and has reached end of life.

I would recommend to backup your home folder and do a fresh install of a later version. I would recommend 12.04LTS if you prefer a more stable but less up to date system or 13.04 if you want the latest software versions.

I would prefer a fresh installation instead of upgrading, since it's cleaner and faster. You'll have to reinstall software but I think it's less time consuming than upgrading.

A fresh install + reinstallation of software is, generally speaking, much quicker than an upgrade.