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**ronw** · Apr 28, 2015, 11:37 AM

There are many success stories.

Reading posts, a clean install seems like the way to go, not an upgrade.

**vinnywright** · Apr 28, 2015, 01:29 PM

Originally posted by dbaker View Post

and wondering if it's a really stupid idea to upgrade at this point, considering I don't have a "spare" computer to try Vivid on, and I need my single (production) machine to be functional.

I would stay with 14.04 if you need total stability at least for a wile yet ,,,,,,,,,that sead I'm not having meney issues with it so far .......BUT I have 5 OS partitions @hear the main drive has Ubuntu-14.04 , Kubuntu-14.04(my main use install) and 2 Kubuntu-15.04 installs + a netrunner15 install on the btrfs formated TB-storage drive .

Code:

[FONT=monospace]

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo parted -l 
[sudo] password for vinny:  
Model: ATA HGST HTS725050A7 (scsi) 
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB                                                   
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B                                
Partition Table: msdos                                                      
Disk Flags:                                                                   
                                                                                
Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system     Flags                     
 1      8225kB  323GB  323GB   primary   ext4            boot                           
 3      323GB   379GB  56.3GB  primary   ext4                                           
 4      379GB   496GB  117GB   extended                                                    
 5      379GB   436GB  57.0GB  logical   ext4                                                 
 6      436GB   496GB  59.8GB  logical   ext4                                                      
 2      496GB   500GB  4295MB  primary   linux-swap(v1)                                             
                                                                                                           
                                                                                                           
Model: ATA HGST HTS721010A9 (scsi)                                                                                   
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB                                                                                                       
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B                                                                                    
Partition Table: gpt                                                                                                             
Disk Flags:                                                                                                                       

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name     Flags 
 1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  btrfs        primary 


[/FONT]

if you have the space , and are confident in your ability make a partition for it and duel boot

VINNY

**Teunis** · Apr 28, 2015, 01:46 PM

Don't upgrade yet.
You might want to do a fresh install, that seems to have fewer issues.

Or just install on a 16 or 32GB USB flash drive!
Especially on USB3 it gives a very good feel.
Or in case you have enough space on your HD you can make two small ( 10-16GB each) extra partitions and run it as a separate boot option.

**dbaker** · Apr 28, 2015, 04:42 PM

thanks everyone for your advice! clean install is unfortunately not an option for me.

I've never dual booted so I'd be a bit apprehensive about that, but technically I could make a new partition and try it. not sure that would offer any advantages over the USB method though.

booting off a USB would give me a chance to see how Vivid runs on my laptop as opposed to a VM, I guess. I've never had a chance to try USB booting before and I'm not sure if any of my existing USB sticks are suitable...do they have to be formatted in a particular way? (all mine are FAT32 because I use them with Macs as well).

**Teunis** · Apr 28, 2015, 05:13 PM

Yes you would format them like any other disk.
You need at least two partitions, preferably three.
One for / (root) and another one for swap.
The size of the last one is historically at least equal to your amount of RAM but once you have more than 4GB that's hardly going to run out so the swap may be smaller.
Then it is always good to have a separate /home partition but as this is probably going on a rather smallish drive you might want to be frugal and not use a separate /home.
Root and Home will be ext4, swap is just that.

All those in the know will tell you to do the partitioning as a separate process BEFORE starting the install.

Make sure you select the USB drive (probably /dev/hdb or hdc) for installing Grub!!!

**dbaker** · Apr 28, 2015, 08:42 PM

thankyou for the detailed instructions, I'm looking forward to trying this! none of my USBs are bigger than 16 gb so I am going to have to be frugal with my partitions, I'm afraid.
Kubuntu has an app for doing the formatting, right? I think I used it once but I can't remember what it's called.
*looks around a bit*
hmm there's "KDE partition manager", but also "startup disk creator" and "disks". which one, which one?!

**Qqmike** · Apr 28, 2015, 09:05 PM

Easier: Use Partition Editor/GParted (in your K-Menu K > Application > System).

(Or, use it as GParted live CD/USB:
http://gparted.org/livecd.php )

**Teunis** · Apr 29, 2015, 12:40 PM

You use the startup disk creator to make a live USB or DVD (on a different flash drive!).

Boot the computer with this for a live session and then you can start the installation on the partitioned flash drive.

Once you have a functional system you use the KDE partition manager (KParted) to partition the USB flash drive.
When the partitioning is done you can click on that desktop icon to start the installation.
When it comes to how to partition the 'disk' you select 'Manual' and you will get the option to assign the already partitioned flash drive for installation.
It is at the bottom of that screen where you can select where to install Grub, it should be the same partitioned flash drive.

**Kubuntu1404_Singapore** · May 04, 2015, 04:11 AM

Originally posted by dbaker View Post

thanks everyone for your advice! clean install is unfortunately not an option for me.

I've never dual booted so I'd be a bit apprehensive about that, but technically I could make a new partition and try it. not sure that would offer any advantages over the USB method though.

booting off a USB would give me a chance to see how Vivid runs on my laptop as opposed to a VM, I guess. I've never had a chance to try USB booting before and I'm not sure if any of my existing USB sticks are suitable...do they have to be formatted in a particular way? (all mine are FAT32 because I use them with Macs as well).

What I found was broken on upgrade (I did 14.04->14.10->15.04) was only repository problems (there was a mix up of incorrect and correct ones in sources.list and sources.d/*), and the fact that any special settings (e.g. set up of your desktop look and feel, icons etc) disappear. Once I diagnosed the repositories and corrected them , the system did much better except for known bugs which can be found on bugs.kde.org - this is NOT a bug free system. I used 14.04 for an extended period and experienced very few actual faults if any besides user error. 15.04 / Plasma is *not* a finished product. However, its really nice! I haven't read of anyone's base data being compromised or potentially destroyed using the upgrade route so I do not think a clean install is necessary, especially if you have anyway backed up your production files.

If you are ready to experience Plasma 5 I'd say go ahead! The problems I mention above are really not deal breakers. You will experience plasma shell crashes that don't occur *ever* in 14.04, but that's the nature of the beast, going to the cutting edge....

All the best.

**dbaker** · May 04, 2015, 04:39 AM

thankyou for this information, very useful. I dunno if it's just my system, but I actually experience frequent plasma shell crashes in 14.04. I've heavily customised everything and use a lot of non-native applications so that might have something to do with it?

**Kubuntu1404_Singapore** · May 04, 2015, 06:43 AM

Originally posted by dbaker View Post

thankyou for this information, very useful. I dunno if it's just my system, but I actually experience frequent plasma shell crashes in 14.04. I've heavily customised everything and use a lot of non-native applications so that might have something to do with it?

If you are able to post any error logs / backtraces someone with more intimate knowledge may be able to point you in the right direction as to why. Further, I have found moderate success simply googling the circumstances of [crashes] to ultimately debug it. I'd have to wonder if you are potentially not using the open source graphics driver (commonly less stable if maybe more performance?), or if you have a different version of KDE running than is standard for 14.04 (e.g. at any time you decided to manually change the repositories for KDE from the standard repositories)? Those would be my immediate guesses ... but you will get more mileage out of identifying in your system logs some idea of what caused the crash / googling the circumstances of your crashes.

I believe I would be not alone in saying that 14.04 is extremely stable and the plasma shell just does *not* crash in 14.04 as a matter of course.

I guess looking on the glass half-full side

, if you are experiencing instability in 14.04 there is less reason to stick with it in favour of 15.04!

**dbaker** · May 04, 2015, 06:56 AM

Originally posted by Kubuntu1404_Singapore View Post

I'd have to wonder if you are potentially not using the open source graphics driver

how do I find out? what graphics driver *should* I be using?
I do get graphics glitches quite a lot, although they don't bother me. Some application windows take a while to be drawn when I minimise or open/close them, for example...Chrome and LibreOffice come to mind. Also before shutdown/logout, when the logout dialog box is shown, there are often colorful glitches along the top edge of the screen.

as far as the circumstances of my crashes, I can't see any pattern to it, although I might if I kept a record of when it happens. I have a lot of custom keyboard shortcuts set up for opening apps, and sometimes I'll try to use one and nothing will happen, and then I'll find I can't click on anything, and then plasma will crash. I'll try to get a backtrace next time it happens, but often a weird thing happens where the normal plasma crash dialog doesn't even appear, and instead I get a blank dialog box with no buttons and the title "Sorry - KDE Deskop Shell" or something like that. It's not even telling me what it's sorry about. Quite hilarious, really!

**vinnywright** · May 04, 2015, 02:46 PM

for graphics card and driver info ,,,,,,,,,,install inxi

Code:

sudo apt install inxi

then post the output of

Code:

inxi -G

like ,,,,,,,,,

Code:

               [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ inxi -G [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]Graphics: [/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#5454ff][B]Card:[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#b2b2b2] NVIDIA GK104M [GeForce GTX 860M][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]Display Server:[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#b2b2b2] X.Org 1.17.1 [/COLOR][COLOR=#5454ff][B]drivers:[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#b2b2b2] nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)                                            [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]Resolution:[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#b2b2b2] 1920x1080@60.0hz                                                                                           [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]GLX Renderer:[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#b2b2b2] GeForce GTX 860M/PCIe/SSE2 [/COLOR][COLOR=#5454ff][B]GLX Version:[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#b2b2b2] 4.5.0 NVIDIA 346.59    [/COLOR]
[/FONT]
    [FONT=monospace]
[/FONT]

VINNY

**dbaker** · May 04, 2015, 06:15 PM

alright this is what I got:

Code:

Graphics:  Card: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3

I'm not sure what any of that means (i.e. whether it's "right" or not).

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