CSC8306 -- Systems Administration

Introduction

Live is about change and this is particularly true of programmers. The desire to change and improve things is particularly prevalent amoung programmers. This is good because it makes life exciting, however it also means that as a sys admin, you have to keep up or your operating systems will rust — once this happens, security updates will stop happening, and your machine will get hacked.

Upgrading to a new distribution

Different operating systems or their distributions have different release schedules. For many systems, the release schedule is of critical importance and can motivate the choice of one distribution over another.

You should have installed the "Natty Narwhal" release of Ubuntu ² or, if you are more prosaic, version 11.04. In this practical, I shall work through upgrading the system to a new release.

WARNING

By the end of this practical, we will almost certainly have irretrievably broken your linux installation. Previously, we did this by design; this time, it's a byproduct of updating. Still, there is really every chance that you will never be able to use it again. Nor will we be able to recover it for you.

Earlier, we covered backups, focusing on using in system tools. One advantage of using a virtual machine is that there is an easier way — you can copy the virtual discs around. If you want your system to work again, I'd suggest you work on a copy.

WARNING

Since the course started there has been a new release of Ubuntu called "Oneric Ocelot". Like the original installation process, upgrading takes quite a while, so we need to set this process in operation.

Find out how to update to the latest version of Ubuntu. Start the update process.

While this is happening, answer the following questions.

What is the Ubuntu release schedule? When will the next release happen? Compare Ubuntu's release to that of RedHat (or Fedora, it's free equivalent). What reasons might you choose for updating to a new version? Why might you choose to NOT update? What are the key features that Ubuntu advertise for new version?

Try the system out. What new features work? Don't worry if not everything works. Generally, with Ubuntu most things do work, but there is never an 100% guarentee.

Upgrading to the Bleeding Edge

As a final act, we will update the system to the very, very bleeding edge.

What is the name of the NEXT release (or the current development version) of Ubuntu? What new features will this version provide? Why would you want to update to the latest pre-release version?

Find out how to update to the latest development release. Try the update!

There is a good chance that this will not work correctly. There's a good chance that it will kill your system irretrivably. Alternatively, it may work flawlessly, as it did for me. It all depends on what the developers have changed since I tried.

Report any errors that you find and any success that you have in fixing these.