[TriLUG] Ubuntu 18.04 Problems

[Bill Weinel via TriLUG]

On Friday, June 7, 2019 9:45:16 PM EDT Roger W. Broseus via TriLUG wrote:
 
> I have avoided upgrading for the very reasons that you give. There are just
> too many reports of problems with 18.04.

After dealing with a failed upgrade in the past, I have found that the best 
policy is to always have a complete clone of your operating system drive PRIOR 
to preforming any major system upgrade.

Before installing any major upgrade, I use 'Clonezilla Live' on a USB stick to 
make a clone of my O/S drive. By booting the Live system for a backup, you 
don't change anything on the original O/S drive. 

The biggest downfall in this procedure is the amount of time it adds to the 
upgrade process. However, if you only keep the O/S on the system drive, and 
save user /home directories elsewhere, the extra time is insignificant. 
(...especially when compared to the amount of time it takes to recover from a 
failed upgrade.)

This is cheap insurance in the event of upgrade issues and can save you hours 
of time and a lot of grief in recovery. (...not to mention having the 'suit' 
types standing over your shoulder wanted to know when you will have the system  
up once again.)

Should problems arise during an upgrade, you stop, grab your cloned O/S drive, 
pop it into the system in place of the system O/S drive, and your back up and 
running again like it never happened. (...and the 'suits' are happy because 
you are proclaimed to be a miracle worker!) 

Having hot-swap SATA caddies for all drives in all of my systems makes this a 
breeze to preform. It only takes seconds to swap O/S drives.

If your system doesn't allow for hot-swappable drives, just install an extra 
drive into the system chassis and leave it normally unplugged, only to be used  
during backup procedures.

This process has worked for me without fail for 20+ years....

Cheers,
Bill