[18:09] <Phryq> hey, a couple weeks ago I tried upgrading my Ubuntu to 13.04 and my computer died part way. Now when I try to do the upgrade, I get an error halfway that there are no upgrades. I'm wondering if it half upgraded and now the OS is confused about which version it is
[18:09] <morten771> could be perhaps
[18:13] <Phryq> any way to fix it?
[18:14] <Phryq> I just ignored it before, but since my last update today virtualbox has stopped working (I uninstalled thinking a new install would fix it but it won't allow me to re-install). During the upgrade I was giving an error related to virtualbox not being able to update.
[18:14] <Phryq> so I'm thinking if I just upgrade to 13, it will fix this problem (and maybe a couple other bugs
[18:14] <Phryq> )
[18:15] <morten771> I'm not good at these things. I'm a newbie myself
[18:15] <holstein> Phryq: well, keep in mind what has happened.. this is not something that there is necessarily a quick fix for
[18:15] <Unit193> sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade   if it stopped, then lsb_release -a
[18:15] <holstein> Phryq: are you on the machine? can you open a terminal? or tty?
[18:15] <holstein> what Unit193 suggested was where i was going...
[18:16] <Unit193> Check /etc/apt/sources.list as well.
[18:17] <Phryq> ya
[18:17] <Phryq> tty?
[18:17] <holstein> !tty
[18:17] <holstein> Phryq: if you *can* open a terminal, then you can just do that, and not do tty..
[18:18] <Phryq> ah, but I learned about TTY, neato. I got a terminal open on the same machine I'm having the problem with.
[18:18] <Unit193> sudo dpkg --configure -a  may be needed.
[18:18] <Phryq> I'm running  sudo apt-get update, I thought I'd just updated but it seems to be doing more.
[18:19] <geirha> that only updates the package lists
[18:19] <Phryq> ah, well I've typed all 3 of those commands. No errors
[18:20] <holstein> !pastebin | Phryq
[18:20] <holstein> Phryq: you can run lsb_release -a and share that ouput
[18:22] <Phryq> http://pastie.org/7954345
[18:24] <holstein> Phryq: as that states, you are on 12.10
[18:26] <Phryq> would upgrading from terminal work better than using the gui?
[18:28] <holstein> Phryq: doesnt matter. both should be fine.. what do i suggest? plan for failure.. backup all data, and try an upgrade (if you prefer) and if that fails, do a fresh install
[18:29] <Phryq> damn. Tomorrow I will have to buy an external hard drive case to backup my stuff
[18:30] <Phryq> ok, thanks guys
[18:30] <holstein> Phryq: the hard drive you are using *will* faile.. its just a matter of when
[18:30] <Phryq> good night!
[18:30] <Phryq> the problem is with the OS though, not the hard drive, right?
[18:30] <holstein> Phryq: the problem is with neither
[18:30] <Phryq> what do you mean?
[18:30] <holstein> Phryq: you interrupted a large system upgrade.. and it seems there is no problem
[18:31] <Phryq> ah yes, that's what I meant. Fresh install and everything is fine
[18:31] <holstein> Phryq: you just need to decide what you want to do, and make it happen... i suggest the backup since that hard drive *will* fail (as they all will)
[18:31] <holstein> Phryq: everything looks fine now.. you could try an upgrade and let it properly complete
[18:32] <Phryq> it won't upgrade; that's my problem
[18:32] <Phryq> I will back up and do a fresh install of 13
[18:32] <holstein> Phryq: you said you had interrupted it, correct?
[18:32] <Phryq> ya
[18:33] <holstein> Phryq: then, it would have.. and still may..
[18:33] <Phryq> and since I interupted it a couple weeks ago, it will not upgrade
[18:33] <holstein> Phryq: have you tried via commandline?
[18:33] <Phryq> no
[18:33] <Phryq> how do I do it with commandline?
[18:33] <Phryq> it might work better through command line?
[18:33] <holstein> http://www.liberiangeek.net/2013/03/upgrade-to-ubuntu-13-04-from-12-10-in-ubuntu-via-software-updater/
[18:34] <holstein> !better | Phryq
[18:34] <holstein> Phryq: if you haver 'broken the system, then you might need to take special efforts to get it fixed
[18:34] <Phryq> ok, but I mean the GUI is not working; there is a possibility the command line might?
[18:34] <holstein> it would be better to have not interrupte it.. but im sure you can sort it out
[18:34] <Phryq> how do I upgrade with command line?
[18:35] <holstein> Phryq: can you open the link i gave?
[18:35] <Phryq> yes, didn't see it at first; thankyou
[18:37] <Phryq> "After running the above commands and finish updating your system, press Ctrl – F2 on your keyboard to open run command" I don't understand
[18:38] <holstein> Phryq: cool.. just ignore that then, and try http://linuxg.net/update-from-ubuntu-12-10-to-ubuntu-13-04-by-terminal/
[18:38] <morten771> ctrl-F2 shuold open a small dialogbox where you can write a command to run
[18:39] <Phryq> http://pastie.org/7954445
[18:40] <Phryq> ctrl-F2 doesn't seem to be working for me, but no matter, I'll go with that new link. I pasted the output of the terminal command there
[18:41] <morten771> if your keyboard have a special [Fn] key then perhaps you have tro press that for the [F2] key to work normally.
[18:41] <Phryq> nope, but it does change the screen brightness for me! haha
[18:41] <holstein> Phryq: there are several options there.. manually editing the sources should force a fix to whatever is going on.. what would i do? backup my data and fresh install
[18:41] <Phryq> anyway, I gtg to bed
[18:41] <morten771> and wait... isn't it Alt-F2 that is run...? oh yeah it is. not ctrl-f2
[18:42] <Phryq> ah, that's why
[18:42] <holstein> Phryq: if you are in a hurrry, i would come back when you have about 5 hours
[18:42] <Phryq> Good idea
[18:42] <Phryq> I'll do a re-install tomorrow.
[18:42] <Phryq> 'night
[18:42] <holstein> Phryq: i typically backup and just fresh install.. i can do a fresh install in like 15 miutes
[18:42] <holstein> with upgrades, i find, best case, they only take 4 hours or so, and nothing breaks...
[18:43] <morten771> will this make a perfect partition bakup:  "sudo dd if=/dev/sda7 of=/media/myusbdisk/bakup.img" (and if I want to access a file on it "sudo mount -ro loop /media/myusbdisk/bakup.img /mnt" (if my / is at sda7) ?
[18:43] <holstein> and, you need to have your data backed up anyway
[18:43] <morten771> and can I copy the image back to a real partition with dd on another harddisk if the one I have breaks?
[18:43] <holstein> morten771: i use clonezilla
[18:43] <holstein> also, i manually backup data that is mission critical to several locations
[18:43] <morten771> well... I thought it would be nice to have a backup that doesn't need a special backup program to be used
[18:45] <holstein> morten771: clonezilla is just running those commands for me
[18:45] <holstein> morten771: there are differnt backup gui's that just backup data.. and dont require anything
[18:45] <morten771> I want a backup that I can restore the partition to how it was, and don't have to reinstall the os manually first. even if this harddisk I have breaks. (But I still want to be able to access the individual files too if I accicently delete a file or so)
[18:46] <morten771> aha ok som clonezilla is more like a gui to the dd then. ok.
[18:46] <holstein> morten771: i use clonezilla for that, since it does all of those commands for me
[18:46] <morten771> aha
[18:46] <holstein> morten771: but, im sure you can dd it manually.. i just personally havent done that
[18:48] <morten771> if I restore a bakup to a new disk, can I (after making the partition of right size) restore this partition bakup to say /dev/sda1 (instead of where it used to be)?
[18:51] <holstein> morten771: well, in theory, its all open, so anything is possible
[18:52] <holstein> i typically just clone the whole OS
[18:53] <morten771> ok