October 28th, 2009
Ubuntu Karmic Koala Note
IMPORTANT NOTICE - PLEASE READ:
Ubuntu is our most popular distro and we expect a keen uptake once Karmic Koala is released tomorrow (29th Oct 2009).
However, I wanted to take this chance to give you a warning that you should wait to upgrade your Ubuntu Slice, via the command line, until we have a kernel that works with the new release. We are working hard behind the scenes to make sure there will be a working, reliable kernel but it may take us a few days to get this ready.
If you do upgrade via the command line, then your Slice WILL NOT boot!
To recover your data you will need to enter rescue mode and transfer your data.
PLEASE BE WARNED!
We are working hard to get a viable release out as soon as possible and you should wait until we have an official Ubuntu Karmic Koala distro before attempting to upgrade your Slice by hand. As an aside, we never recommend upgrading a Slice via the command line anyway.
If you have any questions or concerns then please do send us an email (support@slicehost.com) or open a ticket via the Slicemanager (under the Help tab) or come and chat to us, 24/7, in our chatroom.
Thanks for your patience and we will get a working Ubuntu Karmic Koala out as soon as we possible can.
Paul.
UPDATE:
Thursday, 29th Oct 2009:
So we have a working kernel and we are going to be abusing it pretty hard over the next 24 hours to make sure it comes up to Slicehost standards!
We hope to get it out tomorrow (Fri, 30th Oct) afternoon, US Central time.
Any changes and I'll let you know.
Cheers, Paul
October 28th, 2009 at 05:02 PM Aidan Fitzpatrick
Thanks for the tip-off.
It must be a more recent problem: I took my slice to Karmic about two months ago (alpha5?) and it worked and booted perfectly. I downgraded it back to Jaunty a day or two after as it was as stable as one might expect.
I’ll take your word that later versions don’t work!
October 28th, 2009 at 06:00 PM Thin
Sorry to be thick but does the following apply to all distros?
“As an aside, we never recommend upgrading a Slice via the command line anyway.”
Is this the usual caveat of “upgrader beware” (especially on a VPS where theres the kernel to consider) or something more general with upgrades?
I’ve generally upped my CentOS to latest over the year and a little I’ve had my slice a little after I’ve noticed the upgrade is available, but wondering if I’ve just been lucky now :p
October 28th, 2009 at 06:51 PM Joe
I’ll bite—how does Slicehost recommend upgrading Ubuntu slices?
October 28th, 2009 at 07:21 PM Pedro Timóteo
I’d guess by backing up all data and rebuilding the slice from scratch with the new distro version, after it’s available from the control panel. I could be wrong, though.
October 28th, 2009 at 07:59 PM Mark
In regards to our recommended upgrade procedure, Pedro, hit the nail on the head.
October 28th, 2009 at 08:10 PM Joe
Bummer, that’s half the fun of running a debian-based distro.
October 28th, 2009 at 08:31 PM Jeff
“As an aside, we never recommend upgrading a Slice via the command line anyway.”
Other than possible kernel version problems, are there specific reasons why this is not recommended? I’ve been upgrading Debian systems for years, and my experience is that the upgrades (from old stable to stable) are generally almost flawless. I upgraded my slice from etch to lenny via the CLI with zero problems.
Once I know that Slicehost has a kernel in place which is known to be compatible with the new version of the OS, I know of no reason to go through the considerable work of rebuilding my entire system from scratch. As a matter of fact, I find it incredibly more likely for this to cause me a problem than going through Debian’s upgrade process. It will almost certainly result in far more downtime and work even if I have zero problems.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:37 PM PickledOnion
Heya,
We don’t recommend upgrading distro versions from the command line for the simple reason that we see sooooooo many failed upgrades.
I don’t have numbers but at least an equal number fail as succeed. The trouble is that a failed upgrade often means an unbootable Slice and you have to enter Rescue Mode to, er, rescue your data.
I know many people have upgraded time and again with no issues but it is something that, as a rule, we just don’t recommend.
HTH :)
Paul
October 29th, 2009 at 01:02 AM Jeff
Paul,
Fair enough. Yeah, that’s why I did a backup snapshot before I started the upgrade and kept it until I was sure things were okay. Worst case I could simply restore the backup. I also have incremental offsite daily backups of my data and config (via rdiff-backup).
So, overall, even a failed upgrade probably would consume less time and work than a successful rebuild from scratch. :) I do understand your caution, though.
October 29th, 2009 at 07:49 PM owen
Will the Slicehost upgrades to Karmic 9.10 support EXT4, despite the initial release having a bug in EXT4 with fresh installs with large files (>512MB).
From the release notes:
*Possible corruption of large files with ext4 filesystem *
There have been some reports of data corruption with fresh (not upgraded) ext4 file systems using the Ubuntu 9.10 kernel when writing to large files (over 512MB). The issue is under investigation, and if confirmed will be resolved in a post-release update. Users who routinely manipulate large files may want to consider using ext3 file systems until this issue is resolved. (453579)
Since there’s no way to upgrade an EXT3 FS to EXT4 without a fresh install (AFAIK), will this (EXT4) be something you guys plan on supporting?
I’m just asking for mere curiosities sake; my slice is running 8.04 LTS and have no intention of upgrading.
~owen
October 30th, 2009 at 03:56 PM PickledOnion
Owen,
We won’t be supporting EXT4 as a FS for your Slice.
As time goes by we will be looking at this but, for now, we will be using, and supporting, EXT3 only – if you use rescue mode to create a new FS then your Slice will not boot.
Sorry for the short answer but we simply don’t support (in any way) EXT4.
Cheers, Paul
December 7th, 2009 at 02:39 PM Sudhanshu
Just upgraded, and then reached this post!
It doesn’t work :( and there’s no going back as well! Any help would be appreciated. I just don’t want to configure everything again!
December 7th, 2009 at 03:03 PM Sudhanshu
Found an easy fix. Once the slice stops working, you can roll back to a previous kernel (via the kernal updater in the admin) and then come to 2.6.31-302-rs again via the kernal updater.
And the system works well again!
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:00 AM Jeremy
Downgrading then upgrading the kernel to the -rs kernel worked for me wonderfully. Thanks.