A Big Setback

Today, I received a notice from Ubuntu that a major upgrade was ready. Specifically, the system was ready to upgrade from version 9.04 (called "Jaunty Jackalope") to version 9.10 (called "Karmic Koala"). Being the trusting type, I hit the "Upgrade" button. As the upgrade progressed, I received a few errors, namely that "OpenOffice" was running. I managed to kill the processes, though for some reason it kept coming back. Anyway, there wasn't anything that said, "This is a MAJOR error! ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!" Two hours later, it finished. I restarted the computer and thought, "Hey! Looks great!" Wanted to go on about my business. Just before the upgrade finished, I was listening to some music. So I wanted to continue listening.

Only problem is my sound wasn't working. And still isn't working. Also, every time I reboot my computer, the icons on my desktop all shift back to the left side of the screen. (I have certain ones that I explicitly put on the right side of the screen.) And sometimes Skype doesn't start up. And also when I reboot or shutdown, I get a pop-up window that says an "unknown" process is still running.

Suffice to say, I'm far less than thrilled. I went to the Ubuntu forums and found someone else with a similar problem on the sound. He managed to get his problem resolved. I didn't. That was topped by someone called "lovinglinux" who came on and told me tersely that I was on the wrong thread. It was a kubuntu thread, and I was ubuntu. Despite the fact that the original creator of the thread was actually helping me. At the time, I was thinking, "Well, bite me, "lovinglinux", you arrogant, kubuntu prick!" I've calmed down since then and realized he was trying to save me from possibly getting bad information. But as mad as I was at the time, he was "wrong thing to say at the wrong time".

I've scoured the internet (both Ubuntu forums and non-Ubuntu ones) hoping, praying to find a fix. Somewhere. Somehow. And I've come up empty. Seems that a LOT of people are having similar issues. I'm now backing up all of my data on Ubuntu because. I. Am. Going. To. Have. To. Start. Over.

No, waiting is not an option. I need sound NOW. I need Skype to work reliably NOW. I need the sound because I use it with Skype. And I need both of them NOW. So, as I'm typing this, I have data backup in progress. Once it's finished, I'm going to start over with a fresh install, which seems to work better for most people. Still, this will be 6+ hours out of my life, not to mention the future time to re-install much of the software I've come to rely on. Freemat & Octave. Google Earth. Wireshark. Wine. Crossloop on Wine. Paint Shop Pro on Wine. And the list goes on. And this is time that I could have been spending doing real work.

Does this mean I'm dissuaded from Linux? Hardly. But if you're considering making the switch, wait a few more weeks.