Can't upgrade Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS to 10.04.4, stuck on 'Running /usr/sbin/grub'

Freek

I'm trying to upgrade my Xen VPS running Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS 32 Bit to 10.04.4 using 'apt-get dist-upgrade' but it gets stuck every time at ''Running /usr/sbin/grub'. I've reinstalled my VPS 3 times now so I'm invoking this command on a clean VPS. I issued a 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade' before doing the dist-upgrade.
Something is wrong with this VPS. It also says that packages like mc and lighttpd don't exist but I'm pretty sure they do.

I tried this exact same procedure on one of my OpenVZ VPSes and it works without problems.

Anyone experienced this before?

Thanks

vedran

It's Xen PV, right?

I solve that by running apt-get remove grub-legacy grub-common before doing apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Freek

Xen PV, yes.
I followed your steps and this time it didn't get stuc and it makes the illusion that is has upgraded but in fact, it didn't. It's still 10.04.1.
I've sent @AnthonySmith an email. I'm sure he knows what's going on

AnthonySmith

There is a little more to it than removing grub legacy/common

Going through the process now, so far so good, once it is complete I will pop up a quick guide here as well as your ticket @Freek

AnthonySmith

Ok so from fresh 10.04 LTS install:

apt-get remove grub-legacy grub-common
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
apt-get install update-manager-core
do-release-upgrade -d

Answer questions on screen, dont worry that it cannot find the device to install grub to (pygrub)

get a coffee:

reboot

Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 2.6.32-308-ec2 i686)

• Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/

tux

@AnthonySmith said:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
apt-get install update-manager-core
do-release-upgrade -d

If you upgrade from 10.04.1 to 10.04.4, you don't need run do-release-upgrade command. Use apt-get dist-upgrade

AnthonySmith

Yep, I totally misread due to earlier content in a support ticket and assumed it was 12.04 Freek wanted.

My mistake 10.04.4 upgrade method sent on to Freek.

Freek

The method @AnthonySmith describes in this topic indeed upgrades 10.04 to 12.04.
The method @vedran describes to 'update/upgrade' 10.04.1 to 10.04.4 is correct after all. The problem is that there is a bug in the 32 bit variant which doesn't update the version numbering when you login to the VPS, making it quite confusing.

Regarding the problem that packages like mc and lighttpd cannot be found, @AnthonySmith gave me the following solution:

mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

copy the following in to the new sources.list

deb http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted universe
deb http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-security main restricted universe
deb http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates main restricted universe

Do an apt-get update and apt-get upgrade

You will then be able to install mc and lighttpd and as if by magic your version will update to 10.04.4 too, it looks like the default sources.list does not contain enough to pull down the patches that fix the bug reports I mentioned earlier.

Credits to @AnthonySmith.

Oddly enough, these bugs do not occur on the 64 bit variant.

Anyway, all is OK now

Thanks