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Upgrade to Xubuntu 13.04 - Raring Ringtail

Thursday, 09 May 2013 10:09

Over the last couple of years, I had various levels of upgrade experience with Ubuntu, or more precise Xubuntu in my case. Those ones range from complete disaster (due to hardware issues) over good fun with some minor tweaks up to seamless. Following describes the steps and aftermath I did to upgrade my main working machine from Xubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal to version 13.04 aka Raring Ringtail.

Preparations

In general, it is highly recommended that you read the official upgrade documentation of Ubuntu. Next, get your recent system up-to-date before you consider to upgrade. Also, take care that there are no pending partial upgrades or packages on hold. This might have a negative impact on the installation process of the newer packages. There are two possibilities to take of that: UI or terminal.

As for the UI, launch either the Ubuntu Software Centre or Synaptic Package Manager and check the status of your system.

ubuntu_software_centre
Check your system's status in Ubuntu Software Centre

synaptic_package_manager
The Synaptic Package Manager is a good alternative to check your system

and for those ones who prefer to work on the console, you might already know the procedure

$ sudo apt-get install -f
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

And in worst case you might even consider to clean up a little bit before continuing with the release upgrade

$ sudo apt-get autoremove
$ sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get autoclean

That should do the work to put your machine in a clean state. One last step: Terminate any kind of screen saver or screen locker applications. The upgrade process will update libc6 and therefore is going to remind you that you might take the risk to get locked out of you system. Now, we are set for the next steps.

Initiate the upgrade

Start the process graphically via Applications menu > Settings Manager > Scroll down to section 'System' > Software Updater

settings_manager
Accessing the Software Updater in the Settings Manager

or run the following command to launch the visual Software Updater

$ sudo update-manager

Eventually, you have to adjust your settings for the available Ubuntu versions. Simply open the settings dialog and check that 'For any new version' is the selected value.

software_updater_settings
Check your notification setting on new Ubuntu versions

Afterwards, the updater should offer you Ubuntu version 13.04 as upgrade path.

In the console you have to modify your repository paths first. Open your favourite console text editor and change all occurences of 'quantal' into 'raring'

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Your file should look similar to this one:

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring main restricted
deb-src http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates main restricted
deb-src http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring universe
deb-src http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring universe
deb http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates universe
deb-src http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu 
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to 
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in 
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring multiverse
deb-src http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring multiverse
deb http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates multiverse
deb-src http://mu.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates multiverse

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes

And temporarily comment all the additional third-party repositories for the upgrade. We are going to enable them after the core update. Afterwards, simply type this

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Now, it's time to lean back, wait for the packages to be downloaded and confirm a couple of questions from time to time. Depending on your amount of installed packages and your bandwidth it will take some while to get everything. As a reference, I had to upgrade 1720 packages with a total download size of approximately 1.1 GB. Due to my restricted bandwidth I left my machine alone overnight and do all the fun stuff. Next morning, some minor checks and rebooting the machine. The first fresh boot took a little longer than usual but the graphical login screen appeared as expected and after successful login my system was up to date.

ubuntu_uptodate
When all is said and done, work can be fun!

In case that you like to be on the safe side, you might consider to download the packages completely first and then do the upgrade itself afterwards:

$ sudo ap-get dist-upgrade -d

Doing the aftermath

This mainly depends on your package selection. In my case, I only had to take care of two specific applications: Skype and VMware Player. Well, as for VMware Player I had to re-install the application. You should use at least version 5.0.2 which is known to work out of the box on Ubuntu 13.04. Just in case that you don't have the latest version, get it from VMware and run the following in the directory with the bundle file:

$ sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-player
$ sudo chmod +x VMware-Player-5.0.2-1031769.x86_64.bundle
$ sudo ./VMware-Player-5.0.2-1031769.x86_64.bundle

This will do the trick and VMware Player runs again.

Skype actually took me a little bit more research (read: run some Google search queries) due to an error:

$ /usr/bin/skype
(Segmentation fault)

But the solution is also very simple. Skype requires to pre-load the libGL library in order to run properly

$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1.2.0 skype

And to simplify your life, create launcher script as a 'transparent proxy' for Skype:

$ sudo cd /usr/bin
$ sudo mv skype skype-bin
$ sudo nano skype

Your shell script should look like so:

#!/bin/sh
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1.2.0
exec skype-bin "$@"

Save your file and enable the execute bit on the script:

$ sudo chmod +x skype

That's it! Skype starts again as expected...

Optional: Decluttering

Xubuntu 13.04 comes with a couple of re-introduced software packages that you might like to get rid of. Check out the installed applications in your Ubuntu Software Centre or Synaptic Package Manager and remove them as needed.

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VMware Player 5.0 or VMware Workstation 9.0 after upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10

Linux

Tuesday, 23 October 2012 17:15

The upgrade process

Upgrading Ubuntu 12.04 to latest version 12.10 - aka Quantal Quetzal - is straight forward and you only need to follow the offical upgrade instructions. Short version on the console looks like this:

sudo do-release-upgrade

This will update the repository entries, and start the upgrade process. After some minutes or hours of download and installation, you have to reboot your system once to get the new kernel loaded. As time of writing, I'm on '3.5.0-17-generic'. And as with any modification of the kernel version, you have to compile the necessary kernel modules to get VMware Player or Workstation up and running. Usually, this happens the first time you try start your VMware software and that's it. Well, again not so this time.

Getting the kernel patch

Luckily, the community over VMware is very active and you can get a new kernel patch in the online forums here. Get the download and put in a folder have write permissions. Then you extract the archive on the console like so:

tar -xjvf vmware9_kernel35_patch.tar.bz2

Then you change into the newly created folder:

cd vmware9_kernel3.5_patch/

And you execute the available shell script as root (superuser) like so:

sudo ./patch-modules_3.5.0.sh

This will stop any running instances of VMware software, patches the source files and runs the compile process for your active environment. This might take some time depending on your machine, and once completed you can start VMware Player or Workstation as previously.

In case that you are going to apply the patch again, the script will simply quit with the following output:

/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched found. You have already patched your sources. Exiting

You might remove the .patched file in case that you upgraded/changed your kernel and you need to apply the patch again.

Disclaimer: The patch is "as-is" and the patcher is originally created by Artem S. Tashkinov, and later modified by An_tony. Please refer to the VMware forum in case of questions or problems. There are also patches available for older versions of VMware Player or Workstation.

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And again... VMware Player 4.0.4 on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

Linux

Friday, 15 June 2012 13:02

Even with the new version of VMware Player 4.0.4 you are still required to patch their sources. So, same game as last month. Just changing the value of the required version in the kernel patch script of Stefano Angeleri (weltall) and you are done:

nano patch-modules_3.2.0.sh

Please change line 8 at the top of the script like so:

plreqver=4.0.4

Save your modification and then run the following commands:

sudo rm /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched
sudo ./patch-modules_3.2.0.sh
sudo service vmware restart

And again, on first start VMware will present you their EULA which you have to accept, and everything gets back to normal operation mode.

Interestingly, one day ago the Ubuntu repositories provided a newer kernel version 3.2.0-25, so everything is running fine for now.

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Update kernel patch for VMware Player 4.0.3

Linux

Friday, 04 May 2012 14:42

As I stated some days ago, after upgrading to Ubuntu Precise Pangolin, aka 12.04 LTS, I had a minor obstacle with VMware products. Today, VMware offered to upgrade to Player 4.0.3 due to security-related reasons.

Initially, I thought that this update might have the patch for kernel 3.2.0 integrated but sadly that is not the case.

'Hacking' the kernel patch

My first intuitive try to run the existing patch against the sources of VMware Player 4.0.3 failed, as the patch by Stefano Angeleri (weltall) is originally written explicitely against Workstation 8.0.2 and Player 4.0.2.

But this is nothing to worry about seriously. Just fire up your favourite editor of choice and modify the version signature for VMware Player, like so:

nano patch-modules_3.2.0.sh

And update line 8 for the new version:

plreqver=4.0.3

Save the shell script and run it as super-user (root):

sudo ./patch-modules_3.2.0.sh

In case that you previously patched your VMware sources you have to remove some artifacts beforehand. Otherwise, the patch script will inform you like so:

/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched found. You have already patched your sources. Exiting

In that case, simply remove the 'hidden' file and run the shell script again:

sudo rm /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched
sudo ./patch-modules_3.2.0.sh

To finalise your installation either restart the vmware service or reboot your machine. On first start VMware will present you their EULA which you have to accept, and everything gets back to normal operation mode. Currently, I would assume that in case of VMware Workstation 8.0.3 you can follow the same steps as just described.

Update on VMware Player 4.0.4

Please read this article for VMware Player 4.0.4

Update on VMware Player 5.0.0

Please read this article for VMware Player 5.0.0 in Ubuntu 12.10

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Small hiccup with VMware Player after upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04

Linux

Monday, 30 April 2012 11:43

The upgrade process

Finally, it was time to upgrade to a new LTS version of Ubuntu - 12.04 aka Precise Pangolin. I scheduled the weekend for this task and despite the nickname of Mauritius (Cyber Island) it took roughly 6 hours to download nearly 2.400 packages. No problem in general, as I have spare machines to work on, and it was weekend anyway. All went very smooth and only a few packages required manual attention due to local modifications in the configuration. With the new kernel 3.2.0-24 it was necessary to reboot the system and compared to the last upgrade, I got my graphical login as expected.

Compilation of VMware Player 4.x fails

A quick test on the installed applications, Firefox, Thunderbird, Chromium, Skype, CrossOver, etc. reveils that everything is fine in general. Firing up VMware Player displays the known kernel mod dialog that requires to compile the modules for the newly booted kernel. Usually, this isn't a big issue but this time I was confronted with the situation that vmnet didn't compile as expected ("Failed to compile module vmnet"). Luckily, this issue is already well-known, even though with "Failed to compile module vmmon" as general reason but nevertheless it was very easy and quick to find the solution to this problem. In VMware Communities there are several forum threads related to this topic and VMware provides the necessary patch file for Workstation 8.0.2 and Player 4.0.2. In case that you are still on Workstation 7.x or Player 3.x there is another patch file available.

After download extract the file like so:

tar -xzvf vmware802fixlinux320.tar.gz

and run the patch script as super-user:

sudo ./patch-modules_3.2.0.sh

This will alter the existing installation and source files of VMware Player on your machine.

As last step, which isn't described in many other resources, you have to restart the vmware service, or for the heart-fainted, just reboot your system:

sudo service vmware restart

This will load the newly created kernel modules into your userspace, and after that VMware Player will start as usual.

Summary

Upgrading any derivate of Ubuntu, in my case Xubuntu, is quick and easy done but it might hold some surprises from time to time. Nonetheless, it is absolutely worthy to go for it. Currently, this patch for VMware is the only obstacle I had to face so far and my system feels and looks better than before. Happy upgrade!

Resources

I used the following links based on Google search results:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1902218#1902218
http://weltall.heliohost.org/wordpress/2012/01/26/vmware-workstation-8-0-2-player-4-0-2-fix-for-linux-kernel-3-2-and-3-3/

Update on VMware Player 4.0.3

Please continue to read on my follow-up article in case that you upgraded either VMware Workstation 8.0.3 or VMware Player 4.0.3.

Update on VMware Player 4.0.4

And once again, please read on this article for VMware Player 4.0.4

Update on VMware Player 5.0.0

Please read this article for VMware Player 5.0.0 in Ubuntu 12.10

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Get Blogged by JoKi

Get in touch

Sharing is caring

Recent books

Preparations

Initiate the upgrade

Doing the aftermath

Optional: Decluttering

The upgrade process

Getting the kernel patch

'Hacking' the kernel patch

Update on VMware Player 4.0.4

Update on VMware Player 5.0.0

The upgrade process

Compilation of VMware Player 4.x fails

Summary

Resources

Update on VMware Player 4.0.3

Update on VMware Player 4.0.4

Update on VMware Player 5.0.0