Upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS gone wrong

[Quattro Pete]

So of course I had to try to fix what's not broken, and now I am lost as my Ubuntu skills are rather weak.

During upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04, some packages did not get upgraded or removed correctly, and now post upgrade, Ubuntu is complaining, and not allowing me to do further updates until I fix broken packages, but I don't know how.

As far as I can see, the issue is with a package called 'apparmor'

When I run "sudo apt upgrade" I get this:

Help!

 

[OVERKILL]

I'd try removing the package instead of upgrading it as part of first steps.

See if it's running:
sudo apparmor_status

Assuming it is, shutdown the service:
sudo systemctl stop apparmor

Remove the program:
sudo apt purge apparmor

Then re-install it:
sup apt-get install apparmor

 

[Quattro Pete]

Thanks. That worked. I got these warnings when trying to purge, but otherwise, not seeing any ill effects.

Purging configuration files for apparmor (2.12-4ubuntu5.3) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing apparmor, directory '/var/cache/apparmor' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing apparmor, directory '/etc/apparmor.d/cache' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing apparmor, directory '/etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/ubuntu-browsers.d' not empty
so not removed

 

[uc50ic4more]

So of course I had to try to fix what's not broken, and now I am lost as my Ubuntu skills are rather weak.

During upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04,

1) 18.04 was supported for 5 years, **until May of this year**. You were doing what was necessary.

Ubuntu 18.04 EOL – keep your fleet of devices up and running | Ubuntu

Ubuntu 18.04 ‘Bionic Beaver’ is reaching End of Standard Support this May. If you don’t take action, you will transition to 18.04 EOL (End Of Life). This distribution of Ubuntu was installed by millions of users and powers up thousands of devices. From kiosks and appliances to IoT devices and...

ubuntu.com

2) Without thinking, any time I get any type of apt or installation/upgrade issue I will tend to run

sudo apt install -f

or

sudo dpkg --configure -a

... which'll usually, if not fix everything automagically outright, spit out some quality error messaging that will lead me in the right direction. In a lot of cases it is unmet dependencies; and in a lot of those cases it has to do with 3rd-party repositories.

 

[Zee09]

I never liked Ubuntu. I usually stuck with Mint after trying endless others.

 

[Quattro Pete]

1) 18.04 was supported for 5 years, **until May of this year**. You were doing what was necessary.

Yeah, that's what prompted me to do it.

One other thing: upon upgrade to 20.04, my GUI still looks the same as in 18.04. On my other machine, the 20.04 has a newer/modern looking GUI. Is there a way to tell what GUI version I'm running and how to update it? Might just be a setting that I'm not seeing...

 

[OVERKILL]

Thanks. That worked. I got these warnings when trying to purge, but otherwise, not seeing any ill effects.

Purging configuration files for apparmor (2.12-4ubuntu5.3) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing apparmor, directory '/var/cache/apparmor' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing apparmor, directory '/etc/apparmor.d/cache' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing apparmor, directory '/etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/ubuntu-browsers.d' not empty
so not removed

Excellent, glad it was a simple fix

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Why only 20.04 LTS and not 22.04.3 LTS? If you're gonna do it...

 

[Quattro Pete]

Why only 20.04 LTS and not 22.04.3 LTS? If you're gonna do it...

It's an older machine, and I've read that 22.04 is more of a resource hog.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Why only 20.04 LTS and not 22.04.3 LTS? If you're gonna do it...

OP'd still have to go 18.04 -> 20.04 -> 22.04 anyhow: Like Debian Stable, you can't skip LTS versions of Ubuntu.

HOWEVER Ubuntu Pro - which is free for personal use up to 5 machines - extends the support life for most of the core applications and the underlying OS to 10 years from 20.04 onwards. https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle

@Quattro Pete I have not found 22.04 to be any more demanding or resource-intensive than 20.04 in either server or desktop space. There is a real risk, of course, with older machines that drivers for your hardware may have been abandoned (e.g. NIVIDIA 340.xx on my old Dell laptop is in neither the Ubuntu nor the Debian repos anymore. I've elected to use the open-source nouveau driver but am doing so with a frowny face) so you're probably in a good spot leaning on 20.04's ridiculously long support cycle.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Yeah, that's what prompted me to do it.

One other thing: upon upgrade to 20.04, my GUI still looks the same as in 18.04. On my other machine, the 20.04 has a newer/modern looking GUI. Is there a way to tell what GUI version I'm running and how to update it? Might just be a setting that I'm not seeing...

Using the Settings application, and scrolling down to the "About" entry on the left (and clicking it) you should be able to see the version of Gnome that you're using (in the right panel), unless you've installed one of the "flavours" that use a different Desktop Environment.

18.04 used Gnome 3.28 and 20.04 uses 3.36. I did not find those two terribly different in their appearance or function, although the icon set may have been updated.

EDIT: Yup. Whole new icon set.

Here is a stock Ubuntu 18.04 desktop:

https://149366088.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/nautilus-in-ubuntu-18.04.jpg

And here is a stock 20.04:

https://149366088.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ubuntu-20.04-desktop-screenshot.jpg

 

[Quattro Pete]

Using the Settings application, and scrolling down to the "About" entry on the left (and clicking it) you should be able to see the version of Gnome that you're using (in the right panel), unless you've installed one of the "flavours" that use a different Desktop Environment.

That's the thing. On my other machine running 20.04, the Settings application does have an About section, but on this machine, the Settings application looks like the old one from 18.04 and it does not have an About section. It only has a Details section and it looks like this:

Maybe I should just try upgrading to 22.04?

 

[uc50ic4more]

That's the thing. On my other machine running 20.04, the Settings application does have an About section, but on this machine, the Settings application looks like the old one from 18.04 and it does not have an About section. It only has a Details section and it looks like this:

Maybe I should just try upgrading to 22.04?

That doesn't even look like a Gnome Settings dialogue. May we see a screenshot of the bare desktop? Maybe you're running an other Desktop Environment like XFCE (Xubuntu) or MATE or some other?

 

[Quattro Pete]

That doesn't even look like a Gnome Settings dialogue. May we see a screenshot of the bare desktop?

 

[uc50ic4more]

Ahhhhhh. Mystery solved: I am going to guess that your 18.04 was itself an upgrade from 16.04; and 16.04 was still using the "Unity" Desktop Environment, whereas 18.04 onwards has (reverted back to) Gnome. So I don't know whether you'd like to change your newly-updated 20.04 to Gnome or stick with Unity. They're both just the Desktop Environment - the GUI that forms your desktop - and ought not have a drastic impact on the use of any of your applications. (Unity is still under limited development so has not been abandoned.)

The (meta)package ubuntu-desktop carries with it all of the dependencies inherent in, as the name implies, the Ubuntu Desktop. (A "metapackage" does not contain any software itself, but just lists a bunch of dependencies. A normal "package" usually refers to a piece of software; e.g. Firefox, VLC, LibreOffice, etc.) So I'd bet that running the command:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

... will pull in the Gnome Desktop Environment if you choose to switch to it. ("sudo" instructs the system to "do" the command as the Super User ("su", otherwise known as "root" or in the Windows world the "Administrator"); apt-get is the package management system; we are instructing the type of "install" to be a "reinstall" and the package we'd like to reinstall is "ubuntu-desktop"). You'll have to approve the operation at a "Y/n" prompt and you might be prompted to choose your login manager (which is the software responsible for displaying the login screen) because now you'll have 2: Unity's and Gnome's.

Once you have Gnome installed and working properly we can remove Unity, which we'll worry about when you can confirm that Gnome is all set up.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Ahhhhhh. Mystery solved: I am going to guess that your 18.04 was itself an upgrade from 16.04;

Yes, and it was previously an upgrade from 14.04 before that.

So I'd bet that running the command:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

I ran the above command and it completed without any errors. I restarted the machine, but my desktop still looks the same as before.

I then ran:

cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager

response:

/usr/sbin/lightdm

I then ran:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

response:

gdm.service is not active, cannot reload.
invoke-rc.d: initscript gdm3, action "reload" failed.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Maybe gdm3 isn't pulled in from the ubuntu-desktop metapackage? How's about:

sudo apt-get install gdm3

That'll attempt to install GDM on its own and the installation process ought to provide the prompt to choose your preferred.

But even if you ended up staying with LightDM there ought to still be a small Settings (gear) icon (in the lower right on GDM) where you choose your session. You ought to see Gnome in the list of possible sessions.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Maybe gdm3 isn't pulled in from the ubuntu-desktop metapackage? How's about:

sudo apt-get install gdm3

That'll attempt to install GDM on its own and the installation process ought to provide the prompt to choose your preferred.

Looks like it's already installed. Here is the output from the above command:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
gdm3 is already the newest version (3.36.3-0ubuntu0.20.04.4).
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
g++-7 gcc-8-base:i386 gdal-data gir1.2-appindicator-0.1 gir1.2-mutter-2
libaec0 libargon2-0 libarmadillo8 libarpack2 libaudio2:i386 libavdevice57
libavfilter6 libavformat57 libavresample3 libbind9-160 libblas3
libboost-date-time1.65.1 libboost-filesystem1.65.1 libboost-iostreams1.65.1
libboost-locale1.65.1 libboost-regex1.65.1 libboost-system1.65.1
libboost-thread1.65.1 libcamel-1.2-61 libcdio17 libcharls1 libcue1 libdap25
libdapclient6v5 libdatrie1:i386 libdevel-globaldestruction-perl
libdns-export1100 libdns1100 libdouble-conversion1 libdvdread4
libebook-contacts-1.2-2 libecal-1.2-19 libedataserver-1.2-23
libegl-mesa0:i386 libegl1:i386 libepsilon1 libevent-2.1-6 libexiv2-14
libffi6:i386 libfluidsynth1 libfreexl1 libfyba0 libgbm1:i386 libgdbm5
libgdcm2.8 libgeos-3.6.2 libgeos-3.8.0 libgeos-c1v5 libgeotiff2 libgfortran4
libgfortran5 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libgmime-3.0-0 libgnome-desktop-3-17
libgspell-1-1 libgtkmm-2.4-1v5 libgweather-3-15 libhdf4-0-alt libhdf5-100
libhogweed4 libhogweed4:i386 libhunspell-1.6-0 libice6:i386 libicu-le-hb-dev
libicu-le-hb0 libicu55 libicu55:i386 libicu60:i386 libiculx60 libindicator7
libip4tc0 libip6tc0 libiptc0 libirs160 libisc-export169 libisc169
libisccc160 libisccfg160 libisl19 libjson-c3 libkmlbase1 libkmldom1
libkmlengine1 liblapack3 liblcms2-2:i386 liblivemedia62 libllvm10
libllvm10:i386 libllvm3.9 liblouis14 liblouisutdml8 liblvm2app2.2
liblvm2cmd2.02 liblwres160 libmicrodns0 libminiupnpc10 libminizip1
libmozjs-52-0 libmutter-2-0 libmysofa0 libmysqlclient20
libmysqlclient20:i386 libnetcdf13 libnettle6 libnettle6:i386 libnfs11
libnss-myhostname libntfs-3g88 libogdi3.2 libopencv-core3.2
libopencv-imgproc3.2 libopencv-ml3.2 libopencv-video3.2 liborcus-0.13-0
libperl5.26 libplacebo4 libpoppler73 libpostproc54 libprocps6 libproj12
libproj15 libprotobuf-lite10 libprotobuf10 libpython3.6 libpython3.6-minimal
libpython3.6-stdlib libqhull7 libqpdf21 libqt5script5 libraw16 libreadline7
libreoffice-style-galaxy libsm6:i386 libsndio6.1:i386 libsocket++1
libspatialite7 libspeexdsp1:i386 libssl1.0.0:i386 libstdc++-7-dev
libsuperlu5 libswscale4 libsz2 libtbb2 libthai0:i386 libtinfo-dev libupnp6
liburiparser1 libusbmuxd4 libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 libwayland-server0:i386
libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37-gtk2 libxdamage1:i386 libxerces-c3.2 libxmlb1
libxt6:i386 libxv1:i386 libzip4 nplan odbcinst odbcinst1debian2 proj-bin
proj-data python-asn1crypto python-configobj python-dnspython
python-fasteners python-monotonic python3-asn1crypto python3-oauth
python3-zope.interface python3.6 python3.6-minimal x11proto-composite-dev
x11proto-damage-dev x11proto-fixes-dev xserver-xorg-core-hwe-18.04
xserver-xorg-input-all-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-input-libinput-hwe-18.04
xserver-xorg-legacy-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu-hwe-18.04
xserver-xorg-video-ati-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-hwe-18.04
xserver-xorg-video-intel-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-hwe-18.04
xserver-xorg-video-qxl-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-18.04
xserver-xorg-video-vesa-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-video-vmware-hwe-18.04
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

But even if you ended up staying with LightDM there ought to still be a small Settings (gear) icon (in the lower right on GDM) where you choose your session. You ought to see Gnome in the list of possible sessions.

I don't see the log in screen because I have it set up to auto log me in at startup. It's a headless PC, so I want it to automatically log in and launch AnyDesk so that I can control it remotely. I guess I would have to disable auto log in and connect a monitor to it to see that selection you're referring to.