update from CD

I would try going to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

But it doesn't say anything about upgrading Ubuntu by booting from the CD so you may have to boot into 8.10 and run the CD. Also, I recommend to always upgrade from the Upgrade Manager if you can.

Burn alternate CD and put it in drive.Ubuntu should recognize it and ask you for upgrade.If it doesn´t type in terminal

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

Maybe somebody else know how to do it with live CD.

Backup your entire /home folder. Please ask for help doing that separately before proceeding unless you already know how to do that.

Then use the LiveCd session of 9.04 and double-click on the installer icon in the top right-hand corner of the LiveCd's desktop.

You can trick the installer into not formatting your partitions at all (except for the swap which always gets formatted). Normally during an install the partitions get formatted and that wipes out all the information and everything that is already there. We need to avoid that this time.

When you get to the "Partitioning Section" choose the 3rd option, the one that shows your hard-drive as one single long tan/brown partition - "Manual Partitioning". It will take a scary long time to re-scan your hard-drives but will eventually show how the partitions on your drives are laid out. Now edit the Ubuntu partitions to have the right "Mount Points". A normal Ubuntu install only has 2 partitions; linux swap and ubuntu. Sometimes clever people manage to set-up a separate partition for all their data called the /home partition. For the main ubuntu partition set it's Mount Point to / as the / marks the beginning of the linux file-structure. Note that /home has a / at the front? So you can see that /home is in the linux file-structure but doesn't need to be on the same partition as the main part of ubuntu. Linux is very clever like that. So once you have set the Mount Points for the main programs and OS of ubuntu as / and perhaps the separate /home partion as /home if you have one then the main partitioning section should show a colum titled "Format?" remember that we need to avoid that happening because it wipes all the data on a partition? So make sure there are NO ticks in "Format?". When you press "Forwards" a warning box will pop-up to warn you about formatting but since all the partitions were UNticked that should be no problem right? Then when you get to the "Summary Section" please scroll right down to the bottom to check that only the linux-swap partition will get formatted. If there are any problems on this screen press the back button as many times as you need to redo whichever section. If you need to go back beyond the partitioning then you will need to re-work through that as it will not remember (unlike most sections).

I really wish some other helpers in here would try this out on a test install because i can't believe that i am STILL the only person in the entire world that seems to know this. What happens if i don't show up again?

Good luck with this!
Regard from
Tom :)

Hi again :)

It would help if before trying the install you could boot into your normal ubuntu and run this command and paste the results into here

sudo fdisk -l

where "-l" is a lower-case "-L"
It might show a different partition set-up from the 2 normal ones and we might need to work at that. Also if you want to create a separate /home partition to keep your data & settings safer in the future then we could set that up before doing the upgrade. Afterwards is too tricky for doing stuff like that without really rolling up your sleeves and getting right in under the bonnet, right into very technical and challenging stuff. Doing it through the installer is easy.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

If you have a wobbly internet connection for any reason, such as wireless, mobile, dial-up or anything that isn't a full unlimited broadband connection such as is fairly common in rich western countries among fairly well off or commited computer fans then either Steve or Zvacet's answer are obviously flawed. But for those of us that are wealthy or commited enough and also lucky enough to live in western europe or the USA then either of their answers is perfect, most of the time.

I suggested upgrade with alternate CD because that way you have option to upgrade off line.I think in both cases you have to get updates after install/upgrade.I could be wrong because I do my upgrades with alternate CD and I didn´t use live CD for some time.

Sorry zvacet, i thought the alternate needed you to be connected to do everything. I guess i should try it myself before making stupid judgements. Apols to Steve too.
Good luck and regards chaps from
Tom :)