Upgrading from Xubuntu 8.04 to 9.04

It's finally time to reinstall to dist-upgrade, which I haven't done in a year.
Burning the 9.04 CD: Instead of installing Brasero or another burner, I used the command wodim dev=$PATH-TO-DEVICE driveropts=burnfree -v -data $PATH-TO-ISO, so in my case wodim dev=/dev/scd0 driveropts=burnfree -v -data /home/me/Ubuntu\ Images/xubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso. Very easy and fast that way.

Using the 9.04 LiveCD installer: Very simple. One hiccup when automatic partitioning failed. I chose to reuse my existing partition *without* formatting it first, and (COOL!) my /home directory was untouched. All my preferences and saved fies were still there...as if they had been migrated. Networking and sound worked immediately from the default installation.

Enabling Medibuntu and debtorrent: Medibuntu is for non-free packages like skype. Debtorrent is a method of using torrents instead of mirrors to download. Both require changes to the /etc/apt/sources.list file. debtorrent instructions

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list~   # Backup the sources.list file
sudo mousepad /etc/apt/sources.list &                  # Open the sources.list file in an editing window

  ## In sources.list, append the following two lines at the bottom, then save (don't close it)
  ## Medibuntu
  deb debtorrent://localhost:9988/packages.medibuntu.org/ jaunty free non-free

sudo apt-get update
sudo sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring debtorrent apt-transport debtorrent

  ## In sources.list, substitute each occurrence of the string 'deb http://' prefix with 'deb debtorrent://localhost:9988/'
  ## Save and close the sources.list file.

sudo apt-get update

Bringing back my favorite apps: Using this table, it's pretty easy to figure out what to install and remove. Downloading all this stuff took about 40 minutes.

The droid fonts are nice, but not special.

Subject	Packages I Removed	Packages I Added	Install Notes
E-Mail	thunderbird	evolution spamassassin mail-notification-evolution	Evolution needed a couple restarts to start working properly
Scripting		bluefish d-feet curl devscripts
Fonts		msttcorefonts ttf-droid
Codecs		gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad libdvdcss2	Download-at-first-need for audio also works well.
Printing		cups-pdf
GPS		gpsd python-gps
Remote desktop	vinagre	openssh-server xtightvncviewer	xtightvncviewer required manual config: sudo update-alternatives --set vncviewer /usr/bin/xtightvncviewer
Network	transmission-gtk xchat	deluge skype
Office		openoffice.org openoffice.org-gtk
Other	bluez bluez-gnome bluez-cups gnome-pilot	wine simutrans powertop inkscape flashplugin-installer pmount	blues-gnome gets rid of bluetooth-applet pmount mounts usb drives as user instead of root
Non-Ubuntu		skype4pidgin	http://eion.robbmob.com/skype4pidgin.deb

Several launcher icons were missing - the launchers were still in the right place and fully functional, but the application (like bluefish) was gone. After reinstallation, most images came back automatically. A couple needed to be reassociated with the image by right-clicking on 'properties'.

Two important shortcuts were missing.

• The Home folder icon on the desktop was gone - fixed by right clicking on the desktop, then Desktop Settings -> Icons.
• The shortcut to my imadison script was missing from /bin. Easy to replace with sudo cp -l imadison.py /bin/imadison

The crontab was gone and had to be recreated.

The mail-notification icon couldn't find evolution (Bug 355209). The bug report has the simple workaround.