- Never attempt to upgrade an Ubuntu distribution on the day of the new release
- If you do, don’t use your primary desktop machine
- Complex tasks that can trash a machine should not be performed after midnight
I only have myself to blame but still: I didn’t expect the upgrade manager to simply vanish midway through the procedure, leaving an unusable system. One thing that I have learned is not to panic. Provided /home is on a separate partition, you can always do a clean install from CD and restore your packages pretty quickly.
Not sure why I’m experiencing zen-like calm rather than seething rage – must be Friday.