Ubuntu – What are some alternatives to upgrading without using the standard upgrade system

Well,

Firstly let me explain you what Upgrade means and what Fresh Install means.

UPGRADE -

Upgrade means your system will be updated to the newest resources,applications,libraries,Kernel versions and will have the latest Patches to various software BUT your data that was there in your /home folder will remain intact.

FRESH INSTALL-

Fresh install means your system will be updated to the newest resources,applications,libraries,Kernel versions and will have the latest Patches to various software BUT your data in /home will be completely lost because fresh install is nothing but installing a new OS.

Now,about your doubt about broken packages in upgrades,

This problem generally occurs when you upgrade online using the UPGRADE TOOL.

One way to avoid this is to burn an ISO immage on to a CD/USB making it bootable and then UPGRADING instead of INSTALLING FRESH

When you boot the CD/USB you have created and click on INSTALL on the first screen,next you will get a screen asking for -

1. REPLACE 11.10 WITH 12.04
2. UPGRADE 11.10 to 12.04
3. SOMETHINF ELSE

If you select the 2nd option,you will have the benefit of UPGRADING with very less risk of Broken Packages

Always remember to select to INSTALL 3rd PARTY SOFTWARE and UPDATE DURING INSTALLING when you start the install. This further reduces the risk of broken packages later.

I would recommend UPGRADE USING A LIVE CD over INTERNET UPGRADE or FRESH INSTALL

Needless to tell,backup all your data.

Hope the answer helps you.

I posted a bug report about this in Launchpad. I got the following answer from Dmitrijs Ledkovs (xnox):

It is correct, we do not support offline upgrades via ubiquity/desktop CDs. And even for servers, it is not recommended to use new server CD to do offline upgrade.

The support upgrade methods are with internet connectivity or a local mirror / package pool. One can for-example use tools like aptoncd to snapshot all installed packages, download them on a machine that has internet connectivity, bring them to the offline machine and upgrade it.

The reason behind this move, is enourmous amount of support cases of broken and partial upgrades since newer installation media will be missing manual additionally installed packages; packages that have now transitioned to new names; packages that have been removed from the default installation. Thus default install media for next release simply doesn't contain everything one will reasonably need to upgrade, hence the internet connectivity requirement.

So here the answer: even when using the Ubuntu installation disc, one cannot upgrade the a newer version of Ubuntu without Internet connection. Ubiquity needs to have an Internet connection in order to make the upgrade option selectable.

I understand the reasoning behind that. The installation disc cannot have all the repositories' packages. If a user has installed additionnal softwares after he installed Ubuntu -- and he certainly has --, then without an Internet connection, Ubiquity would fail to upgrade every packages, update dependancies, resolve missing dependancies, etc.

I'm a bit disappointed, though, as because if this limitation a user who wants/have to proceed with an offline upgrade will need to grab another media. He can't just use the same installation disc/USB key he usually lend his friends for them to install; he will need to grad extra packages.

I'm not familiar with APTonCD. I'll look deeper into this avenue later.