Upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04 … (one way or another)

Ubuntu spring update has arrived, this year coinciding with Easter. As soon I had time I proceeded with upgrading my two computers. The upgrade process has not been as smooth as I'd liked but at the end I managed to have both computer up-to-date.

 

Acer Veriton S661

I started the upgrade process on my desktop computer and, after answering the usual initial “agree” and “confirm”, I left the computer unattended for the long file download part of the upgrade process. When I returned the computer had the screen locked and I couldn't manage to unlock it anymore. After many attempts I decided for the most drastic solution: forcing the computer to restart. The result has been the most drastic too: the computer refused to boot.

I've been so forced to download a Ubuntu disk image and proceed with a full installation. The installation procedure recognized, fortunately, the incomplete Ubuntu set-up and offered a “Reinstall Ubuntu 14.04” option. Re-installation from disk proceeded flawlessly and eventually I got my system mostly restored apart from some custom system files which have been overwritten.

Must be said that, since, I'm not new to similar problems, I have my home folder mounted on a separate partition. So, even if I need to format the boot disk, I have no fear for my data.

EEEPC 900

After the experience of upgrading the desktop computer I disabled the screen-lock on the EEEPC before starting the upgrade application. The upgrade process proceeded without any problems.
The EEEPC works fine with the new Ubuntu-Gnome release but it shows some odd error message during boot I never noticed before:
Sometimes, just after GRUB menu, it gives a worrying message about a malformed file, in addition it shows this message later during the boot process.

[drm:i915_stolen_to_physical] *ERROR* conflict detected with stolen region: [0x7f800000 – 0x80000000]

I'll check soon on the 'net for possible causes of these problems but I could also decide for a fresh install of the whole system.

Troubles trying to install Deepin Desktop Environment

I have been positively impressed after my latest test of Deepin Linux, especially of its desktop environment (Deepin DE). I so decided to try to install, separately, Deepin DE on my desktop computer.

The beginning

Instructions I found around the 'net, here, there and other similar pages, are roughly all the same: add Deepin sources to “/etc/apt/sources.list” file

deb http://packages.linuxdeepin.com/deepin raring main non-free universe
deb-src http://packages.linuxdeepin.com/deepin raring main non-free universe

Then I imported GPG key for such sources

wget http://packages.linuxdeepin.com/deepin/project/deepin-keyring.gpg
gpg --import deepin-keyring.gpg
sudo gpg --export --armor 209088E7 | sudo apt-key add -

at last I launched the apt-get command as usual

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install dde-meta-core.

Things start going wrong …

Just after the installation process ended nothing happened, I logged out but I didn't find the option to log back with Deepin desktop. I continued working and, after some time, I got a incomplete update error message from Ubuntu update software. The error message suggested to “Upgrade” the distribution. At this point the system was completely wrecked: I rebooted and I got a system who identified itself, using the lsb_release command, as “Deepin Linux”. Unity was barely working while Gnome shell didn't start at all. Looking on the 'net I then discovered Deepin desktop uses its own patched versions of fundamental software like Compiz so installing it on an existing system is definitively a risky business.