Score:0

Can't Update to New Version of Ubuntu

cn flag
Tim

I've been running my head into this wall for about a week now, any help would be appreciated. I'm trying to rescue this old ubuntu machine that I have, but I'm not making much progress. Let me fill you in on what I've tried.

Years ago I had tried wiping the OS by installing Fedora from an ISO that I put on a CD, but I didn't know what I was doing and somehow managed to get the computer into a state where it was saying that there was no OS when I went to boot up the machine. Recently I came back to my computer in this state. I tried to continue with the Fedora installation but apparently I still don't know what I'm doing and couldn't complete the installation correctly. But when I tried rebooting to the hard drive, the computer booted up my old Ubuntu OS which I thought was gone. I was able to sign in and take the files I wanted off the machine before I messed with things any more because at this point I don't care if I'm starting from a blank slate. I tried using the Update Manager to fix things but the first thing I see when I opened it is this:
"Your Ubuntu release is not supported anymore" - "You will not get any further security fixes or critical updates. Please Upgrade to a later version of Ubuntu Linux." with the option "Close". When I click "close" it then shows this:

Not all updates can be installed


so I did "Partial Upgrade" however when I did this it was complaining about not having authentication. I figured this is probably because the OS isn't supported anymore. I found a way to add a file to bypass this authentication (I'm desperate to get things fixed). That got me past that obstacle but then I get this:

could not download the upgrades
and when you scroll to the right it says:

404 not found
I'm guessing this has something to do with the whole "release is not supported" issue, but I don't know what to do. In the Update Manager, I see that there's a section that says "New Ubuntu release '14.04.6 LTS' is available" and when I click "Upgrade", it looks like it downloads two packages real quick before doing... nothing. When I try going online it says:
"Secure Connection Failed" - "An error occurred during a connection to mail.google.com. Cannot communicate securely with peer: no common encryption algorithm(s). (Error code: ssl_error_no_cypher_overlap)"
whenever I try accessing a site with HTTPS. I know these are some separate issues. I'm just painting a picture here about the state of things.

I had enough of all of this and decided to install lubuntu-18.04.5-desktop-i386 from a USB memory stick. I used rufus-3.16.exe on my Windows machine to setup the ISO on the USB stick. Here's my Rufus settings:

Rufus settings
Now, maybe this next detail is the issue, but I don't suspect that it is. Apparently I have no USB sticks that are large enough to contain the ISO file. So I found a micro SD card that's large enough. I had to put the micro SD card into a micro SD to SD card adapter, and then put that into a SD card to USB adapter. Then I was able to get Rufus to setup the USB stick correctly. I got the Ubuntu machine to see the USB stick and it shows the lubuntu install screen. When I try to install it, I get kernel panic messages such as these:

kernel panic
I tried updating Initramfs on my machine before attempting this again and it seemed like it attempted to update. I'm not sure that it did.
Today I found my way to this menu:

repair broken packages
and attempted to "repair broken packages" and saw this mess:

failed to update
which looks a lot like what the Update Manager was doing so I think I'm just running in circles at this point. Here's some info from my Disk Utility:

disk utility

You can see the hard drive, it's partitions, a USB stick that I used to get the screenshots from the Ubuntu machine to my Windows machine, and the 10+ yr old Fedora CD. *-cpu

  • description: CPU
  • product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
  • vendor: Intel Corp.
  • physical id: 4
  • bus info: cpu@0
  • version: 15.2.7
  • slot: WMT478/NWD
  • size: 2400MHz
  • capacity: 3060MHz
  • width: 32 bits
  • clock: 133MHz
  • capabilities: boot fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe up pebs bts cid xtpr
  • configuration: id=0

I hope this is enough information to help with at least what my next steps should be.

guiverc avatar
cn flag
You mention Ubuntu 14.04 (or the 2014-April release) which is long EOL (https://fridge.ubuntu.com/2019/05/02/ubuntu-14-04-trusty-tahr-reached-end-of-life-on-april-25-2019-esm-available/); you also mention Lubuntu 18.04 LTS which itself is EOL (https://lubuntu.me/bionic-eol/) so is your machine x86/i386 or 32-bit only? You've provided no architecture or machine details as to why? (*the machine I'm typing this on is from 2009 & runs jammy*)
guiverc avatar
cn flag
Only supported releases of Ubuntu (*standard or public support*) are on-topic for this site. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is EOL (*end-of-life*) thus off-topic, and Ubuntu 14.04 ESM is in *extended* support and supported by Canonical via Ubuntu Advantage thus also off-topic here. Refer https://askubuntu.com/help/on-topic https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades
cn flag
Tim
Yes, 32-bit only. I don't see any other 32-bit OS updates. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. I don't know how to look up my OS specs on this machine. I'm sorry. I haven't used it in such a long time. About 10+ years
cn flag
Tim
I'd love to update to a supported release. I don't know how to do this or if there is a supported release for 32 bit hardware
guiverc avatar
cn flag
Try looking at the cpu using list-hardware (ie. `sudo lshw -c cpu`) as servers started being 64-bit in 1999, desktops a few years after that, though laptops were still 32-bit up to ~2005; with low-priced netbooks a few years after that) meaning 32-bit is very old or cheap hardware. Also don't forget they usually sold 32-bit windows on 64-bit hardware as it was $5 cheaper; consumers understanding $5 more than the 32 vs 64 bits.
guiverc avatar
cn flag
Please add additional details to your question & not reply via comment (comments get deleted as they become numerous - meaning details disappear & you're asked the same questions again). Yeah pentium 4 = x86 or *i386* in Debian/Ubuntu terms. Lubuntu 18.04 LTS (or 18.04 *flavors*) was the last supported; they're EOL though parts of the OS is still receiving fixes. I'll provide https://discourse.lubuntu.me/t/lubuntu-18-04-lts-end-of-life-30-april-2021/2466 where I talk a bit about 18.04, support (inc. `ubuntu-support-status` & alternatives..). You can't update your current OS as it's too old
cn flag
Tim
sorry about that. I've updated my post with the hardware specs. I'll see if I can update to that version following the instructions you've linked to. Thank you
us flag
What is the output of `lscpu | grep "CPU op-mode(s):"`?
Score:0
ng flag

You will need to sign up for ESM in order to install a 32-bit Ubuntu release with a x86 Pentium 4 CPU since all 32-bit versions are now outside of community support.

Unfortunately, ESM releases do not receive community support, including here on Ask Ubuntu. For this device, you might want to look for another Linux distribution outside of Ubuntu if you want community support and/or don't want to use ESM.

As 32-bit only hardware is quite old now, fewer and fewer operating systems are supporting it, including Ubuntu. Debian still has 32-bit releases and is similar to Ubuntu, since Ubuntu is actually based on Debian.

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