Score:0

Upgrade problem with new Dell Mobile Precision Workstation 3570 CTO

pw flag

new to Dell, it arrived last Tuesday) I bought the subject laptop with Ubuntu 20.04 pre-installed. The blurb says 'supports Ubuntu 20.04'. Foolishly I assumed that as it supports 20.04 it would be upgradeable to 22.04. I went through the upgrade process 'do-release-upgrade' what appeared to be successfully, but the required restart only brought up a blank black screen just like the terminal window, but no login screen.It's gone from bad to worse since then, I tried to install from a boot sd card but the installation fails in the same place each time. I contacted Dell and they told me that the laptop hardware isn't compatible and that if I created a boot sd at 20.04 it would reinstall - it didn't - it failed in the same way.

All that blurb is just preamble to my question which is, has anyone successfully upgraded one of these laptops to 22.04 or do hardware limitations really limit software upgrades?

They also don't offer software support for Ubuntu so it seems I've got a very expensive paper weight!

TIA

cc flag
Maybe just a video problem, Nvidia... Did you try to boot in recovery mode? That might have worked and would then allow you to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers.
Homer_J avatar
pw flag
Thanks for a reply. It doesn't have the Nvidia graphics. I bought it for a lady friend who on initial start up, not knowing the importance of such a thing, didn't create a recovery disk. She does now!
waltinator avatar
it flag
Your long, rambling question has no helpful information. Please read https://askubuntu.com/help/how-to-ask and https://askubuntu.com/help/formatting . Take the [tour].
karel avatar
sa flag
The [Ubuntu minimal USB](https://askubuntu.com/a/689263/) is back from oblivion. Maybe it would work.
Homer_J avatar
pw flag
Waltinator, it wasn't a long rambling question. It was a preamble to a simple question: has anyone successfully upgraded one of these laptops to 22.04 or do hardware limitations really limit software upgrades?
Sadaharu Wakisaka avatar
pl flag
Welcome to AskUbuntu. The workstation has an external support company likewise a CAD/CAM software, etc. It shouldn't upgrade until the company recommend you to. If you are alone to use that machine, why not make a backup and upgrade it. You can go back anytime if you find something not right.
Nick Sillito avatar
de flag
Welcome Homer_J! Just reading Dell's spec, it says that the PC features an NVIDIA® T550, 4 GB GDDR6. I havent got one of these PCs or used an NVIDIA card for a long time. When I used to have one, it always caused issues and I needed to reinstall the driver after updating the kernel. I would see if you can use [nomodeset](https://askubuntu.com/questions/38780/how-do-i-set-nomodeset-after-ive-already-installed-ubuntu) which is a temporary solution where the CPU does the job of the graphics card (sort of). I would be amazaed if U22.04 doesnt work once you;ve sorted the NVIDIA card
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