[vox-tech] Linux 10.4 update problems

[Brian Lavender]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 12:53:39AM -0800, Jeff Newmiller wrote:
> Jason Snyder wrote:
> > I just upgraded to linux 10.4 from linux 9.10 and am having problems 
> > with running programs and looking at directories in the terminal.
> >
> > For instance the command ls should give me all the contents of the 
> > directory that I am in.  However, this is what I get when I enter ls:
> >
> > snyderjm at snyderjm-laptop:/$ ls
> > Command 'ls' is available in '/bin/ls'
> > The command could not be located because '/bin' is not included in the 
> > PATH environment variable.
> > ls: command not found

ugh. That is enough to give you grief, especially if you have a project
you are working on. I usually wait until the end of the semester (or 
quarter) to do an upgrade, for that specific reason. I seem to often do
wierd tweaks that will send an upgrade in odd directions. 

> >
> >
> > Can you please help me resolve this issue ASAP so that I can start 
> > working with programs that are on my desktop and also on my external 
> > hard drives from within the terminal?  These include many fortran 
> > based programs.
> >
> Looks to me like you have NOT upgraded to 10.4... that is, the upgrade 
> did not complete successfully.
> 
> Unfortunately, there are enough ways for an upgrade to break that this 
> may not be resolvable via the mailing list.  A clean OS reinstall is 
> often the simplest way to fix it (having /home on a separate filesystem 
> from / makes this relatively painless, but if you followed a default 
> install then you probably have a single filesystem).  You did back up 
> your data before upgrading, right? ;)

Or, in a pinch, use the Ubuntu USB thumb drive. When spell check didn't
work because I deleted the spell check program (later reinstalled it
when I figured out it was missing), I was able to boot from the Ubuntu
thumb drive, open my document on my hard drive, spell check it, and then
save it right back to my local hard drive, or copy it somewhere else.

brian
-- 
Brian Lavender
http://www.brie.com/brian/

"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to
show their absence!"

Professor Edsger Dijkstra
1972 Turing award recipient