Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04 to Karmic Koala Alpha 6 failed ...

I wanted to try out the new Ubuntu Karmic Koala, destined to be Ubuntu 9.10 so I decided to upgrade my laptops Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) to Karmic Koala Alpha6.

Bad Idea.

The laptop has its /home directories encrypted and I think this is what is messing up the upgrade. So now I have an unusable laptop. Which is a bit sad, because it has our photos on it :-(

I am trying to figure out how to bring it back to life.

If I start is in a recovery session it boots the kernel(s) (2.6.28.-3-rt, 2.6.28-14 and 2.6.28-15) and (apparently) runs the /scripts/local-premount, /scripts/local-bottom and /scripts/init-bottom successfully (it replies "Done." "Done." to the two first scripts and just "Done." on the third). From there I can only press which briefly gives me the recovery console but after a few short seconds the system shuts down.

I tried installing Ubuntu Studio 9.04 on available space but included my old /home directory during the install (just putting it in /etc/fstab, not formatting the drive) so the files are still there, only they are encrypted.

When booting this partition I get to the login screen. I can login, but just get a black screen with the mouse pointer on it - the /home files are not accessible so Gnome does not know how to render the screen or setup panels, menus etc.

Next step is to install Ubuntu Studio 9.04 again without referring to the old /home. Then installing encryptfs to see if I can get access to the files. I will keep you posted.