I upgraded from Kubuntu 20.04 to 24.04 after previously having trouble with an older upgrade. I backed up my personal data and also created a full boot-drive image, but the upgrade still left me with several confusing problems.
During the process I saw prompts about moving applications such as Thunderbird to Snap, and the system requested a restart while the upgrade still appeared to be running. GIMP was removed, SMPlayer stopped opening video and audio files with mpv-related errors, and Firefox seemed to be removed even though its launcher remained in my favorites. Firefox also created or started using a different profile directory after synchronization, leaving several profiles and making my backup point at the wrong location.
Thunderbird now takes an extremely long time to send and receive mail, sometimes nearly half an hour, and I am unsure how to determine whether the problem is the network, the mail server, or the application itself.
I also run Lubuntu in a virtual machine. Firefox now opens at an inconvenient size, and resizing windows is difficult because the borders and corners are so narrow that it can take many seconds to grab them. Is there a way to make window borders and scrollbars wider, or to configure applications to open at a particular size and position?
I prefer privacy and would rather repair the system than reinstall everything, but I am open to starting over if that is the safest option. What should I troubleshoot first, and what is the correct way to perform upgrades between supported releases?
5 Answers
The Lubuntu window behavior is usually controlled by the window manager and the virtual machine's desktop environment, not Firefox. Look in the window-manager settings for border width, resize handles, focus behavior, and saved window rules. You can often use Alt plus the right mouse button, or a keyboard window-resize shortcut, when the border is too narrow. Firefox's startup size can also be affected by its last saved geometry, extensions, or desktop session settings. Scrollbar width is generally a theme or toolkit setting, so changing the desktop theme or GTK settings may help, although individual applications can ignore the system value.
SMPlayer is a front end, while mpv is one of the playback engines it can use. An mpv error usually points to the selected backend, missing codecs, permissions, or a broken package rather than SMPlayer itself. Check SMPlayer's preferences to see which executable it is configured to use, confirm that mpv is installed, and test the same file directly with another player. Also check the terminal output when launching SMPlayer; the exact error is much more useful than saying that an MKV or MP4 failed. Reinstalling both packages from the same package source is preferable to mixing package and Snap versions without checking their configuration paths.
Thunderbird taking 29 minutes is not normal, but changing mail providers will not automatically fix it. First determine whether the delay is during connection, authentication, downloading headers, or sending. Test the network independently, check whether webmail is also slow, and look at Thunderbird's account and server settings. Large folders, synchronization, antivirus scanning, an overloaded mail server, or a timeout can all cause this. Thunderbird's troubleshooting or connection logs can reveal whether it is waiting on DNS, TLS, authentication, or the server.
This is several separate problems, and the first thing to establish is whether the upgrade was performed according to the supported release-upgrade procedure. The commands update and upgrade only update packages within the current release; they do not perform a normal distribution upgrade. A release upgrade should be done while the starting release is still supported, using the documented upgrader, and ideally after waiting for the first point release of the target version. Since 20.04 and some older desktop releases are now out of support, repairing the resulting system may take more effort than reinstalling a current release.
For the application issues, check whether packages were removed during the upgrade and reinstall them from the package manager. GIMP and Firefox being absent does not necessarily mean their data is gone. A leftover launcher can remain in the desktop menu or favorites even after the package is removed. Firefox may also have separate profiles because the Snap and traditional package use different data locations. Use Firefox's profile manager and verify which profile and directory are active before changing your backup configuration. Do not repeatedly copy profiles while Firefox is running, because it can overwrite or recreate files.
I removed the traditional Firefox package and installed the Snap version, which explains some of the profile confusion. Firefox starts copying data back into its own default location whenever it launches, so I need to identify the active profile before moving anything else.
I did have backups of my data and a full image of the boot drive. The older update-and-upgrade mistake happened around version 18; this time I updated, upgraded, rebooted, and then used dist-upgrade before reaching 24.04. I was not warned about any problems.