The Ubuntu Linux distribution is planning to become a rolling release distribution; this would make it simpler to upgrade as the user incrementally upgrades to the next version instead of having to constantly install new versions of Ubuntu as they are released. You can edit the /etc/apt/sources.lst in Ubuntu and change all instances of the name of the distribution to the next version; e.g from Karmic to Quantal and then run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to upgrade to the next release of the Ubuntu distribution. This does work, but sometimes it is better to just format and install the next release of Ubuntu from scratch. If you have /home on a separate partition; then all of your files will be kept in the transition and you just need to re-install all of your previously installed packages and you are done. I wish you could save a list of all your installed software somehow enabling you to re-install everything after the installation of the new Ubuntu release. A rolling release is interesting though; the Linux Mint Debian Edition distribution is a rolling release distro that I am using to type this. But this is an interesting idea that the Ubuntu team has come up with. We will have to see how this pans out in the long run.
Read more here: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/ubuntu-considers-huge-change-that-would-end-traditional-release-cycle/.
Are you wanting to copy the contents of the virtual console to a text file? Use this command to copy the contents of the virtual console easily.
PWD~. -bash.4.2.36. 1 ~$ sudo cat /dev/vcs2 >console.txt |
This is another command that will do the same thing. This way you can catch a screendump of the contents of the screen if you want to share something interesting.
Linux Mint Xfce Edition debian-mint tty2 debian-mint login: john Password: Last login: Wed Jan 23 22:25:59 EST 2013 on tty2 Linux debian-mint 3.2.0-3-486 #1 Thu Jun 28 08:08:24 UTC 2012 i686 The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. -bash: cd_func.sh: No such file or directory john@3.2.0-3-486. PWD~. -bash. 4.2.36. 1 ~$ sudo screendump > meout.txt |
This is a cool trick to use; since everything in Linux is a file and can be read and manipulated as such; this makes this trick very easy to do. This does not seem to work with an xterm but at least it works on the virtual console. You can see how useful this would be.