The latest version of Ubuntu, 8.10 (also known as Intrepid Ibex), has been out for a few days now and I was waiting for the update manager to tell me the upgrade was available. When this didn’t happen I tried to find out why.

It turns out that version 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was what Ubuntu call a Long Term Support release which is why you often see 8.04 followed by the acronym LTS. For this reason, by default, Hardy Heron will not by default offer the new version as an upgrade in the update manager. This can be fixed of course and here’s how:

1. Go to the Software Sources item in the menus:

   System -> Administration -> Software Sources
   

2. Now select the Updates tab and change the option at the bottom called ‘Release upgrade’ from ‘Long term support releases only’ to ‘Normal releases’ and then accept the changes.
3. Now go back to the Update Manager in

   System -> Administration -> Update Manager

   and the option to upgrade will be present and you can upgrade as normal. Simple.

My web development environment usually consists of an Ubuntu machine set up with a LAMP stack using Apache virtual hosts and a simple DNS setup. I tend to use a .local extension to the domains to make them easy to access and to compare to their online counterparts. For example I use oneangrydwarf.local for the testing environment for this site.

The problem comes when I set this up on an Ubuntu Desktop installation (as opposed to an Ubuntu Server installation) which I prefer simply for ease of use. Unfortunately a program called Avahi stands in my way by hijacking the top-level domain and overriding the DNS records. Apparently Avahi is used for “service discovery on a local network” and is an integral part of Ubuntu Desktop (attempting to remove it also removes the desktop environment) but personally I don’t need it and it gets in my way. For anybody else having this problem here’s how to fix it, firstly temporarily (if you need Avahi normally but just want a quick fix) and secondly a more permanent solution.

1. Stop the Avahi daemon by typing

   sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon stop

   This will only solve the problem until the server is rebooted as the process is integral to Ubuntu Desktop. Attempting to uninstall Avahi will also uninstall the Ubuntu Desktop.

2. Tell Ubuntu to check the DNS server first by editing /etc/nsswitch.conf and changing the line that reads

   hosts:  files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

   to

   hosts: files dns mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] mdns4

   Now restart Avahi with the command

   sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon restart

   See Avahi and dot-local addresses on Ubuntu Gutsy from The Fifth Wheel of andrewg for more details.