Installing (x)Ubuntu on my dated Toshiba Satellite everything went smooth. Just after finishing the installation and getting the first package updates a strange Error with system-tools-backends occured.

Luckily this problem is already known and a Workaround to fix this problem exists.

Open up a terminal and type the following:

sudo invoke-rc.d system-tools-backends stop

sudo dpkg –configure -a

This resolved the error for me – thanks to Islevegan for his post on launchpad

Find a thorough description and how to resolve on launchpad

As the geek that I am it was too tempting to immediately upgrade to the latest version of my (current) beloved linux distro. I expected everything to run smoothly – which as reality showed me again – is often not the case. And yes – I should have known better

The Upgrade ran without problems, but after restarting my system – a black screen was greeting me. A bit of research using Links showed me that I am not the only one running into problems after the upgrade.

After tinkering around and wasting almost a whole night I managed to have KDM, X and my Desktop running again.

If you are running into similar problems – Kubuntu Ugrade to 8.10 – X Server doesn’t start – KDM not default Display Manager, please have a read of my post to the Ubuntu Forums where I summarized my efforts getting my X-Server and Desktop back.

Not such a pleasant start – but I am looking forward