The uphill climb to Kubuntu 10.04

I spent a lot of this weekend attempting to update Kubuntu 9.10 to 10.04. I say "attempting" because after several tries, it still refuses to work.

Try number one ended abruptly, with the upgrade telling me that I needed more free space on / and then not-quite restoring Kubuntu 9.10. The broken system would boot but not let me sign in -- X complained that it could not write to /tmp.

I re-installed Kubuntu 9.10 (a two-hour process by itself) and then re-attempted the update. This time the update told me I needed more free space on /usr. (OK, this failure was my fault. When I installed 9.10 I set up the partitions incorrectly.)

So I re-re-installed Kubuntu 9.10 and then attempted the update. This try worked better, in that it allowed the update, downloaded all of the files, and ran all of the installs. But in the end, Kubuntu 10.04 is broken. It boots and lets me sign on. It then gives me a wallpaper (and a pretty wallpaper it is) and nothing else. No menu, no icons, no desktop folder. Nada. The only way to log out is with the power switch.

It looks like I have two choices here: install Kubuntu 9.10 and never upgrade, or get a Kubuntu 10.04 install CD and install that (without using the upgrade).

Or perhaps I should consider another distro. Debian comes to mind, as this machine is really a server and does not need half the applications that Kubuntu installs.