Comment 11 for bug 1066294

Bug #1066294 was marked expired on 28Dec2012 but is still present in Feb 2013 so has not been actioned and needs re-opening.
Before any upgrading software makes changes it needs to test that the hardware meets its requirements (no CPU PAE bit in this case) and if not show the problem in plain language and stop the upgrade.
Ubuntu 12.10 needs CPU PAE bit and Win8 will only run on processors which support PAE and NX and SSE2. So Ubuntu is going down the Windows slippery path encouraging usable PCs (even those with decent performance and those with up to 4 GB RAM) to be junked.
Ubuntu must continue to be better than Windows so should adapt to non-PAE PCs without having to be selective about kernels or worry if an upgrade will break after the upgrade.

Narrative: Xubuntu 12.04 was upgraded to 12.10. The new upgrade ran but we soon got broken package dependencies problems that could not be fixed (e.g. as suggested by the right honourable jsalisbury in Bug #1066294 above) and this led to the discovery that the CPU PAE bit was needed for 12.10.

Affects Xubuntu 12.10, Lubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.10 and Peppermint 4 upgrade paths.