upgrade from ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10 failed miserably

Hi!
I tried using the upgrade option found in update-manager to upgrade from ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10. After waiting half a day, I let tool execute over night on my dell laptop precision m6400. In the morning, I discovered that the upgrade encountered several problems; most catastrophic was some Cache limit need to be increased. Needless to say the upgrade failed. It tried to revert back to 11.04; unfortunately that failed horribly also. Not being a linux/ubuntu expert, I gave an re-installed 11.04 from my cd, then, I upgraded to 11.10. This seems to have worked; however, I occasionally lose the ability to control the pointer from my touch pad. I subsequently was able to move the pointer using the small joystick between the g and h keys, but I was not able to use any buttons to select anything. Logging out and logging in seemed to restore the pointer. I rebooted though to be safe.

Good luck! Have a good day!