For others with the same issue:
I have manually installed 3.5 as 3.3.1 said it was up to date and would not update from the Dashboard. I renamed my 3.3.1 ‘wordpress’ folder to ‘wordpress331’. I downloaded wordpress 3.5 and unzipped the ‘wordpress’ folder to the same directory as the former install resided (/usr/share/). From my old ‘wordpress’ folder, I copied the ‘wp-config.php’ link to the new ‘/usr/share/wordpress’ folder. I was then able to connect to the wordpress site through my browser as I did in the previously installed version. When I logged in, it ran an update to the database. I now have all of the Twenty Twelve Theme customization options available. I now see what all the excitement is about!
Thank you Jose!
P.S. Another symptom of the problem was ‘Insufficient Permission’ errors when trying to use Dashboard theme-changing options on the Dashboard/home page.
