2014-07-24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath Introduction
Contents
1. Backup Tool as superuser Backup or Restore Choose from the following options a Backup files Backup software selection Make a backup of your files Save the list of installed applications Restore files Restore software selection Restore a previous backup Restore previously installed applications WAbout Close Click on Restore files Backup Tool as superuser Restore files Please choose the type of backup to restore its location and a destination O Archive Directory Source C B250199F50196AFD Destination clem Advanced options Overwrite Checksum mismatch Close Back gt Forward If you backed up your data as an archive choose Archive otherwise choose Directory then point the source to either your archive or the location where you made the backup of your data Set your new home folder as the destination You can ignore the advanced options since your home folder is empty at the moment These settings are only there to optimize things for people running regular backups UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 9 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath Backup Tool as superuser Restore files Please review the information below Source imedia B250199F50196AFD Destination nome clem Description My home dir on April 19 2010 cose Back Jappy Review the information and press Apply when ready D3 2 Restore your software selec2. My home dir on April 19 2010 Output Preserve structure Overwnite Checksum mismatch Confirm integrity O Follow symlinks Preserve permissions Preserve timestamps 3 Close Back gt Forward 1 Select your home directory for the source 2 Select where you want to backup the files as your destination ideally some external volume since the plan is to format this partition during the installation 3 Inthe advanced options choose the following UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 5 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath 1 A description that s always a good idea to add to a backup 2 The output format whether you want to save the backup as a directory or an archive archives take longer but if you plan to backup to NTFS FAT volumes archives preserve permissions that cannot be preserved by directories on these Windows filesystems 3 Overwrite you can ignore this setting it only comes into play if you plan to update an already made backup 4 Confirm integrity slower but more reliable it checks the signature of each file after it was backed up 5 Preserve permissions and timestamps This should be selected 6 Follow symlinks Not needed Click Forward To save space and time exclude things you don t need For instance I don t need to backup my sandbox and Downloads directories but that s just me Most of the hidden files and directories can be ignored However if
3. for flags If the flags include Im it s a 64 bit CPU If the flags include pae it can handle gt 4GB RAM For details see unix stackexchange com questions 43539 what do the flags in proc cpuinfo mean 43540 43540 How to upgrade to a newer release according to the LM website tutorial edited A Introduction This tutorial explains how to upgrade to a newer release of Linux Mint UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 1 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath B General considerations B1 Do you need to upgrade If things are working fine and you re happy with your current system then you don t need to upgrade A new version of Linux Mint is released every 6 months It usually comes with new features and improvements but there s nothing wrong with sticking with the release you already have provided that it is still supported tafaet yet eeuld skip many eleases and stick withthe version that werks fer yett a Q a Q ava Q Q ava OD maan O Ano JUS CI u L Y UDUGU J UL U U L g J y CI C J J nO Q Q ADI Q V Release Supported Until LM13 LTS April 2017 LM16 July 2014 LM17 LTS April 2019 All other LM versions are no longer supported Support periods didn t apply to LMDE because it was a rolling release This is about to change The development team is also focused on the latest release If bug fixes and security updates are important to you you should re
4. of your previous software selection and which are not installed in the present system The packages which are already installed in your new system don t need to be installed again so they don t appear in this list NOTE Don t automatically install the listed packages It may be that the packages you were using have been replaced in the new application sometimes for a very good reason e g developer has abandoned At any moment you can press the Close button You don t have to install everything If you change your mind later on just launch the Backup tool again and restore your software selection using the same UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 11 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath backup the list will appear and show you the packages you re missing If you were using PPA or other repositories and if some of your previously installed packages are not found by the present system these packages will appear in the list but you won t be able to select them If that is the case update your APT sources using the Menu gt Administration gt Software Sources tool to add the missing repositories then click on the Refresh button in the Backup Tool Note The Refresh button refreshes the list not your APT cache If you update your etc apt sources list manually make sure to run apt update in the terminal E Frequently Asked Questions E1 Why doesn t Linux Mint upgrade the way Ubuntu does From o
5. this users do not need to upgrade to any newer release of course but the trade off is stability and pace It s easier to test a system when it s frozen With a moving base of packages each new change can potentially introduce problems with the other packages on a distribution featuring more than 30 000 packages it would take days to perform a full regression test after each package update Debian is a good example of this The stable branch is a frozen snapshot of the testing branch The testing branch itself isn t considered fully stable and it can take a while before some new packages appear into it Of course thanks to the nature of rolling distributions any regression introduced by a new package can be fixed a few days later Overall rolling distributions are quite stable as users are quick to report broken features and developers are quick to fix them problems happen and they get fixed UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 12 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath With a frozen base there s a lot of testing going on after which things are not likely to break This also gives the distribution 6 months between each releases where the developers don t need to worry about upgrades and can spend their time on development and innovation Most distributions available nowadays adopt a release cycle Notable exceptions include Debian excluding the Stable branch which isn t considered a rolling distribution A
6. you use Thunderbird and Firefox you DO need to include thunderbird it contains all your emails and account settings and mozilla it contains all your Firefox stuff e g bookmarks and remembered passwords When you re ready click Forward Backup Tool as superuser Backup files Please review the information below before starting the backup Source home clem Destination media B250199F50196AFD Description My home dir on April 19 2010 Compression Preserve structure Overwrite destination files Checksum mismatch Exclude home clem Downloads Exclude home clem sandbox close Back Apply Review the information about your backup and press Apply Note When the backup is finished Make absolutely sure to check the result yourself No matter how much trust you put in the backup tool head towards the destination and check that all your files and directories were backed up successfully If you chose to backup as an archive make sure to open it up to UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 6 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath see if it s working and whether or not it contains everything that it should The tool is stable but there can always be a bug or you could have made a mistake since we re talking about your data here make absolutely sure before anything else D1 3 Backup your software selection Open mintBackup from the Menu gt Administration gt Backup Tool Backup Tool as super
7. 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath Introduction This will be a hopefully successful practical demonstration These notes consist of an extension of the tutorial on the Linux Mint website with amendments and additional notes http community linuxmint com tutorial view 2 The User Manual is here http www linuxmint com documentation user guide Cinnamon english 17 0 pdf Note that this procedure will not be needed again until the next LTS release Intermediate releases will be numbered 17 1 17 2 to reflect the different maintenance improvement approach that Linux Mint has now adopted Possible starting finishing points e Single partition Default destroys ALL data on the machine e Separate home partition recommended e Side by side with old installation if enough room on hard drive Still advisable to do a backup http itsfoss com quide install linux mint 16 dual boot windows Methods e Fresh Clean install e Package Ubuntu type upgrade using APT not recommended by Clem see below advanced users only Physical options e LiveDVD or USB stick we ll use USB as my target machine can t read DVDs e Netbook laptop desktop assumed x86 e 32 or 64 bit The demonstration machine s CPU can only handle a 32 bit kernel How do I know uname m returned i686 for a 64 bit processor it would return x86_64 Alternatively cat proc cpuinfo produces a list including a line
8. e backup is finished it shouldn t take long go to the destination and check for a file which name starts with software_selection This is the backup of your software selection D2 Test and install the newer version of Linux Mint 1 2 3 Download the ISO for the newer version of Linux Mint Check its MD5 signature Burn it at low speed on a liveDVD We ll use UNetbootin and a USB stick On LM17 you can open the file manager right click on the ISO you want to use and select Make bootable USB stick but I don t know when this facility was introduced so we ll do it the old way Boot from the liveD VD and select the option Check disk integrity Boot from the liveDVD and select Start Linux Mint Once on the live desktop check that your hardware is properly recognized graphics card wireless etc LM15 and later need PAE Once you re happy and confident that this newer release is good for you click on Install on the desktop and proceed with a normal installation When asked by the installer choose Specify partitions manually advanced select the partition that you used for your current installation of Linux Mint assign to it and reformat it to ext4 UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 8 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath D3 Restore your data and your software selection D3 1Restore your data Open mintBackup from the Menu gt Administration gt Backup Tool
9. edit In my case it s all set to automatic D1 Make a backup of your existing system You need to save your personal data and your software selection Your personal data simply because you don t want to lose it and your software selection because post installation you don t want to have to UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 4 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath reinstall all the applications you ve added to your system D1 1 Get a recent version of mintBackup If you are running Linux Mint 9 or a later version you can skip this paragraph as mintBackup is part of the default installation BUT need to copy relevant configuration files from the root directory to home so they are also backed up or make a note of the settings they contain e g e etc cups for the printer e etc fstab for the static file system information I need this on my main machine because I have several hard drives and on my other machines because I m using NFS to share files between them e etc exports access control list for file systems that may be exported to NFS clients I m using NFS to share files between several machines D1 2 Backup your data Open mintBackup from the Menu gt Administration gt Backup Tool Click on Backup files Backup Tool as superuser Backup files Please select a source and a destination for your backup Source clem Destination B250199F50196AFD Advanced options Description
10. gularly upgrade to the latest releases otherwise there s nothing wrong with keeping things as they are As a general rule unless you need to or unless you really want to there s no reason for you to upgrade provided that your version is still supported B2 Important aspects The most important things when it comes to upgrading are 1 That your data is safe 2 That you end up with a fully functional system Your personal data is the most valuable thing in your computer If anything happens and you break your operating system it s not a problem it can be reinstalled If you lose your data that s a different story So No matter what way you re going to upgrade The first thing to do is to make a backup of your data You ll also want to make sure that the release you re upgrading to is right for you Every release comes with a different kernel This means that it handles hardware differently For instance you may find out that a graphic card or a wireless adapter which currently works fine for you under Linux Mint isn t recognized by the newer version of Linux Mint you re planning to upgrade to In some cases this could mean that upgrading to this release is the wrong decision maybe you re better off skipping that particular release There s only one way to know you need to try it Linux Mint now comes as a liveDVD Thanks to this you can try the newer release on your computer and see if your hardware is recognized before pr
11. oceeding to the upgrade To be safe UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 2 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath 1 Make a full backup of your data on an external device USB stick or CD DVD 2 Download and burn the iveDVD of the newer release and check that your hardware is fully functional with it C The different ways of upgrading There are many different ways of upgrading to a newer release but we can categorize them in two different families fresh and package upgrades C1 Fresh upgrades In a fresh upgrade you use the liveDVD of the new release to perform a new installation and to overwrite your existing partitions A Fresh upgrade consists of the following steps 1 Making a backup of the data 2 Making a backup of the software selection 3 Performing a fresh installation using the liveDVD of the new release 4 Restoring the data 5 Restoring the software selection This is the recommended way to upgrade Linux Mint and it offers the following advantages 1 Safe Your data is backed up externally Whatever mistake you make or whatever bug happens during the installation cannot affect it 2 Fast The installation usually lasts 10 minutes The DVD for the new release LM17 is 1 2 1 3GB Downloading the ISO and upgrading from the DVD is much faster than upgrading the system from the repositories 3 Reliable First you get the opportunity to test your hardware detection in the new
12. rch Linux Gentoo PCLinuxOS Sidux and Foresight Linux E3 How can I upgrade using APT This is something we do not recommend however if you re absolutely sure this is what you want to do then read this other tutorial UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 13 13
13. release using the liveDVD If anything is wrong you can simply decide not to upgrade it s not too late Second you end up with a fresh installation of Linux Mint i e a system that was fully tested by the development team and the community 4 Easy Things do go as planned this way C2 Package upgrades A package upgrade consists of the following steps 1 Pointing APT to the repositories of the newer release 2 Asking APT to perform a full upgrade APT is the package management system used by Linux Mint Alternatively some releases were given a graphical upgrade tool to perform these steps This way of upgrading Linux Mint should only be recommended to advanced users UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 3 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath Here are the pros and cons of upgrading the system this way Cons e Slow APT will download the new version of all the packages installed on your system Assuming you installed nothing at all that s about 3GB of data using a fresh upgrade you could have downloaded all that data by simply getting the ISO e Unreliable Depending on your modifications your sources your added software and your configuration you could end up with a system that acts and feels really different to a brand new version of the newer Linux Mint release You re far from the beaten track and the added features might not work as well on your system as they were designed to e Risky The
14. temptation when you upgrade with APT is not to perform backups since your partitions aren t overwritten nothing forces you to make backups think about the risk though e Complicated Packages conflict with each others they can bring complex dependencies and put you in situations that are difficult to solve Pros e Automated APT does everything for you well until something goes wrong of course e Real upgrade A fresh upgrade is kind of like the new Linux Mint with your data on it this in comparison feels more like your system running the newer version underneath D How to upgrade In this tutorial we ll use a fresh upgrade DO Gather information that you will need to re enter Certain information is held in the root directory not in home so it will not be backed up using the method described in the original tutorial and will be wiped by a fresh install Examples user name s and password s the name of the machine wireless key if you are using a wireless connection IP address and DNS servers if you re not using the auto settings This information is on your machine somewhere but where depends on the distribution in use Use the GUI tools and record what they tell you Menu gt Control Centre e Network Settings Click lock symbol enter password click connection click General tab record host name Click DNS tab and record details e Network Connections Click connection click
15. tion Open mintBackup from the Menu gt Administration gt Backup Tool Backup Tool as superuser Backup or Restore Choose from the following options E Backup files Backup software selection Make a backup of your files Save the list of installed applications Restore files Restore software selection Restore a previous backup Restore previously installed applications WAbout Close Click on Restore software selection UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 10 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath Backup Tool as superuser Restore software selection Please select a saved software selection Software selection B software_selection_pluto 201 Kaose lt Back Eorward Select your backed up software selection file and press Forward Backup Tool as superuser Restore software selection Select the packages you want to install m gwibber gp Select all Open source social networking client for GNOME inkscape Deselect all vector based drawing program Refresh _ close Back V Apply In the next screen you can see a list of packages Select the ones you want to install and press Apply This list only contains packages which were part
16. ur point of view Ubuntu does three things wrong It doesn t make it easy for you to backup your data nor does it warn you to do so It automatically asks you to upgrade to the latest version You click on the upgrade button and there s no turning back No explanation about the risks involved no explanation about the pros and cons just a simple button to click for a process you likely don t understand It uses a package upgrade method See section C2 for pros and cons associated with this method The only advantage Ubuntu offers is that it makes the process trivial and fully automated Though considering the risks and the way it upgrades your system this should be considered dangerous We do not even recommend this on the command line so to have it triggered from the click of a button is just not acceptable to us It s easy alright but it s not the right solution Sometimes things are important enough for us to take the time to do them properly When it comes to upgrading it s important to backup your data to test the release before installing it and to avoid any broken or conflicting packages The method chosen by Ubuntu is fully graphical and extremely easy to use but it fails to do just that and that s what matters the most E2 Wouldn t it be better if Mint was a rolling distribution Yes and no A rolling distribution is a distribution which doesn t jump from release to release packages are continuously updated Thanks to
17. user Backup or Restore Choose from the following options Backup files Backup software selection Make a backup of your files Save the list of installed applications Restore files Restore software selection Restore a previous backup Restore previously installed applications Wabout Close Click on Backup software selection Backup Tool as superuser Backup software selection Please choose a destination Destination E B250199F50196AFD Ww Close Back gt Eorward Choose a destination ideally some external volume since the plan is to format this partition during the installation UpgradetoLM17 odt Edited 2014 07 12 Page 7 13 2014 07 24 Upgrading to Linux Mint 17 U3A in Bath Backup Tool as superuser Backup software selection The list below shows the packages you added to Linux Mint wi minitube at da Select all Youtube client murrine themes themes for gtk2 murrine engine Deselect all wi nautilus sendto empathy GNOME multi protocol chat and call client nautilus sendto plugin wi netcat openbsd a TCP IP swiss army knife Close Back ef Apply The following screen shows you all the packages you added to your Linux Mint system Select the ones you want to exclude from your backup and click Apply Note When th
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