Fresh install 14.10 to 16.10 ok?

[Murdoc]

Working on a system with 14.10 on it. I tried to do the normal upgrade route with Muon, but it conked out during the install files phase. Trying to fix it only got kicked out of KDE and now I can only boot to CLI. Startx doesn't work (says there's no server). Tried doing the upgrade again in CLI and that appears to have worked (reboot tells me I'm in 15.04), but still no kde/x. So now I'm thinking that my only option is to wipe the OS partition clean and install fresh.

My question is can I do this straight to 16.10? Home is on a separate partition and the drive is encrypted. If it makes any difference the system is dual boot with Windows 8 (which I have to use to access the forums right now). I just need to know that if I do this, will my home directory still be accessible? Or do I have any other options?

[GreyGeek]

Muon and Synaptic are OK, but nothing beats the speed and reliability of apt and/or apt-get. Also, you want to use systemd & systemctl as much as you can. You can install systemd-ui, systemd-gui and kde-coonfig-systemd. That will put a systemd GUI at the bottom of your System Settings panel. From it you can start, stop and re-start services, edit conf files, control loading sequences, etc...

AND, IMO, it is ALWAYS better to install a new release using the ISO (LiveUSB) than it is to do a version upgrade. Some people do a version upgrade without problems, but you've experienced reasons why a lot do not. The time you spent putzing around trying to fix that broken upgrade would be much less than if you downloaded and burned the new version to a USB stick and installed it.

[Murdoc]

Thanks for the tips. But I'm not experienced with doing it this way (I think I've done it once, years ago), so I'd still like some assurance that installing to 16.10 won't cause any problems, please. I wouldn't be so nervous except that the drive is encrypted, and I'm afraid a new install may not have access to it, since I have no idea how any of that works.

[claydoh]

Just to note, the version upgrader tool is not actually part of muon but is the same tool Ubuntu uses, just with a KDE ui. It is just a front-end to the command-line scripts that actually perform the tasks needed to upgrade.

As to your original question , no you cannot go directly from 14.10 to 16.10, Ubuntu does not support or provide a way to do so, except for LTS to LTS upgrades. So in your case, Greygeek is right - a clean install is the best way to go.

I personally prefer the gui tool for version upgrades in normal circumstances.

[claydoh]

Thanks for the tips. But I'm not experienced with doing it this way (I think I've done it once, years ago), so I'd still like some assurance that installing to 16.10 won't cause any problems, please. I wouldn't be so nervous except that the drive is encrypted, and I'm afraid a new install may not have access to it, since I have no idea how any of that works.

Is your entire hard drive encrtpted, or just your home (which is the option you have when you installed Kubuntu originally). If it ijust your home, you should be ok, just make sure you use the exact same use name and password you have now when installing the new OS. Make backups of your /home, of course, to be safe.
Do note that your desktop settings will revert to the defaults with the move from KDE 4 to Plasma 5.

if it is your entire hard drive, that I do not know.

[Murdoc]

Well I've done it before so it should be just the home directory then. But I'm confused by your post a bit. I get that I can't use the upgrade tool to skip versions (can't use it right now anyway), but if I do a clean install, can I just put in 16.10 or do I need to go through each step as well?

[GreyGeek]

If you want 16.10 then make a LiveUSB of it (Etcher works nicely) and boot into it. No need to install previous releases.


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[oshunluvr]

Look, no offence intended, but if you're unsure about installing/upgrading and the like, why the heck would you install 16.10 under any circumstances? It's supports end in 3 months. In fact, why install any .10 version? I believe starting this year, even the non-LTS .04 versions only get 9 months support.

Just a suggestion, but install 16.04 and wait a year for 18.04. I'm still using 14.04 on my server and have no intention on upgrading until summer 2018. But that's just me...

[GreyGeek]

And, to add to what Oshunluver said, the 16.04 LTS End-of-Life is April of 2021, FOUR YEARS from now. That's your best bet.

[Murdoc]

Look, no offence intended, but if you're unsure about installing/upgrading and the like, why the heck would you install 16.10 under any circumstances?

Because I'm not 'unsure' about installing/upgrading, my concern was about the encryption, because that is what I am unsure about. I don't know if perhaps the encryption scheme has changed somehow and perhaps skipping versions would make the new version unable to read the encrypted partition. I was just trying to be sure.

As for 16.10's support ending in 3 months, that doesn't concern me at all. If I'm just upgrading to (or installing clean) the next version, my previous concern doesn't apply.

[GreyGeek]

Well, if you have a good backup or two it and don't mind doing another install in three months it doesn't matter what encryption problems might arise, although I doubt any would.


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