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**claydoh** · Aug 15, 2019, 01:04 PM

Mint KDE is quite literally a mildly modified Kubuntu, so it will be very familiar

LTS releases are supported officially for three years, though the non-KDE stuff in the Ubuntu base will be supported for 5. kernel and security patches and the like still happen, but not for KDE for the most part.
After three years, you can upgrade, or clean install the next LTS, whichever you choose. There is a year's overlap with 20.04 LTS before 18.04 becomes EOL, so you don't have to migrate to 20.04 immediately.

You can use the partitioning you have, that is fine. I think you will have to choose the advance install option and set sda3 as '/' (and set to be formatted as ext4) and sda6 as swap (don't need to have this formatted but it doesn't hurt)
Other than that, the install should be very familiar, if you remember how the install went with Mint.

**AnthonyL** · Aug 15, 2019, 02:14 PM

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

Mint KDE is quite literally a mildly modified Kubuntu, so it will be very familiar

LTS releases are supported officially for three years, though the non-KDE stuff in the Ubuntu base will be supported for 5. kernel and security patches and the like still happen, but not for KDE for the most part.
After three years, you can upgrade, or clean install the next LTS, whichever you choose. There is a year's overlap with 20.04 LTS before 18.04 becomes EOL, so you don't have to migrate to 20.04 immediately.

I want to avoid clean installs as it seems stuff gets lost in the process. I've tired of having to get everything over from one version of Windows to another which is part of the driver for moving to Linux. I'm hoping to say goodbye as far as I can to m$oft. Unfortunately I'm stuck with a couple of Windows only speciality applications.

You can use the partitioning you have, that is fine. I think you will have to choose the advance install option and set sda3 as '/' (and set to be formatted as ext4) and sda6 as swap (don't need to have this formatted but it doesn't hurt)
Other than that, the install should be very familiar, if you remember how the install went with Mint.

I don't remember what I did this afternoon let alone two years ago.

I think I've understood that. If I allow the automatic process to commence it wants to ADD Kubuntu and do some resizing. So I assume by formatting the existing partitions the Mint is removed and Kubuntu then use that space?

Some additional questions before I bite the bullet:

i) I'm quite partial to Sudoku, and am using gnome-sudoku as my preferred install. Presumably no problem in adding this?
ii) I have quite a few Knotes - how do I keep these?

I have taken a copy of /home onto an external drive. Is the data there somewhere? How can it be put back into the new install?

Most of my data is on the Shared Volume so all of that should be safe, hopefully.

**jglen490** · Aug 15, 2019, 03:07 PM

I agree with claydoh that a clean install is the best way to ensure that your Mint truly becomes Kubuntu. Yes, they are almost the same, but not 100%, so it would take a while to track down the differences in tools, configurations, and even kernels to make a transition complete.

I am assuming that you don't have a separate /home partition - as is the "norm" with Mint, so that causes a complication, and your ms-dos based partitioning won't make it easy to make a separate /home partition. So job # 1 is to backup whatever your have/want to keep in /home. Job #2 is to backup your other data wherever it is - just is case.

Start your Kubuntu installer and choose the Minimal Install and "Something else" install options. When you get to the partitioning screen, choose your current Mint / partition (/dev/sda3 ?), leave the size alone, make sure it's marked as ext4, and select the Format box. Leave all the other partitions alone, and make sure the location to install boot files at the bottom of the screen is correct. Then proceed on with the rest of the install.

The Minimal Install feature will not install all the apps that would normally be installed, but will leave you with Firefox and a couple of other GUI apps (I don't remember them all). When the installation is complete, reload your backed up Linux data to /home, and then start installing the apps you want via Muon/apt/Synaptic or even Discover. Make sure if you use an email client that is picks up your old mailbox info (if you had an email client under Mint), and the rest of the software installs should just overwrite any <.config files> you restored from your backup.

If all went well, you should boot straight into Kubuntu and rock on with your dual boot.

If you have questions, please ask first. And also make sure you have a good backup fo your Mint data files (and Windows data files for good measure) before starting.

And, oh yeah, did I say have a good backup before you start?

**claydoh** · Aug 15, 2019, 03:31 PM

Lol, I don't think I favor reinstalls - I seldom ever do them, tbh, but many folks do as there is the change that things could go boom

Though I have not seen that in ages, myself. Sometime before 2013, I think.

The installer unfortunately won't see that existing Linux partition and offer to install there - I could be wrong, though. So as jglen40 shows, you will have to do some manual steps. It is not hard.
Here is slightly older how-to, with good images that fits in with jglen's steps:
http://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2017/05/ho...untu-1704.html
it will look the same, and you will do the same steps, just skip the preparations steps as you already have partitions. use sda3 in step 5.

**AnthonyL** · Aug 15, 2019, 03:37 PM

Originally posted by jglen490 View Post

I agree with claydoh that a clean install is the best way to ensure that your Mint truly becomes Kubuntu. Yes, they are almost the same, but not 100%, so it would take a while to track down the differences in tools, configurations, and even kernels to make a transition complete.

I think something has got lost in translation. My comment was about avoiding future clean installs, that is I want to have a system that I can confidently expect to update and that's why I hope my choice of Kubuntu LTS is a good one

I am assuming that you don't have a separate /home partition - as is the "norm" with Mint, so that causes a complication, and your ms-dos based partitioning won't make it easy to make a separate /home partition. So job # 1 is to backup whatever your have/want to keep in /home. Job #2 is to backup your other data wherever it is - just is case.

No, should I with Kubuntu? If so, how? I currently just have a /home folder which I have simply Dolphin copied to an external drive.

My Windows, and Shared Partition, are backed up.

Thanks for your tip on minimum install. Will that help with getting my Knotes back or do I laboriously copy/paste each one into a document?

**claydoh** · Aug 15, 2019, 04:56 PM

if you copy your entire /home dir over to the new install, all your data and settings will be restored. I don't think there will be any config file compatibility between whatever Plasma version was in Mint's KDE and Kubuntu.

However, that may be using a hammer to swat a fly if you are not too worried about having all the settings restored. However, it might be simpler

As to where the notes are stored (assuming you are talking about the desktop sticky notes widget thingies?
Info on this is stored in files in the folder /home/<username>/.local/share/plasma_notes/
And desktop widget info i(including the notes) is at /home/<username>/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

A bit complex, to be sure, but not terrible if that is all you want.
Of course, you can ask, and we can help find

**claydoh** · Aug 15, 2019, 05:30 PM

if you copy your entire /home dir over to the new install, all your data and settings will be restored. I don't think there will be any config file compatibility between whatever Plasma version was in Mint's KDE and Kubuntu.

However, that may be using a hammer to swat a fly if you are not too worried about having all the settings restored. However, it might be simpler

As to where the notes are stored (assuming you are talking about the desktop sticky notes widget thingies?
Info on this is stored in files in the folder /home/<username>/.local/share/plasma_notes/
And desktop widget info i(including the notes) is at /home/<username>/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

A bit complex, to be sure, but not terrible if that is all you want.
Of course, you can ask, and we can help find

**AnthonyL** · Aug 16, 2019, 04:27 AM

Just in case it helps anyone else the actual Knotes themselves on Mint KDE are in:
/home/al/.local/share/notes/new
and each note being a separate file with a name in the form:
1565944651.R729.<user>
and is described by Dolphin as an Email Message but is readily viewable in a text editor eg Kate

I have no idea how the rest of the notes system ties in but at least I have a copy to try and restore in the first instance.

**AnthonyL** · Aug 16, 2019, 06:58 AM

**** no efi system partition was found ****

So I'm half way through the install, manual when it came to drives and chose to format sda3 below after copying off various files I thought might be useful.
There was no option to format the swap partition.
There seems no option to create an efi partition and the system was dual booting fine before, ie I got a selection of partitions to boot from including KDE and Windows - shouldn't these remain the same?

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 24578047 24576000 11.7G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 24578048 625139711 600561664 286.4G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 625139712 1211076607 585936896 279.4G 83 Linux <============ formatted as Ext4
/dev/sda4 1211076608 1953523711 742447104 354G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1252040704 1953523711 701483008 334.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 1211078656 1252040703 40962048 19.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Remained unchanged. Option to review after formatting wasn't presented.

**claydoh** · Aug 16, 2019, 07:25 AM

I don't think your Windows is using efi, as you don't look to have the EFI partition already. The installer would use the existing one.

My guess is you have a hybrid bios that can boot both to the legacy MBR as well as uefi.

I don't know if is safe to install in efi I mode with Windows using an mbr, so sticking with mbr is the safe option here.
You might have to dig up documentation to see how to boot the USB stick in legacy/mbr mode. The USB can be used in either type of system.

I had an old laptop that was a hybrid, I would get two entries for the USB installer in the system's boot device selection menu Hotkey

I think creating a DVD installer from the is will boot in legacy mode if that is an option.

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

**AnthonyL** · Aug 16, 2019, 07:30 AM

Probably, at the moment I'm stuck on:

Predictably:

The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot.
Installer crashed

Note I get TPM error (HP Elitebook)

Error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found.
Entering rescue mode …

Grub rescue> ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos6) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0m,msdos3) (hd0m,msdos2) (hd0m,msdos1)

Not touching anything now

I've got a gparted dvd but have little idea how to use it properly.

**jglen490** · Aug 16, 2019, 10:45 AM

Originally posted by AnthonyL View Post

**** no efi system partition was found ****

So I'm half way through the install, manual when it came to drives and chose to format sda3 below after copying off various files I thought might be useful.
There was no option to format the swap partition.
There seems no option to create an efi partition and the system was dual booting fine before, ie I got a selection of partitions to boot from including KDE and Windows - shouldn't these remain the same?

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 24578047 24576000 11.7G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 24578048 625139711 600561664 286.4G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 625139712 1211076607 585936896 279.4G 83 Linux <============ formatted as Ext4
/dev/sda4 1211076608 1953523711 742447104 354G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1252040704 1953523711 701483008 334.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 1211078656 1252040703 40962048 19.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Remained unchanged. Option to review after formatting wasn't presented.

In my experience after selecting the "Something else" option has been that you are allowed to change or leave alone as many partitions as you want. You highlight the partition, then select the "Change" button which brings up a popup dialog box that allows the user to change any parameters for that partition. So, for instance, with /dev/sda3 - highlight the line with that partition, select the "change" button, click on the check box next to the word "Format", make sure everything else is correct/change the incorrect entries, then click the button in the doalog box to exit and save your changes. From there, you select another partition, if you want to change it. If you are done with the partitions, then you can check the drop down menu near the bottom of the screen that is used to select the location for boot files. With an ms-dos style partitioning scheme, that would generally be the MBR of a bootable partition, but not necessarily (I see that /dev/sda2 is indicated as having the boot flag set), so you would select in the drop down what is shown as having the boot flag already set.

Generally, ms-dos style partitioning does not use an efi setup - it can but it's a pain in the ***. You partition listing does not indicate a separate ESP, which would normally be formatted as fat 32 in a standalone partition fo anywhere from 50MB to 500MB. Nothing like that shows in your listing as something separate.

I hope this info will help you fix your current problem - probably with a re-run at the install procedure.

**AnthonyL** · Aug 16, 2019, 11:13 AM

[QUOTE=jglen490;429791 I see that /dev/sda2 is indicated as having the boot flag set), so you would select in the drop down what is shown as having the boot flag already set.
[/QUOTE]

I missed the significance of that * on sda2 which is the Win7 partitioin (sda1 having ended up as the Windows Recovery). I don't recall having any confusions when I first added Mint KDE to the Win7 installation. I've just re-installed Mint and despite having just about identical install instructions it boots up but a df -h does not show anything other than sda3.

Not an enjoyable process. Might have to try Win7 repair and see if I can go forward from there but not happy with what Kubuntu has done.

**jglen490** · Aug 16, 2019, 01:12 PM

I wish I could have helped you more, but I don't do dual boot and I'd hate to completely screw up your Windows installation. Kubuntu by itself, is an easy install (my PC uses UEFI and the installed OS has an ESP) and has never failed to be an easy install - except when I screw something up, but I've gotten most of that out of way

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