[SOLVED] Upgrading from 17.10

[Murdoc]

Ok, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I didn't realize that I had fallen that far behind in upgrading my system. I'm using 17.10, and want to upgrade. None of the package managers are letting me do that, which I assume is because it is EOL. So, aside from the old wipe-out-and-install-fresh technique, do I have any other options in doing this upgrade (my root and home folders are on separate partitions)? Also are there any issues I should look out for given the differences between the two versions? One thing I can think of is that my home partition is encrypted, so I hope that things haven't changed enough that the new version won't be able to access it. Should I be looking at upgrading to some other in-between version(s) first?

[Snowhog]

See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

[jglen490]

While it may be possible to upgrade from 17.10 to some Kubuntu version that is currently supported, any path you take will have quirks.

Download an .iso of the version you want to target; verify the .iso file, burn it to a thumb drive. The current 18.04LTS is good and still has some support time left. 20.04LTS comes out in late April, if you can stand an unsupported/unsecure version that long.

If you have the time (and try to take the time, to get it right the first time!), make an (offline, detachable drive) un-encrypted backup of your /home partition(s) and other data.

I don't do encryption, so I don't know if you will need to un-encrypt /home before starting the clean install, or how that works, or if you can just format that partition, restore the data from backup, and then re-apply encryption. Bring your system back online and do a clean install of the selected version. Test the encrypted /home partition, and if it works, you're golden. If it doesn't work, you have the un-encrypted backup that you can use to restore to /home. I don't do encryption, so I don't know if you will need to unecrypt /home before starting the clean install, or how that works, or if you can just format that partition, restore the data from backup, and then re-apply encryption.

That sounds like a long process, and it could be, but you may end up spending an inordinate amount of time trying to fix stuff on the back end, if something fails after taking shortcuts.

Personally, I am in the habit of using only LTS Kubuntu releases, and just doing clean installs. I hate cleaning up crap after an explosion of failure.

[Murdoc]

Thanks guys, that's just what I was looking for.