Upgrade or new install ?

[GregM]

Last time I tried to do a system upgrade (I think it was 12.04 to 14.04) it was a total disaster. I had to start over with a fresh install and I lost everything.
Has system upgrading gotten any better since then?

I am reading that 20.04 LTS has been released and I would like to move to that platform, but the question is, how to do it?

Thanks

[Snowhog]

Well, the answer(s) depend on many factors, not the least of which is 'What version are you on now?'

[jglen490]

I can't tell you what you should do, but I will tell my approach.

My routine for the past three LTS upgrades has been a clean install of the OS, using a partitioning method that keeps / and /home on two separate partitions - and on this latest try on two separate drives. In general this involves backing up /home, and I back up everything including the "." folders and files. When I was reusing the drives, I formatted the /partition, and selected but did NOT format /home. Then I did the install using the "something" else (now called "manual") installation method so I could selectively format. The end result is an upgrade to the OS and applications, along with preservation of data and configs.

I did try 20.04, but for reasons not connected to the suitability or performance of 20.04, I needed to drop back to 18.04.4. I am looking forward to 20.04.1 in July, and will perfrom a clean install using the process described above.

[GregM]

I am currently on 18.04

[jlittle]

Firstly, what release are you on now?

If you prefer LTS releases, and are on 18.04, the standard recommendation is to wait until the .1 release, in about July. IIRC Kubuntu will wait until then before suggesting the release upgrade to you.

If you are on 19.10, you should release upgrade, or fresh install, before July, when 19.10 goes end-of-life.

As to which, the opinion of KFN posters ranges from both extremes. On one hand, there are those that swear by the fresh install, and on the other there are those that always release upgrade, and have done so for many years. Definitely upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04 was not good, but 16.04 to 18.04 was ok.

IMO it depends on how much work a fresh install will need to get it to the state you want. I release-upgraded from 19.10 to 20.04 with only a little trouble, but the process made me realize how much cruft had accumulated, and that I'd lost track of where things were and why. So I did a fresh install of 20.04, and resolved to document everything I set up and installed to get it up to speed. Now, a month later, I'm still not finished; every day of that month I've encountered more settings to be changed or software to install. I regret it now, though my Kubuntu is much cleaner and I have notes for almost everything. I will be reluctant to do a fresh install again, unless I'm forced to.

Anyway, to move to 20.04, first make good backups. Then, in a konsole,

sudo do-release-upgrade

It takes hours, depending on the speed of the hardware and how much software is installed. (After downloading the iso, I can do a fresh install in 10 minutes or so, with another few minutes to do updates.)

[GregM]

What takes a lot of time on a fresh install is getting all the settings the way I had them set previously.
All the desktop behavior settings, the work space theme and so on.
Wish there was just a file or subdirectory I could copy over to the new h-drive.

[Don B. Cilly]

But if you copy your old /home to the new system, you'll get all your settings.
Even for stuff you haven't (re)installed yet.

[EDIT] See this post too.

[EDIT 2] Just in the interest of general knowledge...
The reason you have to use cp -rf ./.[^.]* to copy hidden files/directories is that in linux/shell notation, the current directory is called ".", and the one above it, ".."
And hidden files/directories begin with a dot (.)
So if you just cp (copy) -rf (recursively and without asking for confirmation on over-writes) ./.* (anything beginning with a dot in the current directory), it will also copy the whole of the current directory and the one above it.

[GregM]

Wow
I'll have to do that.
What a time saver!

Thank you!

[oldgeek]

I used my btrfs @home backup on an external hard disk after doing a clean install of 20.04. The installation didn't take all that long (I use a regular HD, not an SSD) and transferring the backup @home to replace the new @home went smoothly. I only had to re-install a couple of things, and everything works OK. This is the second time I've done this successfully; the first time was when I went from 18.04 to 19.10. I don't know what disadvantages this method could have.

[jlittle]

I use a regular HD, not an SSD

I wonder why. Smallish, 240 GB, ones are not expensive these days. But maybe you use a laptop, with space for only one drive.

... transferring the backup @home to replace the new @home ... I don't know what disadvantages this method could have.

• There may be compatibility issues. When KDE changes its major version, this can be worse, but in those cases a new install can be the best anyway. I seem to recall these issues were worse for me in the past, say 10 years ago.
• You can lose software that runs fine for you that's no longer supported, or has gone through a major version change or fork and the new supported version doesn't work for you. Often these problems can be solved by tracking down old packages, or finding the source, but it can be a lot of effort, possibly with no result.
• In the long run your home directory accumulates junk in hidden files or directories. Caches can be a big offender; a version of some software uses a different caching strategy or puts it somewhere else and the poor user has little idea what's junk or not.

[mr_raider]

If you have heavily modified your OS, especially with PPAs and other thrid party repos, the in place upgrade may break something.

I suggest making a backup and trying the in place upgrade in July. If it fails, just wipe and re-install. I don't like re-installing on my main PC, since I have to re download several gigs of games each time. But it's once every two years.

[GregM]

I got 20.04 installed and that went pretty quick.
Then I copied "home" to a usb hard drive from my current 18.04 computer.
The 20.04 computer says it can't mount that usb hard drive so I'm stuck.

Is there a terminal command that will auto-mount any usb drive I plug in?

G

[jlittle]

I suggest making a backup and trying the in place upgrade in July. If it fails, just wipe and re-install...

The OP says it's in a btrfs, so while I'd still recommend a backup, a snapshot before the upgrade means the upgrade can be reversed out in seconds (assuming enough space). I always do that, and set up grub so that I can boot into both before and after the upgrade. (I booted into the pre-upgrade snapshot of 19.10 yesterday, to check something out.)

[mick.kde]

There are smarter heads on this thread than me but I'll share my simple and unproblematic experience. I backed up the data on my /home partition (including the Firefox bookmarks), made a list of the programs installed and then did a clean install, reformatting both the /root and /home partitions. I copied my data back to my /home partition, installed programs, and made a few configuration changes like for dual monitors, cursor, wallpaper, etc. The entire process took about two hours and I didn't have any problems. Over the next few days, I would come across something that would need to be changed or adjusted but these were usually minor and took a minute or so. It was one of the easiest installations I've ever experienced.

mick

[Don B. Cilly]

Then I copied "home" to a usb hard drive from my current 18.04 computer.

I'm a bit confused here. How were you going to "upgrade" on a separate computer?

The 20.04 computer says it can't mount that usb hard drive so I'm stuck.

Just how does it "say" it?
Does it see (recognise) the drive?
Does it show under "Removable devices" in Dolphin?
Does lsusb show it?

Is there a terminal command that will auto-mount any usb drive I plug in?

There are, but Kubuntu should ask you to mount it when you plug it in. Pop up a message in the tray.

Also note that it's better to copy to the non-running system from the old one, or if it is a physically separate machine, do it from the "live" medium - or you'll run into "lock" problems.