[RESOLVED] i'm paranoid

[przxqgl]

i got the "your LTS version won't get any more updates in 137 days" message this morning, and it has an "Upgrade" button, which is something i don't think i've ever seen before...

is it really that easy? i use my computer for EVERYTHING (especially now that my antique mac won't talk to my cloud drive any longer, but that's another issue). it would be an EXTREME DIFFICULTY for me to be without a computer for more than a day or so. my experience, especially with buttons that say "Upgrade", leads me to be extremely cautious. the last time i upgraded, i had to have a physical person help me with multiple problems, and the time before that i was down for three days before i even /started/ to get things running again.

and, despite the problems i have had with upgrading linux, i have had several orders of magnitude WORSE times, trying to upgrade windoesn't, which is why i switched to linux in the first place...

basically, it what it says on the package... i'm paranoid that this upgrade won't go the way i need it to, and i'll be stuck without a computer... for that matter, i've got an almost identical desktop unit which is currently not being used, and i was thinking of installing jammy on that, and migrating, rather than upgrading. that way i can make sure it's running the way i need it to, before i get my email and business records stuck in limbo when the upgrade goes south.

i need some reassurance... is it really that easy? can i just hit the "Upgrade" button and have that be it?

[oshunluvr]

LOL. you won't know until you try - make a backup! I think you'll hear stories of mixed results from many people. I think by far most people have success, but I understand your hesitance.

I assume you're using Kubuntu 20.04. Just so you know, the Kubuntu part won't be updated any longer, but the Ubuntu core is still supported for two years. Basically, I think you'd be stuck with whatever upgrades/bug fixes KDE/Plasma 5 got up to the last day but your kernel and other non-KDE bits will still get updates.

When I came to Kubuntu circa 2009, the Distro Upgrade thing was very problematic. I think I had 2 bad results so I stopped doing that. I also stopped using non-LTS releases, except when I had to due to needing support for new hardware or so other large concern like the massive upgrade that occurred for BTRFS tools at some point (2010 or 11?). Up to 18.04 or so I hadn't tried upgrading my distro again, I migrated every time. Then I switched to KDEneon as my main OS so I figured why not try the Distro Upgrade on my now existing but unneeded Kubuntu 18.04 install. It upgraded like a champ - no issues at all.

So now there's a discussion to be had about the +/-s of doing it either way;

If you upgrade the distro, your "stuff" is all in place and settings remain, etc. but you miss out on the opportunity to "clean house." Also, if you're using legacy boot, you may have a difficult time with the newest release installation or at least you'll probably have to learn about UEFI. It's not too big of a deal tho, but worth thinking about. If you have a lot of added PPAs you will have some back side work to do to bring those back on-line.

If you are able to do a fresh install along side the existing install and dual boot, migration is much easier and safer, but there's not enough detail here to say if that's feasible or not.

Another detail that could be important is whether or not you use BTRFS. This is a classic use-case for using BTRFS in the first place. It's incredibly simple to dual boot when using BTRFS, plus you can make snapshots so a bad distro upgrade takes like 4 seconds to reverse. Even better, you can do both simultaneously - upgrade your distro while keeping the ability to boot back to your old install at any time. If you're not using BTRFS you could migrate to that but that might be a ton of work that you may not want to do.


Here's my take on your options:

1. If you don't want to trust doing a distro upgrade, don't upgrade yet. Let your distro age until 2024 and then do a fresh 24.04 LTS install. 22.04 will be a year old if you wait to the last minute to upgrade. Then you'll be doing it all again too soon. Just wait and then skip one release. The biggest downside with this option is once you're past the "deadline" to distro upgrade, that will not be possible later. You will be stuck migrating to a new install.

2. If you decide to go ahead and do a new install now - use BTRFS. The snapshot capability alone makes it worth it and you won't have to even learn to do more with it than that if you don't want. Then in a couple years you'll have a much easier decision. Backups are super easy too - no external tools needed.

3. Backup your data (or entire install if you have the ability) and go for it. Honestly, I'd be very surprised if you're left with an unusable computer. Worst case - if you have a backup - you end up doing a new install anyway and restoring your data from the backup.


In any case - for sure you should boot 22.04 on a USB and give it a spin. It might help you decide.

[przxqgl]

When I came to Kubuntu circa 2009, the Distro Upgrade thing was very problematic.

yes, indeed it was... which is part of the reason why i am paranoid now.

I assume you're using Kubuntu 20.04.

that is correct. sorry for not mentioning it previously.

Just so you know, the Kubuntu part won't be updated any longer, but the Ubuntu core is still supported for two years. Basically, I think you'd be stuck with whatever upgrades/bug fixes KDE/Plasma 5 got up to the last day but your kernel and other non-KDE bits will still get updates.

i did not know that... that was not the case when i "put off" upgrading, a few years ago...

1. If you don't want to trust doing a distro upgrade, don't upgrade yet. Let your distro age until 2024 and then do a fresh 24.04 LTS install. 22.04 will be a year old if you wait to the last minute to upgrade. Then you'll be doing it all again too soon. Just wait and then skip one release. The biggest downside with this option is once you're past the "deadline" to distro upgrade, that will not be possible later. You will be stuck migrating to a new install.

ooh, that sounds very much like something i did a few (as many as ten, i'm not exactly sure) years ago: basically, i skipped a distro upgrade because it had some things that i didn't like the sound of in a distro upgrade, and i decided to skip one, to see if they fixed it in the next one... which they did... but the process of upgrading was made that much more difficult, because i didn't have the interim upgrade, which meant that i didn't have... some important thing, or things, i don't remember... the lack of which caused major headaches.

because of the fact that you're recommending it, i'm going to assume that whatever it was that caused my headaches in the past, have been fixed... but, strangely enough, that is not enough motivation for me to think about trying it again. there's that old aphorism, "once bitten..."

If you are able to do a fresh install along side the existing install and dual boot, migration is much easier and safer, but there's not enough detail here to say if that's feasible or not.

2. If you decide to go ahead and do a new install now - use BTRFS. The snapshot capability alone makes it worth it and you won't have to even learn to do more with it than that if you don't want. Then in a couple years you'll have a much easier decision. Backups are super easy too - no external tools needed.

i have never heard of BTRFS, but if it's as easy as you say, i am definitely looking into it. i moved about 95% of my data to a QNAP personal cloud server, about a year ago, and, because of the fact that i'm not actually storing much data locally, i have huge amounts of local disk space that i wouldn't ordinarily have, which means, theoretically, i could also think about doing a dual-boot. these are both things that i haven't really thought about doing in the past, because of lack of reliable backups, and lack of disk space... but things are different now.

3. Backup your data (or entire install if you have the ability) and go for it. Honestly, I'd be very surprised if you're left with an unusable computer. Worst case - if you have a backup - you end up doing a new install anyway and restoring your data from the backup.

currently, the only backup i have is through "Back In Time"... and, because of the fact that i only vaguely know how it works, i have never done things like "restoring from a backup"... i just set it to back stuff up, and hope it never gets to the point where i actually need to use it.

In any case - for sure you should boot 22.04 on a USB and give it a spin. It might help you decide.

i think i remember how to burn an ISO onto a USB drive... that's another thing that basically didn't exist for long enough that, when it did start to exist, i hadn't been paying attention for long enough that i missed it.

[kc1di]

As always I have recommended backing up your most important files and documents to an off computer source. and doing a fresh new install of major upgrades. I prefer this method because even if the upgrade from one major release to another goes without a hitch. You still have vestiges of the old version hanging around your machine. With a fresh new install you get the newer version without those tidbits. Just works for me But the key is backing up every thing that is important to you. Good luck on whatever you choose.

[przxqgl]

okay, i'm typing this on a brand new, shiny, install of 22.04 jammy... i realised that, because of the fact that i already have 99% of my data on my (relatively new) NAS, i not only have A TON of disk space that i wouldn't have otherwise, but i ALSO have a 2TB SSD installed as a "secondary" disk, which is completely blank... which i didn't remember i had... so i installed there, and now i have a dual boot machine, to which i have been migrating all of my application settings.

i figure i'll keep 20.04 around for a while (some of my "desktop effects" don't appear to exist for jammy, and i'm having a little trouble with widgets and the task bar. ) until i get everything working exactly the way i want it... then i'll delete it and use that space for the NEXT LTS version.