Upgrading from 20.10 - don't really know what I'm doing (to 22.04 LTS)

[gshockxcc]

I'm planning to upgrade from 20.10. I haven't ever put much effort into prepping because any machine I planned to use was just for tinkering. I'm really happy with the KDE interface, and I've learned a few sudo commands. Beyond that, I make a bootable flash drive, reboot, and hope everything works. I've messed around with the partitions, but I don't really understand them.

On this machine, I installed Kubuntu and tried to overwrite Ubuntu, and the installer kept trying to leave Ubuntu on 1/2 of the partition and Kubuntu on the other half. I still don't know how I got it to work, but I did. Occassionally, when I restart, I will get a boot up message that says, "Invalid Partition Table!". I have no idea what it means.

So, all that is to say, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I've messed around a bit. I have never been able to figure out how to find good installation instructions. Even with Ubuntu, to me, it seems like the instructions are written for people who already know a little bit about what their doing. Don't get me wrong, I know you can't spoon feed everyone. I am just looking for some guidance on how to teach myself.

How do I get started and do a proper upgrade? Do I need to figure out how I should partition the drive this time? If so, how do you decide what the partition sizes should be?

[jlittle]

First, back up your data, and document the applications you use and ideally all the settings of DE and applications you want to keep. Then, ideally, make another backup.

Then, IMO by far the easiest and quickest way forward for you is to wipe the machine and do a clean install of 22.04, using btrfs to simplify things, in that there's a small EFI System Partition and the rest one btrfs.

In theory it is possible using the archives to upgrade 20.10 to 21.04 to 21.10 to 22.04, but it will take a long time, 10 hours or so if all goes smoothly. A clean install will be less than 30 minutes, all going smoothly. Reinstalling the applications you use, restoring the data, and applying all the settings might take a while (the last time I did that I was still working at it, now and then, a month later), but the results will be much more solid, and you'll be able to make notes properly

[Schwarzer Kater]

As jlittle said.

If you don't know how to wipe/prepare your destination drive and use the whole drive for Kubuntu, one way would be to

• boot into a Kubuntu 22.04 live session ("Try Kubuntu") from USB
• start KDE Partition Manager from the application menu -> System
• on the left side select the destination drive you want to install Kubuntu 22.04 to (e.g. something like "Kingston SKCblablabla - 476,94 GiB (/dev/sda)")
• from the menu select "Device" -> "New partition table" -> GPT ( -> BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE SELECTED THE RIGHT DRIVE AND MADE A BACKUP OF ALL THE DATA FROM THIS DRIVE YOU WANT TO KEEP - EVERYTHING WILL BE GONE FROM THIS DRIVE AFTER THAT !!! )
• reboot your computer into Kubuntu 22.04 from USB
• choose "Install Kubuntu" and during the installation steps don't choose "Download updates while installating Kubuntu" (do the updates from the installed system afterwards to be on the safe side…) and choose "Guided - entire disk" for Installation type.

That should do it.

After this you can transfer your important stuff from your backup to the new Kubuntu 22.04, configure the system to your liking (I always select "start with a new session" in System Settings or put the window buttons to the top left of the windows for example) and e.g. get rid of Snaps if you don't want to use Firefox as a Snap (see this forum for instructions:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...-without-snapd
or instead use a script for this
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...408#post667408 ).

Have fun (and don't forget to upgrade your system to Kubuntu 24.04.1 when the time comes…)!

[claydoh]

In theory it is possible using the archives to upgrade 20.10 to 21.04 to 21.10 to 22.04,

Actually, I do not think this is possible. The upgrade tools cannot upgrade to a release that is also End of Life.
But in any case, I do agree the time, effort, and multiple potential places for errors and failures are not worth it. A new install is the best way to go.

The install process should not be complicated, unless you want to do something custom
I suggest going to the live session -- 'Try Kubuntu", and using the Partition Manager to delete all the partitions on your hard drive, , and start over.
I don't think you even need to have any partitions ('volumes' in windows-speak) created on the drive at all, but you can always just re-format and create one if you want . The installer will take care of all that.
In your case this might be useful, since the error you see is related to partitioning, so wiping it and starting from a clean slate is probably a good idea.
If you do create your own, format using GPT, and you can use whatever file system, it doesn't matter - ntfs, fat, ext4, as the installer will reformat as needed.

The process will eliminate it trying to dual boot, as well
The process will look like this;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR1ivVX6p7s

[kc1di]

I would recommend a fresh clean install also. (Back up any important files to off computer drive or cloud.

[gshockxcc]

Okay, lots of stupid questions here:

First, back up your data, and document the applications you use and ideally all the settings of DE and applications you want to keep. Then, ideally, make another backup

Is there a simple way to do this, like taking a snapshot of a configuration file(s). Or would you just make a list of all the Applications being used? DE? Development Environment? I played around with the XConfig file a long time ago when I was tinkering Xubuntu, but never developed any proficiency with making changes, saving, and re-loading the config.

Then, IMO by far the easiest and quickest way forward for you is to wipe the machine and do a clean install of 22.04, using btrfs to simplify things, in that there's a small EFI System Partition and the rest one btrfs.

I looked up btrfs, but I have no idea how to use it. Mostly, I have been copying all of my necessary files to an external hard drive as my backup method. It's slow and time consuming because the laptop is old, and there's a limit to data transfer on USB 2.0, but it has worked so far. I'm not averse to learning something new.

In theory it is possible using the archives to upgrade 20.10 to 21.04 to 21.10 to 22.04, but it will take a long time, 10 hours or so if all goes smoothly. A clean install will be less than 30 minutes, all going smoothly. Reinstalling the applications you use, restoring the data, and applying all the settings might take a while (the last time I did that I was still working at it, now and then, a month later), but the results will be much more solid, and you'll be able to make notes properly

I'm completely on board with that. I have already created my bootable flash drive using Etcher, and I'm just waiting on the rest of my files to finish copying. It's a lttle more than 50% complete.

[gshockxcc]

As jlittle said.

If you don't know how to wipe/prepare your destination drive and use the whole drive for Kubuntu, one way would be to

• boot into a Kubuntu 22.04 live session ("Try Kubuntu") from USB
• start KDE Partition Manager from the application menu -> System
• on the left side select the destination drive you want to install Kubuntu 22.04 to (e.g. something like "Kingston SKCblablabla - 476,94 GiB (/dev/sda)")
• from the menu select "Device" -> "New partition table" -> GPT ( -> BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE SELECTED THE RIGHT DRIVE AND MADE A BACKUP OF ALL THE DATA FROM THIS DRIVE YOU WANT TO KEEP - EVERYTHING WILL BE GONE FROM THIS DRIVE AFTER THAT !!! )
• reboot your computer into Kubuntu 22.04 from USB
• choose "Install Kubuntu" and during the installation steps don't choose "Download updates while installating Kubuntu" (do the updates from the installed system afterwards to be on the safe side…) and choose "Guided - entire disk" for Installation type.

That should do it.

This appears to be very nearly the same process I used when installing 20.10 the first time. Good to know that I managed to generally adhere to your recommendations. This is what I was planning to do this time around, unless someone gave me better instructions.

After this you can transfer your important stuff from your backup to the new Kubuntu 22.04, configure the system to your liking (I always select "start with a new session" in System Settings or put the window buttons to the top left of the windows for example) and e.g. get rid of Snaps if you don't want to use Firefox as a Snap (see this forum for instructions:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...-without-snapd
or instead use a script for this
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...408#post667408 ).

This is the part where I really have no experience. I have never made a backup, like most experts here are accustomed to. I don't really know where to start. Is there an application as part of my Kubuntu installation that I can use to create a backup, even if it's Ext4? I'm starting to do a little bit of research on btrfs, and it appears that there's a lot of variation from one kernel to the next, so it will take me some time to absorb all of this and figure out how to use it to create a backup. Once I have, I wouldn't know how to use it to restore my files and data.

Some info I found:
https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Getting_started
Let me know if there are better sources of information, or others that you would recommend.

Have fun (and don't forget to upgrade your system to Kubuntu 24.04.1 when the time comes…)!

Looking forward to that. I have tried both Ubuntu and Kubuntu, and I really like the KDE, so looking forward to the next upgrade (after this one).

Thanks for all of the help.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]
This is the part where I really have no experience. I have never made a backup, like most experts here are accustomed to. I don't really know where to start. Is there an application as part of my Kubuntu installation that I can use to create a backup, even if it's Ext4?
[…]

To keep it as much to the basics as possible for me (and I am assuming that you only have a single user on your system):


All the things you changed/added/modified compared to a vanilla installation of Kubuntu might be worth backing up.

a. The most important things to back up are those containing all the data you created yourself or that is personal to you - like the letter one wrote to the ex-wife, or the pictures of one's last holiday trip, or one's digital music collection.
Most of those can be simple files and folders you can easily drag and drop to an USB stick or an external drive (e.g. like the content of your "Videos" directory).

b. Then there are settings or data for programs like Firefox (e.g. your bookmarks) or Thunderbird (e.g. the eMails you downloaded from your internet provider's mail server). Some of those programs have the option to export (and import) those things individually.
Most of them are hidden files in your $HOME, but you could back them up by copying your whole /home/$USER directory to an USB stick or an external drive.

c. Then there are applications and settings for the system (including GUI) on a user level.
Most of them are also hidden files in your $HOME, but you could also back them up by copying your whole /home/$USER directory to an USB stick or an external drive.

d. And finally applications and settings for the system (including GUI) on a system wide level (to really, really simplify: everything outside of /home).
You could back them up (and therefore your whole system including all of the above) by using something like Clonezilla.


Oh - and as soon as you have ever copied a file you created to an USB stick, you have made a backup! So I bet you already have made a backup in your life, even if it has been a small and/or irregular one.


An easy possibility for you would probably be just to copy your whole /home/$USER directory to an external drive/stick, and a.-c. are covered.
Copying back a. will certainly be no big deal, but copying b.+c. back might be a bit more tricky, if necessary - but the forum will certainly be there to help.


PS: In Kubuntu 22.04 there will be an integrated backup tool for you - you can find and configure it in System Settings -> Backup.

PPS: Of course there are lots of backup programs one could use to automate things or make them easier - Timeshift, Déjà Dup, Kup (this is the one you will find in Kubuntu 22.04's System Settings), Back In Time (my preferred one for user data) or of course the CLI-tool rsync (just to name a few).
Differences in usage and purpose aside, all of them have in common that they can automate your backups.
Perhaps this is something worth looking into for you after you have managed the upgrade to Kubuntu 22.04.

[gshockxcc]

using btrfs to simplify things, in that there's a small EFI System Partition and the rest one btrfs.

Once I'm finished backing up, do I choose btrfs when I'm installing Kubuntu from the bootable USB? Is there any advantaged to playing a little and converting my file system to btrfs before I upgrade, just to see the differences?

Reading, but still not fully understanding...
https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Getting_started

Is this guide explaining how to create a backup in btrfs format? And/or is it explaining how to convert the file system to btrfs?

#clueless

Thanks in advance.

[oshunluvr]

As jlittle suggests, using BTRFS has numerous advantages like built-in snapshot and backup functionality. There's no "guide" needed if you're doing a fresh install other than to select "Manual Partitioning" and choosing BTRFS as the file system for the "/" mount point. There's also no need for a separate /home partition because the installer will automatically use a separate subvolumes for home in a single BTRFS file system. This allows you to easily make a backup of home without backing up root and vice versa.

I wouldn't bother converting the old partition before hand either. BTRFS is very simple and straight forward to use. The differences in day-to-day use are minor, the advantages if you choose to and learn how to use them are significant.

There are hundreds of BTRFS posts here on this forum and Arch (as always) has an excellect and up-to-date wiki here.

[claydoh]

I am going to step on a few 'neck beard' toes whiskers here, but btrfs may be a bit too nerdy for this situation perhaps, mostly because it lacks easy, user beginner-friendly support out of the box in *buntu.

There is no real way to convert. If you intend to experiment, then plan on, and expect to reinstall a number if times. On purpose even. Have data backups. Things like that.
btrfs is great, it is. BUT it WILL take a lot of hands-on work as Kubuntu, and its installer, is not geared towards new users making use of it, just yet.
Command line work is a strong need, though not mandatory.
What everyone is offering here WILL take manual work to do.

We long-timers keep forgetting this.

However, if you are willing to take some chances, it won't be difficult to do the basic stuff.
Format as BTRFS is no different than formatting as ext4, or ntfs, or whatever.
Your system runs exactly the same at this point.

Now, you can get your feet wet and install a program called Timeshift
This can be used to make and schedule system snapshots , and restore them.
Read the whole page, it should be mostly clear on what it does.
This should do what you want, for rolling the OS back if you have a problem.



Then if you feel comfortable and have a few miles under your belt, you can begin to get into the fancy command line and scripted snapshots, and remote storage, and all the industrial and enterprise level uses you might get out of the file system.

OR

forget about all that overly technical and mostly irrelevant btrfs information that is over almost everyone's heads, including many of us who use it.

OR

just use a normal easy install and not worry about it just yet.

[Schwarzer Kater]

I am going to step on a few 'neck beard' toes whiskers here, but btrfs may be a bit too nerdy for this situation perhaps, mostly because it lacks easy, user beginner-friendly support out of the box in *buntu.
[…]

Exactly what I was thinking…
Depends on how much time you are willing to invest and how much things you are willing to learn.

[claydoh]

Depends on how much time you are willing to invest and how much things you are willing to learn.

And then we dump a truckload of extras on top of that....

Freedom can be overwhelming sometimes.

[oshunluvr]

Claydoh, no "beards" stepped on here (goatee only so my whiskers are too short anyway), but clearly differing opinions...

IME, the file system chosen during installation is no different regardless of file system chosen. The only exception, as I pointed out, is the total LACK of need for a separate partition for /home. Most, even mildly experienced Linux users advocate for a separate /home partition even for (or maybe especially for) beginner users. Thus, choosing BTRFS over other file systems is potentially less complicated for a beginner. There are a few distros who default to BTRFS so it can't be that complicated.

Once the install is complete, the file system chosen is transparent to the user until one begins to look for more advanced use. Tuning an EXT4 file system properly requires knowledge (have you changed your reserved block allocation? I have.) and tools and learning about fstab options, etc. BTRFS is no worse or better than any other file system in this regard.

I honestly have no idea what you are referring to as "...beginner-friendly support out of the box..." I don't recall ever seeing any such support for any of the dozen or so file systems we can choose from at the initial installation level. Inserting "defaults" as the only mount option in fstab is not support.

As far as more advanced use of BTRFS, yes it will require some learning. Of course, one could simply stick their head in the sand and stay with EXT which is what, 40 years old? IMO and IME, BTRFS snapshots and backups are not "fancy" compared to installing an outside tool, learning how to use it, and managing the results. At a minimum they're equal, but if you balance installing, maintaining, and learning another piece of software vs. learning literally 3 command line entries BTRFS becomes MUCH simpler. Plus <insert amazing self-endorsement music and graphics here> you can learn to install and use <shameless plug coming> my Dolphin service menus and manage your BTRFS subvolumes without the command line.

Since it was brought up: Yes, you CAN actually convert EXT to BTRFS but it is no longer supported and advised against. I have done it several times in the past just to see if it worked (in non-production environments) and haven't encountered any issues. However, as the file system progressed there were a few reported cases of corruption and rather than try and maintain that functionality the BTRFS developers opted to just advise against it and stop supporting it. So yes - don't do it.


Finally, I totally agree with the last part of the comments. For any beginner: Forget about the minutia of the technical details and just install. Choose BTRFS if you like so you can reap the benefits later when you're ready to learn how to use them. If you never choose to do so, you'll be no worse off. But if you choose to do so, you have a plethora of benefits that EXT4 can never offer.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]There are a few distros who default to BTRFS so it can't be that complicated.
[…]

When I wrote my comment to agree with claydoh I thought exactly about that - but the difference is that at least openSUSE or Garuda ship a fully pre-configured snapper including several tools with their btrfs installation.

But you are also right: It doesn't matter that much for an average user if you choose ext4 or btrfs if you just do a standard installation and just use a GUI and a graphical backup tool afterwards.