SOLVED - Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

[frenchian]

I have Kubuntu 11.04 at the moment. I know that 11.10 is imminent, and want to move to it. My question is, do I upgrade my existing installation via KPackageKit, or do I download an ISO image and go for a clean install? I've heard both approaches have benefits.

I guess that my installation is fairly straightforward - I have a separate /home partition, but I have (A) tailored many of the settings and (B) have added several packages, both big (eg Chrome/Chromium) and small (eg "rootactions" in Dolphin).

/home is backed up on an external HDD, by the way.

All advise welcome.

Thanks

[SteveRiley]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I've made so many tweaks (which, of course, I failed to document) that at this point I'm planning to trust apt-get dist-upgrade perhaps a week after release. But I'll back up first, of course.

[wanderingarcticfox]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I am still new in Kubuntu but have a few years with Ubuntu. I always back-up then sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade; then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade in that order and it has always work out just fine.

I too wait a week or so to do this just so things are not as busy but that was due to the limitations of my old system.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I always back-up then sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade; then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade in that order and it has always work out just fine.

Lately I've begun omitting the second apt-get upgrade step and instead going directly to apt-get dist-upgrade even when upgrading packages in current releases. This avoids the occasional "will be held back" messages and potential inadvertent breakage/uninstalls that I've noticed on occasion.

[vinnywright]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I allwayse do this one ....every day rain or shine

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

or for a package

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install packag1 package2

however this will not get you upgraded to the next release ......(11.04 to 11.10)

that would be different command or just tick off release upgrades in your package manager

VINNY

[SteveRiley]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I allwayse do this one ....every day rain or shine

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Too funny. My morning routine includes exactly the same step

[herophuong]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

May

I have Kubuntu 11.04 at the moment. I know that 11.10 is imminent, and want to move to it. My question is, do I upgrade my existing installation via KPackageKit, or do I download an ISO image and go for a clean install? I've heard both approaches have benefits.

I guess that my installation is fairly straightforward - I have a separate /home partition, but I have (A) tailored many of the settings and (B) have added several packages, both big (eg Chrome/Chromium) and small (eg "rootactions" in Dolphin).

/home is backed up on an external HDD, by the way.

All advise welcome.

Thanks

May be you should install a clean kubuntu (with the old separated /home partition) to avoid packages conflicting others. After that, you can install other applications which you installed in your old kubuntu. Because you use the old /home partition, all the settings is still lying there and you almost lose nothing.

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

Thanks, gents (and/or ladies)

Seems like the favourite is to upgrade, rather than re-install. This suits me, as (like stevereilly), I'm not sure of all the changes I've made.

Cheers

[The Liquidator]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

You could choose a 3rd option which is to download the alternate cd and then use that as the upgrade source. The benefit of doing this is that if the upgrade goes pear-shaped you can do a clean 11.10 install, rather than having to go right back to square one

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I would upgrade to Oneiric . then download the minimal CD (only 25 MB) as a backup if the upgraded version goes bonkers. I don't use the LiveCD since every time I install I later remove programs/packages I don't need or want, and I don't want to keep doing that again and again for every upgrade.

[wanderingarcticfox]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

Lately I've begun omitting the second apt-get upgrade step and instead going directly to apt-get dist-upgrade even when upgrading packages in current releases. This avoids the occasional "will be held back" messages and potential inadvertent breakage/uninstalls that I've noticed on occasion.

Thanks for that bit of information; I like learning in this Forum.

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

You could choose a 3rd option which is to download the alternate cd and then use that as the upgrade source. The benefit of doing this is that if the upgrade goes pear-shaped you can do a clean 11.10 install, rather than having to go right back to square one

If I understand correctly, I could use a similar command to "apt-get dist-upgrade" but which accessed the alternate CD, rather than the usual repositories? The idea being that if this didn't work, I could still use "apt-get dist-upgrade" (or KPackageKit) and the repositories?

Interesting.

I'm not sure I have the knowledge to take this approach.

Cheers

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I would upgrade to Oneiric . then download the minimal CD (only 25 MB) as a backup if the upgraded version goes bonkers. I don't use the LiveCD since every time I install I later remove programs/packages I don't need or want, and I don't want to keep doing that again and again for every upgrade.

That's a good idea.

However, I've used Clonezilla to take an image of /root and /home (latest was this morning) and restoring them works perfectly (forced to do it yesterday....). I think I'll plan on this as my fallback if the upgrade goes pear-shaped - revert to 11.04, then wait for a week or so and try again.

Thanks

[The Liquidator]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

You could choose a 3rd option which is to download the alternate cd and then use that as the upgrade source. The benefit of doing this is that if the upgrade goes pear-shaped you can do a clean 11.10 install, rather than having to go right back to square one

If I understand correctly, I could use a similar command to "apt-get dist-upgrade" but which accessed the alternate CD, rather than the usual repositories? The idea being that if this didn't work, I could still use "apt-get dist-upgrade" (or KPackageKit) and the repositories?

Interesting.

I'm not sure I have the knowledge to take this approach.

Cheers

It's actually surprisingly simple. You download the alternate CD (as opposed to the "desktop" one )and burn it to a cd as normal.

With the Cd in the drive, hit alt+F2 and in the box type

kdesudo "sh /media/cdrom/cdromupgrade"

The upgrade will take place and upgrades for installed packages not on the CD will be downloaded as part of the process.

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

That simple? I should be able to manage it.

I think I might do it this way.

Cheers