SOLVED - Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

[ronw]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I haven't seen

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

mentioned in this thread. FWIW, upgraded from 11.04 last night. Literally the only problem is the knotes icon being blank in the system tray (but I do not use any of the other kdepim stuff). KDE and the Kubuntu team do amazing work.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

My personal choice is to back up my important data and do a fresh install of a new release. Then restore the data I want to keep on the new install.

IMO, there are far fewer problems with a fresh install than an dist-upgrade. The downside is that there is a lot of work to do installing ones favorite apps, porting over the data to the new db install, carrying over email from the old install, the email address book, and the FireFox book marks, etc.....

But, I only work in an LTS, and the intermediate releases I test as a guest OS, so I don't have to do this very often.

[Snowhog]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I too, prefer to do a fresh installation, which is why I configure for double- or triple-booting on my laptops.

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

IMO, there are far fewer problems with a fresh install than an dist-upgrade. The downside is that there is a lot of work to do installing ones favorite apps, porting over the data to the new db install, carrying over email from the old install, the email address book, and the FireFox book marks, etc.....

Ay, there's the rub.

Suppose (may be a silly idea)...

Given I'm going to retain /home (all my personal stuff), if I used the "Save/Read Markings" feature of Synaptics to re-install all the missing applications, I think that all I'd be short of is bookmarks and local e-mail folders. Which I can back-up and restore manually.

Or am I missing something?

Cheers

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I don't think that will work. The new release will be against a different repository that probably has filenames that can be different. Older files may have been dropped in the new release. Newer files may be required which are not in the old release, etc....

It's a good recovery tool for a specific installation with user changes but not for crossing version boundaries.

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

I don't think that will work. The new release will be against a different repository that probably has filenames that can be different. Older files may have been dropped in the new release. Newer files may be required which are not in the old release, etc....

It's a good recovery tool for a specific installation with user changes but not for crossing version boundaries.

OK, I understand.

Is there any way to identify the applications that I've manually added, ie, the ones that won't come in the CD? I can list the obvious (big) ones, but I'm thinking of the small bits (additional this, extra function that) that I've stumbled upon over the months?

Cheers

[Guest]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

hey guys im fairly new to kubuntu i just installed the latest release but through wubi...i really enjoy it so i want to permanently install it but still keep windows with which i used to boot wubi also could you pls guide me ow to increase hdd partition for kubuntu...and can the method be eas or atleast understandable for someone wo cant code in sudo....or linux whichever name....

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

....
Is there any way to identify the applications that I've manually added, ie, the ones that won't come in the CD? I can list the obvious (big) ones, but I'm thinking of the small bits (additional this, extra function that) that I've stumbled upon over the months?

Here is an article, written in 2006, that explains how to do what you want. Be sure to read ALL of the responses to it because they add significant corrections and variations. Check to be sure that your version of Kubuntu has "dselect" installed. If not, install it from the repository.

The principal command is:

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > installed-files.txt

You can edit the txt file to eliminate the packages you are no longer interested in.

Once you’ve got your (new) Kubuntu installation up and running, copy your kubuntu-files.txt back into your home directory and do the following:

  
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
dpkg –set-selections < kubuntu-files.txt

If you are reinstalling or recovering an installation you should have backed up your /etc/apt/sources.list file as well to make sure you have your repository re-established as well.

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

GreyGeek, thankyou for that - it's what I was hoping to find.

I've already got the sources.list copied, so I reckon I'm all set.

Thanks for everybody's help

[frenchian]

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 - upgrade or clean install?

....
Is there any way to identify the applications that I've manually added, ie, the ones that won't come in the CD? I can list the obvious (big) ones, but I'm thinking of the small bits (additional this, extra function that) that I've stumbled upon over the months?

Here is an article, written in 2006, that explains how to do what you want. Be sure to read ALL of the responses to it because they add significant corrections and variations. Check to be sure that your version of Kubuntu has "dselect" installed. If not, install it from the repository.

The principal command is:

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > installed-files.txt

You can edit the txt file to eliminate the packages you are no longer interested in.

Once you’ve got your (new) Kubuntu installation up and running, copy your kubuntu-files.txt back into your home directory and do the following:

  
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
dpkg –set-selections < kubuntu-files.txt

If you are reinstalling or recovering an installation you should have backed up your /etc/apt/sources.list file as well to make sure you have your repository re-established as well.

Just to say, the fresh install went almost (99.5%) perfectly, following this process. It didn't install Opera, but that was easily corrected, and some minor presonalisations needed re-doing, but otherwise it was pain-free.

Thanks for the help

[Laysan_A]

I know this is an old thread, but it's got some good stuff in it, so...

The article GreyGeek references in his post on longer works. Sadly, the ArsGeek domain is no more. However, the article can still be found on the WayBackMachine (just copy the original url and paste it into the web.archive.org search box). Here's the link: http://web.archive.org/web/201207090...tall-packages/