Please help me understand the Update/Upgrade Cycle of MX Linux [Solved]

[debianix]

Hello!

I am very happy with MX Linux 23 Libretto so far, but there are a few questions in my mind, that I couldnt anser through research:

Compared to Debian, which you theoretically never have to reinstall and can upgrade endlessly, I understood that you have to reinstall MX Linux every time after an update.

This is not bad at all, as I have always done fresh installations of Debian myself, simply for the better feeling. Also, with the easy installation and configuration process, everything is no problem with MX.

Can you please tell me exactly how it is with the upgrades:
There are big updates, like from MX23 to MX24, where you absolutely have to reinstall, but surely there is something in between, like 23.1 or 23.4 etc....

If I just run an "apt update && apt full-upgrade" daily, are these "in-between" updates done automatically, or do I have to do them manually with a specific command? If so, what else would I need to add to my full-upgrade to get the intermediate updates as well?
Is there also a newsletter, mailing list or similar, where you are always informed about the latest minor and major updates?

I'm very excited to see where the journey will take me with future MX versions and I'm very grateful for the good development work, which you can clearly feel as a user.

[DukeComposed]

Can you please tell me exactly how it is with the upgrades:
There are big updates, like from MX23 to MX24, where you absolutely have to reinstall, but surely there is something in between, like 23.1 or 23.4 etc....

https://mxlinux.org/release-cycle/

[dolphin_oracle]

You only need to reinstall between major releases. So between 21 and 23 for instance

[asqwerth]

It's best to have a fresh install for every major release of MX, which only happens when/after Debian releases the next Debian Stable base.

Apart from that, just normal

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

is fine.

When you do indeed make a fresh install of the next major release of MX, please explore the MX tool known as "User Installed Packages". It helps you make a text file of all the packages you installed yourself in your old MX install, and when that text file is copied over to your fresh install, the same UIP tool can help reinstall all/most of the packages in that list with one click of the button, with some caveats:

1. not flatpaks

2. UIP has to find that package in the enabled repos of your fresh install, so :
a) one-off installs you made from a deb file will not be reinstalled unless the repos now have that package. If not, you have to reinstall from the deb file, assuming there is a deb file version that is compatible with the new Debian base.
b) things you previously installed from Test Repo/Backports may not be reinstalled if -- in the new version of MX you installed -- that package is still found in the Test/Backport repo,, since the Test Repo/Backports are not enabled by default.
c) proprietary apps like Google Chrome (which MXPI Popular Apps tab has a special routine to download and install from the vendor's own site) will have to be separately reinstalled again using MXPI Popular Apps.

All packages in the generated list that cannot be found by UIP in the new MX version will be listed for your examination, and you can choose to save that new list as another text file.

[debianix]

Thank you so much for ur answers! Wow that is even more comfort that I was able to dream of :-)
Since I write down every package that I install on a fresh install i would prefer to check the package availability in the next release manually but its good to know that there is a tool for that as well. It seems that MX never disappoints having the right tool for every problem one can think of :-) thank you!!

[MXRobo]

Also, although it's absolutely recommended to reinstall from major releases, e.g. 21 to 23 as anything other method is not officially supported, there are usually unofficial instructions on how to migrate between major releases and forum post with questions. I don't know how to do it, but it's usually saving: data obviously, and .configs.

Search migrate, migration – e.g.
viewtopic.php?p=714260&hilit=migrate#p714260
viewtopic.php?p=703915&hilit=migrate#p703915

And if you follow the forum, you should see posts regarding this about that time, even as early a the beta, alpha threads.

One nice method which I haven't done yet, is to have enough space to install and keep two major releases, then save new configs and copy over old configs to new release to check compatibility. Maybe you could even get them from an old release MX-Snapshot with chroot or something – over my head.

I run UIP after every new package install.

Good Luck

[aika]

... old configs to new release ...

.mozilla and .thunderbird works, anything else is not a good idea.

[limotux]

Hi,
My humble understanding about MX it can be upgraded to the next "major" release, by following instructions published by developers, which I believe would somehow include changing repos to point to the new repos, do upgrade command... etc.


The problem with fresh install -for me- is I would have to reinstall any apps I manually installed, reconfigure whatever I configured...
This is why I was on a rolling release distro, but switched to Debian then MX for stability.

Maybe something like Sparky Linux (which is based AFAIK on Debian Testing) or opensuse tumbleweed perhaps would be better? It would be for sure more stable than those rolling releases and just installed only once.

But I really like MX and its community so much. It won;t be an easy decision for me.

I wonder why some here are suggesting a fresh install?

[Melber]

Hi,
My humble understanding about MX it can be upgraded to the next "major" release, by following instructions published by developers, which I believe would somehow include changing repos to point to the new repos, do upgrade command... etc.

https://mxlinux.org/wiki/system/upgradi ... nstalling/

Upgrading from MX-21 to MX-23 without reinstalling
DISCLAIMER: This how-to is for the benefit of advanced users who are comfortable with the command line and willing to research and fix things if things go wrong, it’s not guaranteed to work and is not supported in any way by the dev team. As always, when upgrading from a Debian base to another one a clean install is the easiest procedure that provides a fresh and complete configuration.

I wonder why some here are suggesting a fresh install?

https://mxlinux.org/migration/

Because of the change in the base from Debian 11 (Bullseye) to Debian 12 (Bookworm), there can be no official upgrade option. A clean install is highly recommended for most users

[limotux]

Thanks a lot @Melber
The two links clarifies the whole thing.
It can be done (mostly), I have no problems with command line. I lived with EndeavourOS for like 2 years!