MX25

[luigi]

Hi,will i have to do a fresh re-install of the upcoming MX25,or can i update to it.I'm on MX23.6 KDE?

Thanks for any info on this.

[chrispop99]

Welcome to the forum.

When going from one major version of MX Linux to another it's always recommended to do a fresh install. For a number of reasons this is likely to be more important going from MX-23 to MX-25.

There are several ways to make this a fairly fast and easy process, including the MX tool User Installed Packages. MX-23 will also be fully supported until June 2028 so there is no need to rush.

Chris

[luigi]

Thanks Chris,i forgot that MX23 has a 5 year window!.I switched from windows 11 as my main OS to MX23,about a week after MX23 was released.
Thanks for the clarification.

[AVLinux]

Hi,

A side point with KDE is that often the MX Devs are able to update XFCE4 and Fluxbox beyond the base version in Debian Stable so updating from one platform to another end up being the same Desktop version as we currently see with MX-23 and future MX-25 both using XFCE4 4.20. KDE is a different case because it is rooted in whatever QT version the base Distro has and it is not usually able to update from whatever Debian Stable provided when released. In this case KDE Plasma will jump from version 5 to version 6 so there will be a LOT of changes to deal with within the Desktop Environment itself let alone the huge amount of core changes from Debian Bookworm to Trixie..

[DeepDayze]

The upcoming Trixie release that would become the foundation of MX-25 will be certainly be a major change from the Bookworm base of MX-23 so I'd agree that a fresh install of MX-25 would be the way to go, so as to avoid any major issues if you are on KDE as going from Plasma 5 to 6 is a huge change and things would be bound to break as Qt5 themes won't be compatible for example.

In comparison going from MX-21 to MX-23 was relatively minor as both MX releases were based on Plasma 5 in my experience and was able to directly update an MX-21 install to MX-23 by updating the sources.

There's some comfort for keeping MX-23 install as there might be things that could be backported from MX-25 to 23.

[rokytnji.1]

On my Gear. I tar.bz2 what I wanna save and then do a reinstall

Code: Select all

System:
  Host: antix25 Kernel: 6.6.87-antix.1-amd64-smp arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 14.2.0 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: IceWM v: 3.7.5 dm: slimski v: 1.5.0
    Distro: antiX-25.a1-runit_x64-full alpha1 16 June 2025 base: Debian
    GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
 

Lot simpler using Window Managers than DE though.
Good Luck.

[AVLinux]

Also...

If your data is kept on external drives and partitions and you use your home folder as a temporary staging area then upgrading or even installing a completely different OS or Desktop Environment is not a big deal at all. I never keep important data on the same partition as the OS and when I want to upgrade I simply copy my ~/.config folder and any other relevant program setting folders to a safe partition and copy back any configs I really need once the new version is installed.

[DeepDayze]

Also...

If your data is kept on external drives and partitions and you use your home folder as a temporary staging area then upgrading or even installing a completely different OS or Desktop Environment is not a big deal at all. I never keep important data on the same partition as the OS and when I want to upgrade I simply copy my ~/.config folder and any other relevant program setting folders to a safe partition and copy back any configs I really need once the new version is installed.

I definitely keep my home folder on a separate partition but I temporarily rename my user's home folder to move it out of the way so as not to mess it up when doing a reinstall and overwriting the configs. Doing this helps you get system set up and then moving back those configs that took a lot of time to get right so as not to need to do them again. Note that newer versions of apps might have made changes to configs so I might review the settings in the old config files and then copying them to the fresh ones.

I even back up /etc to preserve any systemwide configs too.