MX Linux Forum

kellyv wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 8:25 pm When you say restore data, that is not clear enough to me in that, most of my 'data' is on other drives except the data in the home folder, which is mostly browser, email and program/ app configurations. What data can I copy over to keep configurations of already installed programs intact? Can I just copy the home folder over to the new installation? Will that keep my browser configurations and sessions intact? Configuration data for my music players? Email?

To me, your instructions make it seem like I would be starting from zero but the instructions for migration seem to suggest that most of my configuration should remain intact. If you could give me a slightly more specific outline of how exactly to upgrade to a new release that would be helpful. Are there reasons why I should not follow the migration instructions here detailed here - https://mxlinux.org/migration/?

Thanks

kellyv wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 8:25 pm If you could give me a slightly more specific outline of how exactly to upgrade to a new release that would be helpful. Are there reasons why I should not follow the migration instructions here detailed here - https://mxlinux.org/migration/?

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.

The best outline for upgrading is documented on the page called Upgrading from MX-21 to MX-23 without reinstalling. Pay particular attention to this part at the top of the page, emphasis added:

kellyv wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 10:33 pm I seem to be reading conflicting information from both responses.

kellyv wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2025 7:49 pm I used the same user name as the desktop when prompted but never got the window asking about using the existing home directory. The install finished but it was just a new install, there was none of my previous MX21 info

asqwerth wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 10:59 pm Fresh install of MX23 over the existing root partition but choose to preserve /home.

DukeComposed wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:06 pm

asqwerth wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 10:59 pm Fresh install of MX23 over the existing root partition but choose to preserve /home.

As asqwerth says, this only works when you have separate root and home partitions. The installer can detect your existing disk layout and you have the option to change that. In this case, that means explicitly configuring the MX installer to use the same root partition that already exists, and to preserve the same home partition that already exists.

When you find your old home partition you need to find the "Use for" option for it and select "/home". This will let you use the "Format" option of "Preserve" for it and it won't be replaced when the system in installed. You probably missed it if you were just clicking next and expecting a prompt.

asqwerth wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:49 pm Nope, You can actually preserve /home on root partition - I've done it before. Though I recall someone saying that this may not be possible if home is encrypted.

I think one of the devs said that how it works when you preserve /home on root partition is that the installer manually deletes everything on root except the home bit, and then installs/writes the new system onto the said partition while keeping home intact.

It's not a window that pops up. The option exists in the installer on the "Choose partitions" page when selecting the disk layout for the new install.

kellyv wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 9:43 pm Okay, pretty not easy to find and no reference to it on the 'Migration Page".

kellyv wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 9:43 pm I assume that I pick "/home" in the box in front of rootMX21??

kellyv wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 9:43 pm I see no way to add another partition unless I use the "broom/magic wand" to start a whole new layout

kellyv wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 9:43 pm Add'l info - there is an 256MB EFI /FAT32 partition and an 8GB swapMX partition already listed along with the 1.9TB rootMX21 partition

3) install MX 23 OVER your current installation as you proceed:
a) at the beginning, select to make a “Custom” installation
b) choose the same user name that you used before
c) select to re-use the existing home directory

Eadwine Rose wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:00 pm Remember.. it is not recommended and not supported.

j2mcgreg wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 1:58 pm Try it if you want to and if you have the necessary experience, but the success rate is about 50%. It will also take substantially longer to accomplish than our recommended method.

kellyv wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 1:23 pm I followed the info posted here

The OFFICIAL MIGRATION GUIDE https://mxlinux.org/migration/ says:

3) install MX 23 OVER your current installation as you proceed:
a) at the beginning, select to make a “Custom” installation
b) choose the same user name that you used before
c) select to re-use the existing home directory

and that I should be presented with this option
https://mxlinux.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... ration.jpg

Nokkaelaein wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:17 pm That is the official, supported, recommended way of installing MX Linux from 21 to 23, "A clean install is highly recommended for most users, most easily done by following these steps"

DukeComposed wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:51 pm There's a discrepancy between calling something an official, supported way of doing something and the line immediately preceding the given quote about how a clean install is highly recommended. The line immediately preceding it? "Because of the change in the base from Debian 11 (Bullseye) to Debian 12 (Bookworm), there can be no official upgrade option."

So I think there's some confusion surrounding any upgrade process, because even though there's an approach which is "recommended", it's not "official", and in truth not even an "upgrade". I think that's creating some cognitive dissonance.

Nokkaelaein wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:10 pm If it's in the main bar of the official MX Linux website, I assume it's actual official communication?

DukeComposed wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:50 pm Making assumptions is how things get broken in the first place. My point remains: there is a clear contradiction between "there's no official upgrade option" and "here are some steps we recommend". I'm interpreting that the part saying "no official upgrade option" means "no official upgrade option".

j2mcgreg wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 8:58 pm The hidden .config files in your existing MX 21 /home can play havoc with the new .config files that will be created when the new versions of those packages are installed

asqwerth wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 9:03 pm Let's just focus on helping OP do a FRESH install of MX23 over her old MX, while trying to preserve her /home.

j2mcgreg wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:27 pm You only get presented with option to reuse home, if you first select custom partitioning.

kellyv wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 1:23 pm c) select to re-use the existing home directory

and that I should be presented with this option
https://mxlinux.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... ration.jpg

Michael-IDA wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 11:21 am
- Tarball existing /home/user dir, copy it to something external (old-home).
- Run the installer, manually partition and encrypt everything with a passphrase you’ll use in production (throw-away).
- Remember the passphrase!
- Boot throw-away, unpack tarball on /home/{whatever}
- logout of user, SHIFT-ALT-F1, login as root
- As root move old-home to /home/user, fix perms, etc.
- Shutdown

- Boot Live USB
- Run the installer, don’t partition, select manual partitioning
- Select existing partitions and check encrypt for everything
- Use the exact same passphrase!
- Check preserve /home

Answer the other questions, and it just works. The installer will not ask for any other passphrase, so you have to use the same one both times.

Saved me 50 - 100 hours of re-doing settings, configs, passwords, key-bindings, panel settings, button modifications, etc., etc. as they popped up over the next year...

Ah, aren't they overwritten by the new install though? At least the ones that changed enough to matter is what I've seen in the past

asqwerth wrote: Thu Mar 27, 2025 7:05 pm

Ah, aren't they overwritten by the new install though? At least the ones that changed enough to matter is what I've seen in the past

Existing contents in /home, including hidden dot config files, are never written over.

can't help with encrypted /home.

Fernent wrote: Thu Apr 03, 2025 8:10 am I have /home on a separate drive partition and /home/$me encrypted with ecryptfs. Previously using MX21.3, I installed MX23.5 to its own partition while preserving /home. Then chroot to the new installation and install ecryptfs-utils there, and I was up and running.

I'll probably use something like 'startx -- :1' to run both users at once

Danathar wrote: Sun Apr 13, 2025 9:27 am I LOVE MX and AntiX, but those two features—OEM install and prompted GUI notification/ability to upgrade to major versions—are just not supported. So, I’ll probably not put MX on those systems. It will likely be something like the Ubuntu LTS or Fedora Cinnamon spin (since that’s close to what a Windows user might be familiar with). It's a little sad because there will be a LOT of PC's headed for the scrap heap after this fall due to Windows 11 incompatibility and these are perfectly good systems with Linux on them.

-o, --oem  Install the operating system, delaying prompts for user-specific options until
           the first reboot.  Upon rebooting, the installer will be run with --oobe so 
           that the user can provide these details. This is useful for OEM installations, 
           selling or giving away a computer with an OS pre-loaded on it.
           
  --oobe   Out Of the Box Experience option. This will start automatically if installed 
           with --oem option.

Danathar wrote: Sun Apr 13, 2025 9:27 amIt's a little sad because there will be a LOT of PC's headed for the scrap heap after this fall due to Windows 11 incompatibility and these are perfectly good systems with Linux on them.

Michael-IDA wrote: Sun Apr 13, 2025 8:43 pm

Danathar wrote: Sun Apr 13, 2025 9:27 amIt's a little sad because there will be a LOT of PC's headed for the scrap heap after this fall due to Windows 11 incompatibility and these are perfectly good systems with Linux on them.

You can installing MX (or any Linux) on the old comp's and then installing Win11 in a VM to save these PCs...

https://blogs.oracle.com/virtualization ... virtualbox

Wish more people would think 'outside the box'

Best,
Michael

Edit:
PS: Windows 11 Pro Cd Key Retail Microsoft Global can be had for $10. So, don't let friends buy retail

Danathar wrote: Tue Apr 15, 2025 6:50 am

Michael-IDA wrote: Sun Apr 13, 2025 8:43 pm PS: Windows 11 Pro Cd Key Retail Microsoft Global can be had for $10. So, don't let friends buy retail

Somehow…I doubt that $10 key legal…