Simply installing New Releases

[j2mcgreg]

Those instructions are for upgrading within the same release cycle, say from MX 21.1 to MX 21.4. They will not work if you are attempting to go from MX 19 to MX 21, or from MX 21 to MX 23.

[thinkpadx]

seems like everyone is saying - do a clean fresh install and be happy. i agree. i never tried to do some upgrade from one version to another. Dolphin Oracle and other devs have explained on this site prior as to why it isn;t desirable and also ends up with glitches.

instead of wasting time searching and posting this stuff install a fresh version. it would have been done by now other than your tweaks - and even that would have been 'in process' at this moment!

good luck! enjoy MX!

[Freja]

A clean install is best. That is certainly true.

However, "I want to port the User environment ONLY"
Demand has been very high since the beginning.

Therefore, I will be brave and make a bold proposal.
As a new MX tool, how about developing "Home Transfer"?

This is "Program for porting only Home Folder to a clean installation environment by USB".

It seems like a welcome tool, even though it might add more work for the team.

In other words, it's a tool that overwrites just your home folder.
As for the installed software, I think it might be difficult because there may be problems.

Preserve home folder function is already in the installer, so
I'll leave it up to you to decide if this makes sense.

[j2mcgreg]

A clean install is best. That is certainly true.

However, "I want to port the User environment ONLY"
Demand has been very high since the beginning.

Therefore, I will be brave and make a bold proposal.
As a new MX tool, how about developing "Home Transfer"?

This is "Program for porting only Home Folder to a clean installation environment by USB".

It seems like a welcome tool, even though it might add more work for the team.

In other words, it's a tool that overwrites just your home folder.
As for the installed software, I think it might be difficult because there may be problems.

Preserve home functionality is already in the installer, so
I'll leave it up to you to decide if this makes sense.

You can already do this by preserving 'home' in the Custom Partitioning section of the installer.

[Freja]

But,Users can have the peace of mind that
"I have a home folder on USB and can port it any computer".

Snapshot and LIve USB maker can port the whole system,
but it requires long time and large USB capacity.

If it's just the home folder, it's easier to port than that.

By the way, according to my experience, simply copying the home folder
to the USB and porting it on the GUI will give bad results.

Ideally, I want to boot from USB and safely overwrite my home folder,
including hidden files, on the CUI.

I want this.

[MXRobo]

I think that I've seen recommendations on this forum by advisors that you can easily copy your home folder with Gparted.

[limotux]

seems like everyone is saying - do a clean fresh install and be happy. i agree. i never tried to do some upgrade from one version to another. Dolphin Oracle and other devs have explained on this site prior as to why it isn;t desirable and also ends up with glitches.

instead of wasting time searching and posting this stuff install a fresh version. it would have been done by now other than your tweaks - and even that would have been 'in process' at this moment!

good luck! enjoy MX!

Thanks @thinkpadx
It seems that the only and best way is to do a fresh install.
OK. Let me ask a few more questions:
1- For how long I get updates/upgrades for the installed system?
2- What if when a new release comes out I change my repos to the repos of the new release then do the 2 commands:

Code: Select all

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo do-release-upgrade

3- In a previous post I saw the option to keep /home, I remember some time ago I read about a command (one command) to install all packages listed in a text file. This can perhaps help, the text file will be in the /home directory which will be kept.

I hope the 3 point above may give a clue on how to install once and stay for 5 years at least on this install without the need to do a fresh install or make moving to a new release much easier and less time and effort.

I appreciate your patience with me and with my lots of questions. If I am not really interested I wouldn't have bothered to ask.
I am just curious and always trying to learn.

[AA BB]

Sure would be a lot easier if new MX releases contained a minimal amount of stuff MX needs to work properly. Then users can add whatever stuff they need or want. Current MX new releases require too much time getting rid of stuff you dont need and never use

[MadMax]

The thing with upgrading "stable" distros in-place is that it either won't work right away, so you're stuck with a broken system or they seemingly work and down the line suddenly something breaks, because the upgrade process wasn't as clean as you expected it to be. At the end of the day most times it's easier and a lot less stressful to just do a fresh install. It's also nice to start out with a fresh system every few years to get rid of programs you don't use anymore and set up a fresh config.

I usually work with seperate SSDs and just switch out the boot drive physically when doing such an upgrade, so worst case I will have the old system ready at any time.

[j2mcgreg]

Question #1: for about 5 years. For example MX 19 was released in Oct 2019 and all support ends in June 2024
Question #2: That will seriously screw up a system.