newbie

[flyinsqrl]

hey guys, i just installed linux mint, and i'm liking it allot more than ubuntu, what i'm wondering though is will linux mint update when ubuntu releases 8.04 this week? I noticed that they use the same kernel, its just a some what different build, thanks allot for the help and i hope to stay in this community

[proxima_centauri]

No, it won't.
It will upgrade with the release of Mint 5, which won't be released tell after Ubuntu 8.04.

[atlef]

And you can not upgrade from 4 to 5. You need to do a reinstall.

atlef.

[flyinsqrl]

And you can not upgrade from 4 to 5. You need to do a reinstall.

atlef.

so your saying i'll lose all my data?

[Fred]

flyinsqrl,

You don't have to loose your data on a reinstall. There are a number of ways to preserve your data. Since you already have your system installed I would suggest you make a separate data partition and mount it in your /home. Then when you reinstall, all you have to do is remount your data partition and you are back in business.

Below is the link to a thread that has links and commentary to more information on this issue than your probably wanted to know.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11502

Fred

[Husse]

And our fried Atlef is wrong.
It will (as far as I know) be possible to upgrade from Daryna to Elyssa, but it will not be easy
From Elyssa to version 6 (not yet named) there will be a tool to automate it

[atlef]

Sorry about that, thought I read somewhere that this functionality was not available to Mint users. I stand corrected, if this is possible.

And Fred is right, you need not loose any data.

atlef.

[McLovin]

If I am thinking correctly, (and I may not be as I have been up for 2 days now) you can upgrade from Mint4 to Mint5, the same way that you would with Ubuntu, however this is not really recommended, as the process can be troublesome, and the resulting install can easily be corrupt do to the fact that the kernel, Xorg, (basically what tells you OS what drivers to use, and port pathways to your hardware), and hardware drivers, are all going to need to be updated, and/or, changed, ESPECIALLY if you use an ATI graphics card. But the system will still have all the current drivers, software, and settings from the older version, which may conflict with the newer versions.

To make a long story short, (too late), you are going to be much much better off doing a fresh clean install, just make sure to backup all your data first, and when doing the fresh install, if you have not yet created a separate "/home" partition, this would be a good time to do so. If you have created one, then your data should be safe, as you will only need to format the root, (or "/") partition, but make a backup of your data anyway, just in case.