Upgrade from Mint 11 to LMDE--slightly broken system

[idc]

Hi,
Please let me know if this is posted in the wrong place.

Problem in brief:
After installing LMDE and copying across my home folder from the LM 11 Katya install that I was using, I find that various things are not quite working, including most annoyingly at the moment, Firefox. Firefox boots, but always begins with the same session windows (many of which I don't want) that were last open in the old LM 11 Katya install. I cannot get any persistence in the new session. Furthermore downloads don't seem to be working. And Zotero, which I had installed as an add-on, won't start and I can't seem to fix it.

Could anyone help talk me through fixing this? I've tried reconfiguring and removing and reinstalling Firefox with synaptic with no change. Attempting to install Zotero through apt tries to install iceweasel--which isn't what I want. And as stated above Firefox doesn't let me download and install the Zotero add-on. I suspect there may be something very simple to fix all this--probably relating to deleting some config files, but perhaps someone could advise me?

Additional explanation:

Mint 11 recently reached end of life, so I've been intending to upgrade my main laptop and finally did so a few weeks ago, once I'd got around to buying a new hard drive. Having run LMDE successfully on my secondary netbook for some time and being very happy with the way it works and also intensely disliking the uncertainty of upgrading my main working system (hence reason it was still running Mint 11), I decided to upgrade it to LMDE. Installing LMDE seemed to go fine, but attempting then to transfer all my files and settings back onto the computer seems to have screwed it up (as explained in brief above).

Thanks very much for any advice.
Ian
Dell Latitude e4300 running LMDE 64 up5

[zerozero]

the problem is here

copying across my home folder from the LM 11 Katya install that I was using

the diff between katya and lmde is so big (gnome2.x in one, either mate <a renamed gnome2.x fork, where paths are not exactly where they were> or cinnamon <gnome3.4 at this moment in lmde>) that hardly this would work.

it used to work without major issues in the past because most of the distros were using gnome2 and during ages gnome was stalled (every new version was just a slightly improvement over the previous but never incompatible)
- not true anymore:
- each gnome point release is incompatible with the previous;
- you find today all sorts of variations (unity, cinnamon, mate) all built on top of gnome (old or new) but not necessary inter-compatible.

the issue with FF is weird though because usually browsers can handle very well these big updates.

try creating a new user and see if those issues remain.

just FWIW zotero 3.0.8 is installable in lmde.

[idc]

Thanks very much for the quick response, zerozero. It is much appreciated.

OK. I created a new user and of course, you are right, things seem to work ok. I've installed Zotero, upgraded beyond the available 3.0.8 (which is apparently not compatible with the latest Firefox), and Zotero's sync is now transferring 4GB worth of pdfs across the ether back onto my machine--it all seems so wasteful of resources when I already have those pdfs available locally. (But buried of course in a settings folder hierarchy that seems to bork Firefox if copied straight across.)

Can you recommend my best options for getting as much as possible of my years' of work and settings back across to the new user? I can copy basic documents across, easily and without risk. Perhaps I simply have to recreate settings, or are there some that might be copied? Bookmarks for example, can perhaps be synced these days--I'll investigate Firefox sync, which I've not bothered with hitherto.

Along with Firefox not working, I discovered that shotwell seems to have changed their library system and so years of tagging photographs appear to be lost. I don't suppose you or anyone else can suggest a way to bring my shotwell library up to date? (from 0.9.3 schema 12 to 0.12.3 schema 15 apparently--I shudder at the amount of work involved in going through my entire photolibrary trying to retag everything; guess I should post a question over on their forums)

Then I need to get VirtualBox setup, which probably means putting the old hard drive back in and exporting all the virtual machines. I can probably find time to do this at some point. No doubt, as I go I'll find other stuff that needs shifting. Eventually, I suppose I'll just delete the original (*borked) user and free up the drive space.

Well, the good news with LMDE should be that I don't have to go through this nightmare ever again! I hate the waste of productive time that Ubuntu-style upgrading involves, and yet one needs to keep some software up to date as it evolves, both when end of life comes and as the new functions are often useful. I think LMDE looks like being the best option for that. So thank you very much to the Mint Linux team and the LMDE community for providing it.

And Zerozero, thank you once again for your help. (Any other ideas or tips that occur to you still appreciated. )
Ian

[zerozero]

Can you recommend my best options for getting as much as possible of my years' of work and settings back across to the new user? I can copy basic documents across, easily and without risk. Perhaps I simply have to recreate settings, or are there some that might be copied? Bookmarks for example, can perhaps be synced these days--I'll investigate Firefox sync, which I've not bothered with hitherto.

all that is personal (docs, music, pictures, whatever folders you have in home) should be fine to rescue across. you need just to make a distinction between those personal files and config files (and those i wouldn't recommend reinstall)

bookmarks? do you still have your katya install working? if so Xmarks is a good option to sync them. i don't use the ff built-in sync (it might work very well, i don't know)

I discovered that shotwell seems to have changed their library system and so years of tagging photographs appear to be lost. I don't suppose you or anyone else can suggest a way to bring my shotwell library up to date? (from 0.9.3 schema 12 to 0.12.3 schema 15 apparently--I shudder at the amount of work involved in going through my entire photolibrary trying to retag everything; guess I should post a question over on their forums)

this indeed should be better asked directly there mainly because you will certainly get better support.

you're welcome