upgrading mint 13 for 14

[twistmypix]

I have a question about upgrading and hope someone can help... I've used SuSE for a long time and the one thing I loved was I could throw in a new distro release and upgrade but if I'm not mistaken, I can't do that with Ubuntu/Mint.

I had an error that was driving me insane that read "fatal error inserting vesafb no such device". When I'd boot, I would get this error after the login screen would attempt to login, only to repeat, after giving that error. My question isn't following this but want to give you an idea of why I ask what I'm about to... I tried updating the kernel, grub, blacklisting video drivers, etc. I now eliminated the error but the login screen, attempting to load mint, and going back to the login screen is still cyclical but with no vesafb error.

My question is this:
If I'm not mistaken, I can't upgrade the new mint release like I am accustomed to with SuSE and I've read the documentation about the process of doing it but it seems like everyone says to simply back up your home folder, install the new mint, and copy back... in so many words.

If I do that though, my settings will be lost, I won't have the program settings that write outside of my home folder, things won't work properly, etc... right?

I got nowhere on ubuntu support, mint support, or here with the vesafb error. I tried (literally) 83 different things over 3 days, restored with clonezilla 16 times and kept trying. Completely redoing my system isn't an option. If I follow one of these guides that makes upgrading mint by installing the new version, copying files and folders back, etc, is it really that easy?

I gues I should simply ask: "What should I be prepared for when upgrading mint?"

Thank you for your help and your assistance is greatly appreciated!

[PussyCat]

I'm probably not the best person to respond given my own experiences and queries!

However, my understanding is that Mint 13 has LTS (long term support) until April 2017 whilst Mint 14 is only supported to April 2014. So I would have though it better to stick with Mint 13 and bring it up-to-date via SPM - make sure that you reload with latest info from repos, choose to mark all upgrades and apply.

Indeed, I have been wrestling with the dilemma of which to install across machines and feel that, not only does Maya have LTS but is more supportive of my hardware.

But more knowledgeble users may offer different advice...