Should I upgrade from LMDE4 to LMDE5 [ Solved ]

[Danyel3211]

I m running LMDE4 in a old Dell Studio, my graphic card is Nvidia and I must use the 340 driver. As the pc is a old, I m using LXLE desktopo. Well, LMDE4 is running smoothly here. I download LMD5 and test it here in as usb driver, it feels OK but it lacks direct support for Nvidia 340 driver. So, should I try to updrade to LMDE5 when the update becomes available or should I keep LMED4, will it receive updates for Firefox, Python and so on? Thank you in advance.

[xenopeek]

I expect an announcement about LMDE 4 support period to be made around the time the upgrade path to LMDE 5 becomes available—to give users a timetable for doing the upgrade. Once the upgrade path is open I don't think LMDE 4 will be supported for much longer. Months, not years. But let's wait for that announcement and you can draw up your plans then.

Given that Debian 10—on which LMDE 4 is based—-reaches end of regular support this July that may be a likely date. For Debian 10 the long term support team takes over support from July, and will provide 2 years of extended support.

Things you can do after LMDE 4 reaches end of life is downgrade your Firefox/Chromium to the Debian 10 version—which is less safe than LMDE's but at least you will continue to get updates during the extended support period, even if those updates are less safe—and maybe you would want to disable the LMDE 4 repository but downgrading Cinnamon and other Linux Mint software to Debian 10's version is not going to be fun I would focus on the the programs from the LMDE 4 repository that are a tangible risk if you stop getting security updates, which in my mind are the web browsers: http://packages.linuxmint.com/list.php?release=debbie

LMDE is important to Linux Mint; for the development team to prove to themselves that they can make Linux Mint without depending on Ubuntu or Ubuntunisms, and to know how much work it entails to use a different package base. And for our users that prefer a Debian package base of course The development team works hard to make LMDE as Linux Mint as possible. Given that only about 1% of our users use LMDE the development team can't justify spending a ton of time on maintaining multiple LMDE releases at the same time. So once a new LMDE release is out, the previous release in the past hasn't been supported for much longer (months, not years).

[Danyel3211]

Thank you very much. You've given a nice idea about what to expect and to prepare myself to a upgrade.

[Mike_D]

My 2 cents: I've been contentedly running LMDE 4 since March of 2020 on my (circa 2013) HP 8500 series workstation. I recently did a fresh install of LMDE 5 and spent a couple of days chasing a handful of "niggling' issues. I ended up going back to LMDE 4. I plan to stay on ver 4 for another couple months to let things settle and sort out and will try installing 5 again in a couple months...

[jerryb1961]

My 2 cents: I've been contentedly running LMDE 4 since March of 2020 on my (circa 2013) HP 8500 series workstation. I recently did a fresh install of LMDE 5 and spent a couple of days chasing a handful of "niggling' issues. I ended up going back to LMDE 4. I plan to stay on ver 4 for another couple months to let things settle and sort out and will try installing 5 again in a couple months...

I'm curious as to what the issues were, as I have the same reluctance to upgrade just yet.

[LittleScriptMan]

Adding my single cent :
LMDE5/Cin5.2.7 works pretty fine on my laptop and desktop, even after importing LMDE4/Cin5.0.7 settings "the hard way" via dconf or gio settings with no compatibility problem.
About migration itself, I prefer using a dual-boot process with 4 steps :
1) LMDE4 (main) / LMDE5 beta (testing as much as I can)
2) LMDE4 (main) / LMDE5 release (still testing)
3) LMDE5 (main) / LMDE4 (just in case) -- I'm here since a couple of days
4) LMDE5 (main) / ? (I'll see when LMDE4 will have reached EOL)

One "discovery" on smb.conf (/etc/samba/) :
if your network is set to SMB1 protocol, LMDE4 works OOB, LMDE5 needs

Code: Select all

client min protocol = NT1

to be able to Windows-share files or printers.
With SMB2, both work OOB.

[Mike_D]

My 2 cents: I've been contentedly running LMDE 4 since March of 2020 on my (circa 2013) HP 8500 series workstation. I recently did a fresh install of LMDE 5 and spent a couple of days chasing a handful of "niggling' issues. I ended up going back to LMDE 4. I plan to stay on ver 4 for another couple months to let things settle and sort out and will try installing 5 again in a couple months...

I'm curious as to what the issues were, as I have the same reluctance to upgrade just yet.

Jerry,

Overall, most everything works fine out of the box.

Since you inquired, the issues I was referring in my earlier post:

1) After I install and update any new Linux system I run “sudo journalctl -p 3 -xb” and go about cleaning up as manny errors and warnings as I can. While I've managed to clean up all errors on my LMDE 4 installation, ver. 5 has proven to be a bit more of a challenge.

2) I use OpenVPN to remotely administer the handful of Linux & WIndows servers I currently support. The newer version that came with LMDE 5 was a bit ‘cranky’ at first when connecting to the remote host. I ended up having to tweak my local ‘.ovpn’ client files to get things running smoothly. *Note to self: It’s just about time to upgrade the remote server and generate new certs.

Hope this helps...

[jerryb1961]

Thank you.

Every time I get the upgrade jitters I just fire up Windblows in a VM and my head becomes clear again.

Seriously, thanks. I'm going to wait another week or two. Have a great day!

[xenopeek]

The latest monthly news covers the new Upgrade Tool being worked on that you'll be able to use to upgrade to LMDE 5: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4293

It also sets the end of support date for LMDE 4: August 2022.

[heavy metal]

I m running LMDE4 in a old Dell Studio, my graphic card is Nvidia and I must use the 340 driver. As the pc is a old, I m using LXLE desktopo. Well, LMDE4 is running smoothly here. I download LMD5 and test it here in as usb driver, it feels OK but it lacks direct support for Nvidia 340 driver. So, should I try to updrade to LMDE5 when the update becomes available or should I keep LMED4, will it receive updates for Firefox, Python and so on? Thank you in advance.

I have installed LMDE5 on a HP Elite Book 8540P who has the Nvidia NVS 5100M that uses the 340 Legacy Drivers, LMDE5 neither LM 21 doesn't have the 340 Legay Drivers but works ok with the Noveau open source drivers in my experience with basic youtube videos and movies/video players, if you are going to play video games with steam or the like, I recommend staying with LMDE4 or LM 20.3 for the time being who still has the 340 Nvidia Legacy Drivers!