Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

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Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' issue

Post by ron_h »

LMDE2 Cinnamon 64 bit upgrade to LMDE3 Cinnamon 64bit

When I have a look at the 'Delete Foreign Packages' step in the tutorial, I have an issue. I select all as the tutorial says, but when I try to actually delete, the process says that the 'mountall' package is an essential part of the system and cannot be removed. If I de-select 'mountall' and try again, it says the same for gcc-4.8-base. At this point I have stopped.

I am reluctant to proceed with the 'Delete Foreign Packages' step. Advice as to what to do would be very welcome.

Ron
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Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by ron_h »

LMDE2 Cinnamon 64bit to LMDE3 Cinnamon 64bit

If you have installed packages that originated outside of the standard respositories, such as Google Chrome and Skype4Linux, be aware that they will be deleted if you follow the instructions in the tutorial for "Delete Foreign Packages'. The tutorial instructions should IMHO be expanded to say that you should uncheck any such packages in the list presented at this step before proceeding.

Ron
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Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by Pierre »

something that I've always done, when doing any upgrade,
is to remove the couple of extra programs that I've installed,
& then done the actual upgrade.
:)
but in this case - from LMDE2 to LMDE3 - - I've advise doing a clean installation, anyway.
- as it would be most desirable, to Not Have any residual software, from that older version.
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Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by smurphos »

ron_h wrote: Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:57 pm LMDE2 Cinnamon 64bit to LMDE3 Cinnamon 64bit

If you have installed packages that originated outside of the standard respositories, such as Google Chrome and Skype4Linux, be aware that they will be deleted if you follow the instructions in the tutorial for "Delete Foreign Packages'. The tutorial instructions should IMHO be expanded to say that you should uncheck any such packages in the list presented at this step before proceeding.

Ron
It's a bad idea not to remove any non-repo software before a major upgrade - there's no guarantee that the version installed from LMDE2 will still work in LMDE3 and a possibility depending on the software that it could crash LMDE3. Any non-repo software should be removed and reinstalled from it's source post upgrade. The tutorial is correctly written.
For custom Nemo actions, useful scripts for the Cinnamon desktop, and Cinnamox themes visit my Github pages.
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Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by ron_h »

> Any non-repo software should be removed and reinstalled from it's source post upgrade

Oh, OK, I think. What I've actually done is the upgrade using mintupgrade and after that re-installed google chrome and skypeforlinux using the deb packages from their respective websites. I didn't remove them first as I wanted to keep the associated settings and bookmarks etc.

I still haven't Deleted Foreign Packages because of the issue noted in a separate thread.

Ron
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Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by ron_h »

> something that I've always done, when doing any upgrade, is to remove the couple of extra programs that I've installed,

You are fortunate that you can remember what extra packages you have installed. Or you have very good documentation of what you've done. Personally, I'd forgotten that I didn't install google chrome and skypeforlinux from the standard repositories.

Ron
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Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' issue

Post by Monsta »

It's a quirk in aptdaemon (which mintsources tool uses for removing/downgrading foreign packages).

It won't remove packages that are marked as Essential: yes to avoid removing crucial system packages.
But it also doesn't want to remove less important packages that only have Priority: required set. The problem is that it doesn't want to remove them even if these are older versions which are already replaced by newer ones. This is inconsistent with behavior of apt - apt allows removing these packages. So you can use apt to remove these obsolete packages.
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Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by Monsta »

ron_h wrote: Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:47 amI didn't remove them first as I wanted to keep the associated settings and bookmarks etc.
These are stored in your home folder, they shouldn't be removed when you remove the package.
gm10

Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by gm10 »

ron_h wrote: Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:52 am > something that I've always done, when doing any upgrade, is to remove the couple of extra programs that I've installed,

You are fortunate that you can remember what extra packages you have installed. Or you have very good documentation of what you've done. Personally, I'd forgotten that I didn't install google chrome and skypeforlinux from the standard repositories.
One simple way to find out:

Synaptic Package Manager > Settings > Repositories > Additional Repositories > remove everything

then the list is here, for you to note down (if necessary) and remove:

Synaptic Package Manager > Status category > Installed (local or obsolete)
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Re: Upgrade LMDE2 to LMDE3 'Delete Foreign Packages' Beware

Post by Moem »

Mod note:
I understand that one of the threads I just merged is a PSA and the other is a thread about your issue, yet they are so similar that it was not worth having both.
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If your issue is solved, kindly indicate that by editing the first post in the topic, and adding [SOLVED] to the title. Thanks!
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