[Edited][Tutorial] Linux Mint 21: fresh installation over existing, upgrade, keep 20.3 or HWE upgrade

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

This tutorial to explain how to decide between:
- migrate from Linux Mint 20.3 to Linux Mint 21 by doing a fresh installation over Linux Mint 20.3,
- or upgrade from Linux Mint 20.3 to Linux Mint 21 by using mintupgrade,
- or keep Linux Mint 20.3,
- or make an HWE upgrade.

and how to do it, if you decide to do a fresh installation over existing or to upgrade.

1) Migrate to Linux Mint 21 or keep Linux Mint 20.3?

Linux Mint 20.3 is supported up to April 2025. There is so no need to replace it by Linux Mint 21 before this date.

You may have some advantages to use Linux Mint 21 if:
- Your hardware is a very recent one, and will take profit of a higher version of kernel than 5.15 (higher version available for LM 20.3 is 5.15.x, while it is possinle to have a 5.17.x with LM 21).
- You want fresher versions of applications than the one found in Linux Mint 20.3 / Ubuntu 20.04. Note that the use of flatpaks, snaps or AppImages allow keeping Linux Mint 20.3 and have recent versions of applications (in that case there is no advantage to migrate to Linux Mint 21).

Before to decide to migrate to Linux Mint 21 you should:
- Read Linux Mint 21 release notes.
- Read Ubuntu 22.04 and 22.04.01 LTS release notes.
- Read this forum, at the time of this writing, since Linux Mint 21 and Ubuntu 22.04 are recent and potentially buggier than Linux Mint 20.3 and Ubuntu 20.04, there are plenty of users complaints:
* the upgrade tool does not manage PPAs; the list of locally installed / obsolete packages to keep has to be written manually;
* recurring problems with LibreOffice;
* users reverting to 20.3 after having installed 21;
* usual problems with virtual machines (Qemu/kvm; VirtualBox; VMware workstation player "vmmon" and "vmnet" modules not compiling, solved with 16.2.4 version).
* etc.
When a problem is marked [Solved], this might help you after installation.

If you still use Linux Mint 20.3 with 5.4.x kernel, you should first test that your hardware will work with 5.15.x kernel and corresponding new hardware stack. This could be a stopper!
To do this, there are two possibilities:
- Boot on a live DVD or a live USB Linux Mint 21.
- Or make a system backup and snapshot, and install 5.15.x kernel in Linux Mint 20.3, using Update Manager (this is HWE upgrade, see 5) How to make a HWE upgrade).

Test that all is OK:
* compare a report system (inxi output) previously done with kernel 5.4.x to one generated with kernel 5.15.x; check that all peripherals are available;
* test that your external disks, printers, scanners and all external peripherals do work.
=> if something is wrong, stay with Linux Mint 20.3

Old software: you might use old software, working on Linux Mint 20.3 and that might not work in Linux Mint 21.
As an example, I use BlueGriffon, a web editor; its latest Linux version, released 2019-oct-14, is a deb designed for Ubuntu 16.04, and it installed and works on Linux Mint 20.3. Will it work on Linux Mint 21 ? I don't know (to know it I could use Linux Mint 21 in a virtual machine and try to install it).
Fortunately, I could generate an AppImage version using pkg2appimage https://github.com/AppImageCommunity/pkg2appimage and an online yml recipe. This AppImage includes all the dependencies needed by BlueGriffon and would work on Linux Mint 21.
More generally, user should :
* identify used old-ware;
* check if there is a more recent version available for Linux Mint 21, or if this old-ware can be replaced by an equivalent application compatible with Linux Mint21;
* check if this application is distributed in a way independent of Linux Mint version (flatpak, snap, AppImage);
* check if this application works in a Linux Mint 21 guest in a virtual machine.
If there is no solution, and if the use of this old-ware is mandatory, this could be a stopper or could drive to the use of Linux Mint 20.3 guest in a virtual machine under Linux Mint 21 host.

Nvidia graphics drivers: at each release, Ubuntu drops some drivers. In 22.04:
- 340 drivers are replaced by Xorg Nouveau driver,
- several drivers are replaced by an upper version.
See the detail here: https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suit ... rds=nvidia
Booting on Mint 21 live DVD / USB, you can check how your Nvidia card is taken into account.

Printing and Scanning:
Linux Mint 21 uses IPP, also known as Driverless Printing and Scanning (i.e. a standard protocol which communicates with printers/scanners without using drivers). For most printers and scanners no drivers are needed, and the device is detected automatically.
If your printer/scanner doesn't work properly disable driverless printing/scanning by removing the ipp-usb and airscan packages. Then install drivers from your manufacturer. For more information on printing and scanning: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedoc ... nters.html.

2) If you decided to migrate to Linux Mint 21: fresh installation over existing or upgrade?

Generally speaking, the fresh installation is better in terms of compatibility. As Pjotr wrote in this thread viewtopic.php?f=29&t=381349:

[...]In-place upgrading is only advisable within a Mint series (e.g. from 20.2 to 20.3).
The reason is simple: a new Mint series means an entirely new underlying Ubuntu code base. That jump in Ubuntu code base, is only too often too big for a flawless in-place upgrade.

However, a full installation could be a long and tedious process when:
- User has installed Linux Mint 20.3 using its default installation, where "/" and "/home" are on the same partition: installation will delete all files, and user will have to reinstall all his home files [mine have a weight of some 300 GB].
- User has installed lots of external software in the system (whatever the way they were installed, flatpaks, debs, install scripts or programs...).

In these cases, an upgrade would be a faster solution, with some compatibility risks, depending on the way user personalized its system (PPAs, additional depots, external software). This tutorial explains how to manage these risks.

In both cases, user should prepare some tools and make backups.
* Tools: use Ventoy to prepare an USB key, where you will copy the ISOs of Linux Mint 21, Foxclone, System Rescue; have an external disk.
* Backups: make a full backup of your system (boot with Ventoy key, select Foxclone, make a backup of your system on your external disk); make a system snapshot using Timeshift on the external disk; make a backup of your home files on the external disk (I use and recommend FreeFileSync for this, it needs to be installed on your Mint 20.3).

3) How to upgrade

In Update Manager (Edition / Software Sources) remove your PPAs or additional repos; the packages you installed from those now appear in the "obsolete or manually installed" category.

In Update Manager (Edition / Software Sources / Maintenance) click on "Downgrade the foreign packages to a lower version"; if a version of a foreign package exist in the repositories, it will replace the one installed. If you have installed "intrusive" PPAs which have deeply modified your system, this might not work; in that case use the following tutorial viewtopic.php?f=42&t=381601

Open a terminal; type the following command, it will list the remaining foreign or manually installed packages:

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apt list ?obsolete

You can directly have this list in a text file:

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apt list ?obsolete >list.txt

Now open Synaptic. You can uninstall or keep the remaining foreign packages:
* uninstall the ones that will not work on Mint 21 / Ubuntu 22.04;
* keep the ones that will work with Mint 21 (as an example, you can keep LibreOffice Community debs as downloaded from LO website, since they are Linux Mint / Ubuntu "version independent"), remove them from your "list.txt".
NB: if you want to remove all the foreign packages at once, use Update Manager (Edition / Software Sources / Maintenance), click on "Remove foreign packages" button.

Uninstall the applications that you installed with an installation script or program (examples: FreeFileSync installed for "all users"); add them to your "list.txt".

You can now install and use mintupgrade!

In mintupgrade options, you can copy one by one the foreign packages you want to keep from your "list.txt" to mintupgrade window "foreign packages to keep"; mintupgrade will check further if they can be kept.

After the upgrade:
* Install the PPAs and additional repositories (the ones you had removed) and update your system.
* Manually install from extra sources (debs, archives, installation programs...); check the packages and programs that are still on your "list.txt" are installed and function.
* Test and check that all is OK.
* Make new system backup and system snapshot.

I suggest taking some time and think to improve your system security:
* Launch uncomplicated firewall from the control center, and block all incoming connections, this will prevent attempts of connections to your system
* Use sandboxed versions of internet connecting applications (browser, mail client, ftp client etc.), this will reduce the risk of privileges escalation; you can use flatpaks, snaps, or firejail.
* Add system level IP filter address; the '/etc/hosts' file can be used for that.
* Use browser extensions to improve your security / anonymity; here is a list for Chrome family (Google Chrome, Chromium, Ungooggled-Chromium, Edge etc.): Block Ads for Social Networks, Decentraleyes, HTTPS everywhere,Privacy Badger, NoScript, uBlock Origin.
* If you have some doubts about a web page or downloaded file or mail attachment, use VirusTotal (free).
* If you are afraid of physical intrusions on your computer: use physical protection (with a laptop, put it in a safe after use; with a desktop, use removable caddies for your disks and put caddies and keyboard in a safe after use); use software protection: password protect your boot and or password protect your GRUB menu (see https://fostips.com/password-protect-gr ... 2&t=374056)

Be prepared to the worst with safeguard measures:
* Make system backups (your "/' partition) with Foxclone, every two weeks.
* Make system snapshots with Timeshift, on a daily basis or every two days.
* Make home files backups with FreeFileSync (install it), on a daily basis or every two days; it is a differential backup software: the 1st time it will back up all your home files, next times it will back up only the changes.
=> this will allow to restore your system: from a full backup with Foxclone, from a snapshot with Timeshift (launched from a functioning system, or launched from LinuxMint ISO); to repair your system (with System Rescue); to restore your home files (with FreeFileSync of file manager).

4) How to make a fresh installation over existing

What follows supposes you have two separate "/" and "/home" partitions, and that you use the same desktop environment before and after migration (from Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon to 21 Cinnamon, from Mate to Mate or XFCE to XFCE)..
[If these conditions are not respected, follow Linux Mint installation guide https://linuxmint-installation-guide.re ... en/latest/, format "/" and "/home", think to the possibility to have separate partitions for "/" and "/home" in order to ease your future backups, then after installation copy in your home the backed up files excluding the hidden configuration ones but including your hidden user profiles of LibreOffice, Thunderbird, browsers, flatpaks etc.].

List the PPAs and additional repositories that you have installed.

List the foreing packages that are installed:

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apt list ?obsolete >list.txt

List the software programs that you have installed using other ways than debs: flatpaks, snaps, software installed with an installation script or program.

Boot on your Ventoy USB key; select Linux Mint 21 ISO and launch it as Live.

In your "/home" on your disk, and in your "/home" backup, there are configuration files, working with Linux Mint 20.3 and your applications; they might interfere with Linux Mint 21.
Two approaches:
* For experimented users, from the Live Mint 21, launch the file manager; have the hidden files shown (CTRL+H in Caja with Mate). Delete the files and directories beginning by a dot (example: ".config") in your "/home" and in its backup except your users profiles: LibreOffice, browsers, Thunderbird... Some can be in your ".var" if you use flatpaks.
* If you don't know where are your profiles, just don't touch anything in your "/home"; though this is called "dirty install" by SMG (see her answer in this thread), system or packages config files are mostly in "/"; if there are in your home some files related to system, they will be updated during installation; some application config files will stay unchanged, and will be in most cases automatically updated at first launch of the application; user profiles will be preserved; some old configuration files will be kept, and stay unused. [If you are afraid of this approach, select to format "/home" at next step; after the installation copy in your home the backed up files excluding the hidden configuration ones but including your hidden user profiles of LibreOffice, Thunderbird, browsers, flatpaks etc.]

Then proceed to Linux Mint installation, using the non-default "other" installation in the menu and selecting to not format the "/home" partition.

Once the installation is done, use Update Manager to update your Linux Mint 21.

Make a Timeshift snapshot, keeping the former one.

Personalize your system, install all the extra applications you need. Be careful in the choice of your sources:
* PPAs are "untrusted" by default, except some "official ones" (mentioned on the developer website) or "semi-official ones" (maintained by software developers).
* Download software from official website (Mozilla, LibreOffice, FreeFileSync, XnView etc.) and NOT from another website.

Install your external peripherals (printers, scanners etc.) or test they are automatically detected by the system.

Test all your extra applications and external peripherals.

Make new system backup, system snapshot and home files backup.

Have a look to security improvements and safeguard measures that you could implement on your system (see above at the end of 3) How to upgrade).

5) How to make a HWE upgrade

Canonical released on 1 September an "Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS Released With Hardware Enablement Stack Backported From 22.04". With this HWE, the kernel is in the 5.15.x family, and the hardware stack is the same as the existing one for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

For those planning to stick to the Ubuntu 20.04 "Focal Fossa" Long-Term Support series still for some time before moving to the newer Ubuntu 22.04 LTS series, Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS is available today as the newest point release in that older series.
Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS collects up all the stable release updates to this point to make it easier to deploy fresh 20.04 LTS installs with all available SRUs included. In addition, Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS features the newest hardware enablement "HWE" stack that is back ported from the newer Ubuntu series. In the case of 20.04.5 LTS, it pulls in the Linux kernel and related components from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, meaning there is now Linux 5.15 LTS available, Mesa 22.0 for newer graphics driver support, and other related package updates.

For users still using 5.4.x kernel, Linux Mint can be upgraded easily to this HWE: in Update manager / View / Linux Kernel, go to 5.15 and install the latest 5.15.x kernel available.

This will induce the installation of the following packages, at the time of writing (7 October 2022) :
- kernel 5.15.0-48,
- linux-headers-5.15.0-48-generic,
- linux-hwe-5.15-headers-5.15.0-48,
- linux-image-5.15.0-48-generic,
- linux-modules-5.15.0-48-generic,
- linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-48-generic.

After the installation, you will have Linux Mint 20.3 over Ubuntu 20.04.05 LTS HWE.

Test all your extra applications and external peripherals. You can also compare before / after versions of your inxi report and check that all your peripherals are here.

Before:

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System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-126-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 Desktop: MATE v: 1.26.0
    wm: Metacity dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: G74Sx v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: G74Sx v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: American Megatrends
    v: G74Sx.203 date: 09/23/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 40.5 Wh (100.0%) condition: 40.5/72.8 Wh (55.6%) volts: 15.5 min: 14.4
    model: ASUSTek G74--52 serial: N/A status: full
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-2670QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7
    cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2906 high: 2979 min/max: 800/3100 cores: 1: 2948 2: 2794 3: 2979 4: 2876
    5: 2814 6: 2938 7: 2964 8: 2935 bogomips: 35119
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GF116M [GeForce GT 560M] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 390.154 arch: Fermi
    pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1251
  Device-2: IMC Networks Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.2:4
    chip-ID: 13d3:5134
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.13 with: Xwayland driver: N/A note:  X driver n/a
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 128
  Monitor-1: LVDS-0 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 128 diag: 438mm (17.26")
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 560M/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.154 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 6
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF116 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0bee
  Sound API: ALSA v: k5.4.0-126-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-1: PulseAudio v: 13.99.1 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: AzureWave AW-NB037H 802.11bgn
    driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:002b
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK U6V/U31J
    laptop driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 9000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: vmnet1 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: vmnet8 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-1.1:3
    chip-ID: 0cf3:3005
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: hardware: no
    software: yes address: <filter>
Drives:
   Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 281.61 GiB (30.2%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT1000MX500SSD1 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 139.75 GiB used: 14.81 GiB (10.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-2: /home size: 744.98 GiB used: 266.8 GiB (35.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 30.52 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda3
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0024
  Device-1: 1-1.1:3 info: Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 0cf3:3005
  Device-2: 1-1.2:4 info: IMC Networks Integrated Webcam type: Video driver: uvcvideo rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 13d3:5134
  Device-3: 1-1.4:5 info: Realtek RTS5139 Card Reader Controller type: <vendor specific>
    driver: rtsx_usb,rtsx_usb_ms,rtsx_usb_sdmmc rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 0bda:0139
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0024
  Device-1: 2-1.2:3 info: Trust type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 145f:01d9
  Hub-5: 2-1.3:4 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 05e3:0608
  Device-1: 2-1.3.3:5 info: Wacom CTL-470 [Bamboo Connect] type: Mouse,HID driver: usbhid,wacom
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 056a:00dd
  Device-2: 2-1.3.4:6 info: Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000 type: Keyboard,HID
    driver: microsoft,usbhid rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip-ID: 045e:0730
  Hub-6: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-7: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 1 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 62.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 50 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2700
Repos:
  Packages: 2270 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2235 pm: flatpak pkgs: 35
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/flatpak-stable-focal.list
    1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/flatpak/stable/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/graphics-drivers-ppa-focal.list
    1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
    6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tor.list
    1: deb https: //deb.torproject.org/torproject.org/ focal main
Info:
  Processes: 254 Uptime: 54m Memory: 15.61 GiB used: 1.15 GiB (7.4%) Init: systemd v: 245
  target: graphical (5) default: graphical Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8
  client inxi: 3.3.22

After:

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System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-48-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 Desktop: MATE v: 1.26.0
    wm: Metacity dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: G74Sx v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: G74Sx v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: American Megatrends
    v: G74Sx.203 date: 09/23/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 40.5 Wh (100.0%) condition: 40.5/72.8 Wh (55.6%) volts: 15.5 min: 14.4
    model: ASUSTek G74--52 serial: N/A status: full
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-2670QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7
    cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2908 high: 3062 min/max: 800/3100 cores: 1: 2952 2: 3055 3: 2843 4: 2868
    5: 2907 6: 3062 7: 2791 8: 2793 bogomips: 35118
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GF116M [GeForce GT 560M] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 390.154 arch: Fermi
    pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1251
  Device-2: IMC Networks Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.2:4
    chip-ID: 13d3:5134
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.13 with: Xwayland driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 128
  Monitor-1: LVDS-0 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 128 diag: 438mm (17.26")
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 560M/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.154 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 6
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF116 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0bee
  Sound API: ALSA v: k5.15.0-48-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-1: PulseAudio v: 13.99.1 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: AzureWave AW-NB037H 802.11bgn
    driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:002b
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK U6V/U31J
    laptop driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 9000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: vmnet1 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: vmnet8 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-1.1:6
    chip-ID: 0cf3:3005
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 3 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: hardware: no
    software: yes address: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 281.61 GiB (30.2%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT1000MX500SSD1 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 139.75 GiB used: 14.81 GiB (10.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-2: /home size: 744.98 GiB used: 266.8 GiB (35.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 30.52 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda3
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0024
  Device-1: 1-1.1:6 info: Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 0cf3:3005
  Device-2: 1-1.2:4 info: IMC Networks Integrated Webcam type: Video driver: uvcvideo rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 13d3:5134
  Device-3: 1-1.4:5 info: Realtek RTS5139 Card Reader Controller type: <vendor specific>
    driver: rtsx_usb,rtsx_usb_ms,rtsx_usb_sdmmc rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 0bda:0139
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0024
  Device-1: 2-1.2:3 info: Trust type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 145f:01d9
  Hub-5: 2-1.3:4 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 05e3:0608
  Device-1: 2-1.3.3:5 info: Wacom CTL-470 [Bamboo Connect] type: Mouse,HID driver: usbhid,wacom
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 056a:00dd
  Device-2: 2-1.3.4:6 info: Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000 type: Keyboard,HID
    driver: microsoft,usbhid rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip-ID: 045e:0730
  Hub-6: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-7: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 1 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 70.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 61 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2900
Repos:
  Packages: 2273 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2238 pm: flatpak pkgs: 35
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/flatpak-stable-focal.list
    1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/flatpak/stable/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/graphics-drivers-ppa-focal.list
    1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
    6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tor.list
    1: deb https: //deb.torproject.org/torproject.org/ focal main
Info:
  Processes: 284 Uptime: 30m Memory: 15.6 GiB used: 1.92 GiB (12.3%) Init: systemd v: 245
  target: graphical (5) default: graphical Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8
  client inxi: 3.3.22

You can consider this as an intermediate step between Linux Mint 20.3 and Linux Mint 21, or keep it till April 2025.

Make new system backup, system snapshot and home files backup.

____________________________________
Afterword on October 14, 2022: My experience with kernel 5.15 and Linux Mint 21:

- I have 1st upgraded to kernel 5.15.0-48 and Hardware Enablement; all seemed OK.

- Then I have tried an upgrade, but the installer entered an infinite error loop, and I was obliged to stop the installation and to restore the system from a backup.

- I have used the 5.15 kernel during ~ 10 days, then I realized that OpenCL was not working in LibreOffice. Clinfo output with 5.15.0-50 kernel was:

Code: Select all

$ clinfo
Number of platforms                               0

and confirmed that OpenCL was not recognized.

- I went back to 5.4.0-128 kernel. Now, clinfo output is:

Code: Select all

$ clinfo
Number of platforms                               1
  Platform Name                                   NVIDIA CUDA
  Platform Vendor                                 NVIDIA Corporation
  Platform Version                                OpenCL 1.2 CUDA 9.1.84
  Platform Profile                                FULL_PROFILE
  Platform Extensions                             cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_fp64 cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pragma_unroll cl_nv_copy_opts cl_nv_create_buffer
  Platform Extensions function suffix             NV

  Platform Name                                   NVIDIA CUDA
Number of devices                                 1
  Device Name                                     GeForce GTX 560M
  Device Vendor                                   NVIDIA Corporation
  Device Vendor ID                                0x10de
  Device Version                                  OpenCL 1.1 CUDA
  Driver Version                                  390.154
  Device OpenCL C Version                         OpenCL C 1.1 
  Device Type                                     GPU
  Device Topology (NV)                            PCI-E, 01:00.0
  Device Profile                                  FULL_PROFILE
  Device Available                                Yes
  Compiler Available                              Yes
  Max compute units                               4
  Max clock frequency                             1550MHz
  Compute Capability (NV)                         2.1
  Max work item dimensions                        3
  Max work item sizes                             1024x1024x64
  Max work group size                             1024
  Preferred work group size multiple              32
  Warp size (NV)                                  32
  Preferred / native vector sizes                 
    char                                                 1 / 1       
    short                                                1 / 1       
    int                                                  1 / 1       
    long                                                 1 / 1       
    half                                                 0 / 0        (n/a)
    float                                                1 / 1       
    double                                               1 / 1        (cl_khr_fp64)
  Half-precision Floating-point support           (n/a)
  Single-precision Floating-point support         (core)
    Denormals                                     Yes
    Infinity and NANs                             Yes
    Round to nearest                              Yes
    Round to zero                                 Yes
    Round to infinity                             Yes
    IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add               Yes
    Support is emulated in software               No
    Correctly-rounded divide and sqrt operations  No
  Double-precision Floating-point support         (cl_khr_fp64)
    Denormals                                     Yes
    Infinity and NANs                             Yes
    Round to nearest                              Yes
    Round to zero                                 Yes
    Round to infinity                             Yes
    IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add               Yes
    Support is emulated in software               No
  Address bits                                    64, Little-Endian
  Global memory size                              3150839808 (2.934GiB)
  Error Correction support                        No
  Max memory allocation                           787709952 (751.2MiB)
  Unified memory for Host and Device              No
  Integrated memory (NV)                          No
  Minimum alignment for any data type             128 bytes
  Alignment of base address                       4096 bits (512 bytes)
  Global Memory cache type                        Read/Write
  Global Memory cache size                        65536 (64KiB)
  Global Memory cache line size                   128 bytes
  Image support                                   Yes
    Max number of samplers per kernel             16
    Max 2D image size                             16384x16384 pixels
    Max 3D image size                             2048x2048x2048 pixels
    Max number of read image args                 128
    Max number of write image args                8
  Local memory type                               Local
  Local memory size                               49152 (48KiB)
  Registers per block (NV)                        32768
  Max number of constant args                     9
  Max constant buffer size                        65536 (64KiB)
  Max size of kernel argument                     4352 (4.25KiB)
  Queue properties                                
    Out-of-order execution                        Yes
    Profiling                                     Yes
  Profiling timer resolution                      1000ns
  Execution capabilities                          
    Run OpenCL kernels                            Yes
    Run native kernels                            No
    Kernel execution timeout (NV)                 Yes
  Concurrent copy and kernel execution (NV)       Yes
    Number of async copy engines                  1
  Device Extensions                               cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_fp64 cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pragma_unroll cl_nv_copy_opts cl_nv_create_buffer

NULL platform behavior
  clGetPlatformInfo(NULL, CL_PLATFORM_NAME, ...)  NVIDIA CUDA
  clGetDeviceIDs(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL, ...)   Success [NV]
  clCreateContext(NULL, ...) [default]            Success [NV]
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_DEFAULT)  No platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU)  No devices found in platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU)  No platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCELERATOR)  No devices found in platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CUSTOM)  Invalid device type for platform
  clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL)  No platform

ICD loader properties
  ICD loader Name                                 OpenCL ICD Loader
  ICD loader Vendor                               OCL Icd free software
  ICD loader Version                              2.2.11
  ICD loader Profile                              OpenCL 2.1

and OpenCL can be set in LibreOffice options.

Conclusion: Ubuntu 22.04, and particularly kernel 5.15 is too buggy for me, I stay with Linux Mint 20.3 and 5.4 kernel.

I will maybe try to install Linux Mint 21 later, when it will be 21.2 or 21.3.

Regards,

MN

[Midnight True]

Great work! Many Thanks

[SMG]

- You want fresher versions of applications than the one found in Linux Mint 20.3 / Ubuntu 22.04.

I think you have a typo on your Ubuntu version?

Before to decide to migrate to Linux Mint 21 you should:
- Read this forum, at this time there are plenty of users complaints:

There are complaints about every version. People usually only come to the forum when they have problems so this just means people know to come here if they need help.

2) If you decided to migrate to Linux Mint 21: update or upgrade?

An update means you are starting with what you have and running an update. That is not the same as doing a fresh install. One updates their system after they do a fresh install.

3) How to update

What follows suppose you have two separate "/" and "/home" partitions.

Boot on your Ventoy USB key; select Linux Mint 21 ISO; proceed to Linux Mint installation, using the non-default "other" installation in the menu and selecting to keep intact the "/home" partition.

Now I understand why you are calling it an update. This is a "dirty" install. There are system configuration files in /home and if you re-use the files in LM20.3's /home then you run the risk of having problems. What you are describing is not the fresh install that Pjotr advises doing.

It is now time to improve your system security:

You should really note this is optional and your personal recommendation and is not related to topic.

[MikeNovember]

@SMG

Hi,

Thank you for your comments.

I have edited the post and taken into account your remarks. Feel free to comment again.

Some thoughts about your comment:

Now I understand why you are calling it an update. This is a "dirty" install. There are system configuration files in /home and if you re-use the files in LM20.3's /home then you run the risk of having problems. What you are describing is not the fresh install that Pjotr advises doing.

This is a problem, whatever the solution you use:
- If you make a fresh installation including a format of your "/home", once you will want to copy your backed-up home files in your new "/home", you will have to copy your documents, videos, images etc. but also your user profiles of LibreOffice, browsers, Thunderbird... These user profiles are generally hidden, they are in hidden directories or even in subdirectories of hidden ".config" directory (what a wrong idea to have hidden user profiles...). So, you need to be careful in copying these user profiles, and not copying hidden configuration files.
- If you make what I call now a "fresh installation over existing", with "/home" in a separate partition, you want to delete in your "/home" the configuration files while keeping the user profiles.
In both cases, you need to be an experimented user to do this.

In the past, from Linux Mint 19.3 Mate to Linux Mint 20.2 Mate, I have experimented what you call the "dirty install" with no problem:
- system related configuration files are mostly in "/", if there are some in "/home" they will be updated during the installation,
- applications configuration files stay unchanged and are updated at the 1st launch of the application,
- some old configurations files stay unchanged and will no longer be used, with no damage,
- user profiles are preserved.

So, in my tutorial I propose two approaches, delete the configuration files and keep profiles before installing (for experimented users) or keep all.

Final question: what happens with mintupgrade? I guess the final result is similar to what you call "dirty install"....

Regards,

MN

[rickNS]

. This is a "dirty" install. There are system configuration files in /home and if you re-use the files in LM20.3's /home then you run the risk of having problems.

I always bring some .configs from the old mint install to the new one. (yes a clean install always)
The main ones, .mozilla, and .thunderbird I always reuse for sure. Also (this time going to Mint 21) .config/GIMP (as I've made a few changes), .config/higan, (to save set-up time) .local/share/gnote, .mame, and my backed up compiz.profile.
Never an issue...yet anyway.

I would not, and do not copy every .config willy-nilly though.
If there was a problem with any of those program's .configs, you could just delete it, and rebuild a new one.

[SMG]

- If you make a fresh installation including a format of your "/home", once you will want to copy your backed-up home files in your new "/home", you will have to copy your documents, videos, images etc. but also your user profiles of LibreOffice, browsers, Thunderbird...

I was not thinking of those files when I made my comment. I was thinking specifically of the desktop environment (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce) config files. People have run into issues with their desktops not working properly because of doing a "dirty' install. That does not always happen, but I've helped enough people where we could not fix the final result and they had to re-install to fix things that I prefer people understand there are risks to doing a "dirty" install.

With regards to documents, videos, etc., whether or not there might be an issue would probably depend on whether or not the application version (LibreOffice, etc.) changed when upgrading.

I usually recommend, if people want to reuse /home, they make a backup copy of their existing /home and then bring in files and profiles they might need or want to keep to the fresh install to get set up. That is usually less likely to cause issues. And you are correct that ones needs to be more experienced to do that.

Final question: what happens with mintupgrade? I guess the final result is similar to what you call "dirty install"....

I have not looked closely at the code details to know if they are theoretically the same. I am basing my comments on past experiences helping others who ran into issues.

One difference that would happen during mintupgrade is programs (including the desktop environments) are updated individually when the upgrade is happening so when you are done with mintupgrade, everything is updated. If you do a "dirty" install, the files outside of /home are freshly installed and then later when you run Update Manager the desktop environment and other packages which are in /home would be upgraded. That sequence difference of when the files are updated may be when some of the problems arise (but that is just a guess on my part).

I will check your edited first post later today and post again if I have further comments.

[SMG]

I will check your edited first post later today and post again if I have further comments.

I reviewed it between midnight and 1a.m. UTC and do not have any further comments.

[AZgl1800]

LM20.3 Cinnamon was my daily driver until tonight.

I read Clem's update tonight on what has been added, and decided that it is time to let my laptop upgrade.

made some backups and told the Upgrade to ignore /home

it took a while, but at several stops along the way, there was a very clear explanation on what is not compatible, and what would be dropped.

for me, the stuff that would be dropped, were not anything that I need anyway.

so, I let it go.

3 or 4 episodes of "Seal Team" went by, and it finally instructed me to reboot.

then reboot once again.

have been strolling around the landscape for about an hour, and I cannot find anything that "is lost" or working different than what I had before.

Prior to this, I have always done a Fresh new install, but that always means that I spend hours, nay, more like days running into Weeks of getting aggravated at the little tweaks that I have installed, and are now missing....

that means, trying to figure out where I downloaded them from in the first place...
or reviewing my notebook to try and make all of the little nuance tweaks get installed.

So far, I am impressed with Clem and Team, with their Upgrade package.

As of this moment, nothing seems to be lost...

Host: FX705GM Kernel: 5.15.0-48-generic x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Cinnamon 5.4.12 Distro: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa

[MikeNovember]

I will check your edited first post later today and post again if I have further comments.

I reviewed it between midnight and 1a.m. UTC and do not have any further comments.

Thanks for your time and useful remarks.

LM20.3 Cinnamon was my daily driver until tonight.
I read Clem's update tonight on what has been added, and decided that it is time to let my laptop upgrade.
made some backups and told the Upgrade to ignore /home
[...]
So far, I am impressed with Clem and Team, with their Upgrade package.
As of this moment, nothing seems to be lost...

I am convinced that mintupgrade does work.
However, having read several posts in this forum by users having used it, I think mores precautions should be take, specially wit PPAs and foreign packages.
That's why I wrote this tutorial.

Regards,

MN

[AZgl1800]

LM20.3 Cinnamon was my daily driver until tonight.
I read Clem's update tonight on what has been added, and decided that it is time to let my laptop upgrade.
made some backups and told the Upgrade to ignore /home
[...]
So far, I am impressed with Clem and Team, with their Upgrade package.
As of this moment, nothing seems to be lost...

I am convinced that mintupgrade does work.
However, having read several posts in this forum by users having used it, I think mores precautions should be take, specially with PPAs and foreign packages.
That's why I wrote this tutorial.

Regards,

MN

Well,
since my last post, I noticed that Master PDF Editor 5 got lost, no problem, I always download "foreign apps" to my Downloads Folder, took about 90 seconds to get it reinstalled.

I made an Aptik Backup "just in case", but the Upgrade is so darn good, that I am not going to use it.

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

Final comments.

On my system I performed a "HWE upgrade" to kernel 5.15.0-48 and hardware enablement stack, with the same hardware stack as for Linux Mint 21 / Ubuntu 22.04. It was OK, I noticed a small improvement, fans are less noisy (--> heat dissipation is less, --> system uses less power).

I made a full system backup and system snapshot with Timeshift.

Next step was an attempt to upgrade. I have the same comment as already mentioned, about mintupgrade tool ergonomic: the list of foreign packages to be kept has to be done one package by one, by copying it (from the "list.txt", see above) and pasting it into mintupgrade, then clicking on "Validate" button. This is a long and tedious process, a better UI would be nice: in the foreign packages to kept, list of existing foreign packages should be displayed, with a case to tick, and the possibility to tick packages one by one or to select all.

All went OK up to "close to the end" of the final phase of unpacking and installing new packages (previously downloaded, 1.7 GB). There was an error when decompressing a linux-firmware package:

dpkg-deb: error: <decompress> subprocess returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-firmware_20220329.git681281e4-0ubuntu3.5_all.deb (--unpack):
cannot copy extracted data for './lib/firmware/qcom/sm8250/cdsp.mbn' to '/lib/firmware/qcom/sm8250/cdsp.mbn.dpkg-new': unexpected end of file or stream

Then the installation program entered an infinite loop: trying to decompress, error, trying to decompress, error etc.
The problem might have been solved by downloading again the defective package, but it is not the way the installation program is encoded: it tries again and again to decompress the defective package.

I had to stop the installation, reboot on my USB backup key and restore system from backup. I use now Linux Mint 20.3 Mate with 5.15.0-48 kernel and September 2022 HWE.

Regards,

MN

[SMG]

Next step was an attempt to upgrade. I have the same comment as already mentioned, about mintupgrade tool ergonomy: the list of foreign packages to be kept has to be done one package by one, by copying it (from the "list.txt", see above) and pasting it into mintupgrade, then clicking on "Validate" button. This is a long and tedious process, a better UI would be nice: in the foreign packages to kept, list of existing foreign packages should be displayed, with a case to tick, and the possibility to tick packages one by one or to select all.

All went OK up to "close to the end" of the final phase of unpacking and installing new packages (previously downloaded, 1.7 GB). There was an error when decompressing a linux-firmware package:

dpkg-deb: error: <decompress> subprocess returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-firmware_20220329.git681281e4-0ubuntu3.5_all.deb (--unpack):
cannot copy extracted data for './lib/firmware/qcom/sm8250/cdsp.mbn' to '/lib/firmware/qcom/sm8250/cdsp.mbn.dpkg-new': unexpected end of file or stream

Then the installation program entered an infinite loop: trying to decompress, error, trying to decompress, error etc.
The problem might have been solved by downloading again the defective package, but it is not the way the installation program is encoded: it tries again and again to decompress the defective package.

Here are the linuxmint / mintupgrade : Issues if you want to report either the suggestion for improvement or the problem or both.

[MikeNovember]

Here are the linuxmint / mintupgrade : Issues if you want to report either the suggestion for improvement or the problem or both.

Hi,

Done; added two different issues, one for ergonomic and one for infinite loop error.

Regards,

MN