19.1 upgrade

[bewille]

Hi,
there is a way to upgrade form MInt 18.3 to 19.1. Will it end up using the same kernel etc as the genuine install or will there be limitations?
Best regards
Bernd

[Hoser Rob]

You mean mint 19 of course, 19.1 won't be out for a while. I'd wait for the official 19 release myself.

Mint 19 won't ship with the same kernel as 18.3, no Linux distro does that. But if you do a web update the kernel isn't updated by default, at least up to now so I'm assuming it'll be the same. This is in case the newer kernel breaks things on your hardware.

However, I wouldn't do a web upgrade to a new major point release myself. It's just not reliable enough, both in Mint and its Ubuntu base. I do a clean reinstall instead, and installing with a separate /home partition helps a lot there.

[xenopeek]

The final release of Linux Mint 19 is expected end of this week. You can expect instructions for how to upgrade from Linux Mint 18.3 to 19 shortly afterwards. It will be announced on https://blog.linuxmint.com/.

[silfox2000]

You most probably meant Mint 19? The development of 19.1 is not even started. Regarding 19 you can read this announcement: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3590

[Pepi]

I fear to do an upgrade from 18.3 to 19. I would just have to do a fresh install

[mwbworld]

I fear to do an upgrade from 18.3 to 19. I would just have to do a fresh install

Same for me. I'm going to do a fresh install on my laptop to test things out. Then move on to my desktop if everything is going great.

[srq2625]

I do a clean reinstall instead, and installing with a separate /home partition helps a lot there.

I also do a clean install. However, I use the same /home partition - like this

1. Start up the LiveUSB
2. Open a file manager and click on the /home partition to get it mounted. It will usually mount in a location like /media/mint/[some unique idenfitier]
3. Open a terminal window
4. Execute command sudo mv /media/mint/[some unique identifier]/<username> /media/mint/[some unique identifier]/<HoldUsername>. This gets my user data out of the way of the install. Oh, BTW, repeat this for each user on the system.
5. Install the new version
6. Restart the new install and log in
7. Move the data from <HoldUsername> to the new user profile folder
8. Log out and then log into the next user account to create the user profile folders
9. Move the data from <HoldUsername> to the new user profile folder
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 for each user
11. Once all has been tested, delete each of the <HoldUsername> folders

Of course, the above assumes that I have a good and current backup of all the user data (basically, backing up /home partition).

[gm10]

I also do a clean install. However, I use the same /home partition - like this

As long as you realize that you don't really gain anything by doing that?
You can just install as is and skip all the moving around that serves no purpose at the end of the day.