mintupgrade: list of packages (feature request)

[bitwelder]

I'm going through the process of upgrading my Linux Mint 20.3 to 21

Using mintupgrade is quite nice, but as I have a number of orphan packages (which I would mostly like to keep/reinstall)
it would be nice if the tool would allow to copy & paste the list of packages that it generates
(Kept packages, Removed packages, etc), so that one can e.g. make a text document out of this list and
annotate a solution for them, or simply have a list of packages to be reinstalled.

The tool is launched from terminal where it already prints its steps, so the feature could be as easy as just reporting
what's on the graphical UI also on the terminal.

[MikeNovember]

I'm going through the process of upgrading my Linux Mint 20.3 to 21

Using mintupgrade is quite nice, but as I have a number of orphan packages (which I would mostly like to keep/reinstall)
it would be nice if the tool would allow to copy & paste the list of packages that it generates
(Kept packages, Removed packages, etc), so that one can e.g. make a text document out of this list and
annotate a solution for them, or simply have a list of packages to be reinstalled.

The tool is launched from terminal where it already prints its steps, so the feature could be as easy as just reporting
what's on the graphical UI also on the terminal.

Hi,

There is a way to have the list you want; see "4)"

Some tricks before to use mintupgrade:

1) At first: BACKUP (system: Foxclone or equivalent; system snapshot: Timeshift; home files: mintbackup, or better FreeFileSync).

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

3) 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.

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

Code: Select all

apt list ?obsolete

You can directly have this list in a text file:

Code: Select all

apt list ?obsolete >list.txt

5) 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, 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.

You can now use mintupgrade!

After the upgrade:

6) Install the PPAs and additional repositories (the ones you had removed) and update your system.

7) Manually install the packages that are still on your "list.txt".

Eight) Check that all is OK.

9) Make new system backup and system snapshot.

Regards,

MN