Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

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Flemur
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Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

Post by Flemur »

Is there a way to upgrade from 18.3 (xfce) to the new Mint 19 (beta or final release, doesn't matter to me) by changing the repositories, namely change "xenial" to ... "???" in, say, "official-package-repositories.list"?

Code: Select all

$ grep -Rl xenial /etc/apt/*
/etc/apt/sources.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/stebbins-handbrake-releases-xenial.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
"sources.list" = commented out CD reference.
"stebbins-handbrake-releases-xenial.list" = don't care, can ignore or delete.
"additional-repositories.list" is for wine 3., sorta don't care.

TIA!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by JerryF »

Flemur wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:42 am Is there a way to upgrade from 18.3 (xfce) to the new Mint 19 (beta or final release, doesn't matter to me) by changing the repositories, namely change "xenial" to ... "???" in, say, "official-package-repositories.list"?

Code: Select all

$ grep -Rl xenial /etc/apt/*
/etc/apt/sources.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/stebbins-handbrake-releases-xenial.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
"sources.list" = commented out CD reference.
"stebbins-handbrake-releases-xenial.list" = don't care, can ignore or delete.
"additional-repositories.list" is for wine 3., sorta don't care.

TIA!
Not sure, but we may get the option of upgrading from 18.3 to 19 like we had from 17.3 to 18 through Update Manager's menu.
Sir Charles

Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Sir Charles »

Flemur wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:42 am Is there a way to upgrade from 18.3 (xfce) to the new Mint 19 (beta or final release, doesn't matter to me) by changing the repositories, namely change "xenial" to ... "???" in, say, "official-package-repositories.list"?

Don't Do This at Home!

Hi Flemur
You got me curios. About to get myself killed :wink:
Look, this is highly speculative and I don't know if it will work in practice but here is what I did without going through the whole process of updating/upgrading:

1) Disabling all the additional repositories and PPA:s
2) Moving the "current"official-package-repositories.list to home
3) Making a newofficial-package-repositories.list in/etc/apt/sources.list.d :

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 ~ $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com tara main upstream import backport 
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse 
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner
4) Updating the cache:

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~$ sudo apt update

Hit:1 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                       
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease               
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease        
Ign:5 http://packages.linuxmint.com tara InRelease                      
Hit:6 http://packages.linuxmint.com tara Release   
Hit:8 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
Reading package lists... Done         
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
2386 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
Of 2898 packages installed from the repositories on my LM 18.3 Xfce, 2386 can be updated/upgraded.
I didn't go any further.
So the answer to your question is "maybe possible". If you want to find out, by all means, do it at your own risk. I am sure you can revive your system no matter what calamities.

Don't Do This at Home!
Last edited by Sir Charles on Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by trytip »

JerryF wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 12:41 pm Not sure, but we may get the option of upgrading from 18.3 to 19 like we had from 17.3 to 18 through Update Manager's menu.
i don't have that option in 17.3 mate. i'm more inclined to test and break things now that i have a few Timeshift snapshots to restore in case of failure.
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Sir Charles

Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Sir Charles »

JerryF wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 12:41 pm Not sure, but we may get the option of upgrading from 18.3 to 19 like we had from 17.3 to 18 through Update Manager's menu.
Hi Jerry,
It looks like we will.
Upgrade instructions:
  • This BETA release might contain critical bugs, please only use it for testing purposes and to help the Linux Mint team fix issues prior to the stable release.
  • It will be possible to upgrade from this BETA to the stable release.
  • It will also be possible to upgrade from Linux Mint 18.3. Upgrade instructions will be published after the stable release of Linux Mint 19.
https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3583
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Flemur »

Marziano wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:34 pm You got me curios. About to get myself killed :wink:
Look, this is highly speculative and I don't know if it will work in practice but here is what I did without going through the whole process of updating/upgrading:
...
Of 2898 packages installed from the repositories on my LM 18.3 Xfce, 2386 can be updated/upgraded.
I didn't go any further.
Cool, thanks for trying it!
Basically change
sylvia -> tara
xenial -> bionic

I have an easy OS backup/restore, so I might give that a shot! Will report back here if I do it...
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Sir Charles

Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Sir Charles »

Flemur wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:31 pm Basically change
sylvia -> tara
xenial -> bionic

I have an easy OS backup/restore, so I might give that a shot! Will report back here if I do it...
Yeah, that's about it. If you take the plunge, "may the force be with you"!

Cheers
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by karlchen »

Marziano wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:34 pmDon't Do This at Home!
Is my understanding correct that I should follow your steps on my productive office machine instead and follow your steps carelessly in my office during working hours? I am not really confident that my supervisor will appreciate if I do. :wink:
~~~
P.S.:
Your steps remind me a lot of an obsolete instruction, which has been removed from the Mint community website long ago. It was about upgrading from Linux Mint rel. X to Linux Mint rel. X+1 in place, without installing from scratch. (Much like this outdated instruction from 2014: Mint 16 to 17)
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Flemur »

Code: Select all

ROOT! /root # apt-get update
Ign:1 http://packages.linuxmint.com tara InRelease
...             
Get:54 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports/universe Translation-en [1136 B]                                                   
Fetched 26.3 MB in 23s (1130 kB/s)                                                                                                          
Reading package lists... Done
No errors!

Code: Select all

ROOT! /root # apt-get upgrade
...
The following packages have been kept back:
  adwaita-icon-theme adwaita-icon-theme-full aisleriot apport apt apt-transport-https apt-utils ..couple of hundred...? xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware zenity
  zenity-common
The following packages will be upgraded:
  accountsservice acl acpid adduser adobe-flashplugin ...several times more than the "kep back" packages...yelp-xsl zip zlib1g zlib1g:i386 zlib1g-dev
1231 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 569 not upgraded.
Need to get 324 MB of archives.
After this operation, 85.1 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
"Y".

"Details at 11", as they say.
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??[SOLVED]

Post by Flemur »

It's alive!
itsalive.jpg

Code: Select all

$ inxi -S 
System:    Host: lemurator Kernel: 4.14.33-041433-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Fluxbox 1.3.5
           Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
And everything seems to work.

Had some 500(?) packages "held back" -
Had to run this twice:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get upgrade 
Then run this twice

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sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
and

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sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f
Apparently grub-install got executed, and Mint took over booting from ubuntu (which is bad!), and the grub.cfg that got generated wouldn't let me boot Ubuntu (I keep a truncated ubuntu install just for booting and acting as a sort of really fast "live CD" for recovery, backups, etc) until I did some fiddling, then booted ubuntu and made it control booting.

Had to install "wine32-development" to get wine to work. (Note: I didn't change the wine 3.0 repo sources.list file from xenial to bionic)

systemd-analyze boot time increased from about 5.8 to 6.0 seconds,
and memory use at boot ("free -m") from 95 to 120 MB.
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Sir Charles

Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Sir Charles »

download.jpeg
And I didn't get burned :D
karlchen wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 6:01 pm
Marziano wrote: Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:34 pmDon't Do This at Home!
Is my understanding correct that I should follow your steps on my productive office machine instead and follow your steps carelessly in my office during working hours? I am not really confident that my supervisor will appreciate if I do. :wink:
~~~
P.S.: your steps remind me a lot of an obsolete instruction, which has been removed from the Mint community website long ago. It was about upgrading from Linux Mint rel. X to Linux Mint rel. X+1 in place, without installing from scratch. (Much like this outdated instruction from 2014: Mint 16 to 17)
I am afraid you are reading too much in a common phrase used to issue a generic warning. Besides, by no stretch of logical deduction the proposition "don't do this at home" entails the conclusion as to "do it at any other places", does it? Thus, the adverbial of location is irrelevant putting the emphasis on the imperative "don't do it".

My previous post was triggered by Flemur's question and at best was meant to be regarded as a thought experiment which possibly could be implemented in practice with no prior knowledge, on my part, of it's possible practical ramifications. Never was it intended to give instructions that other people should follow.

To be honest, when I posted, I wasn't aware of the instructions in that rather old Tecmint-article or the removal of the obsolete ones from Mint Community. It was quite straightforward to figure out how you would change the repositories to point to the ones for Tara and Bionic.

Now with the benefit of the hindsight, from my own implementation of those steps and judging by the success report from Flemur, those instructions might be obsolete but they are still functional. I guess that should be pretty much what happens behind the scenes when one performs an in-place upgrade through the Update Manager as well.

With that said, I am not to be hold responsible for having posted the above "instructions", if someone chooses to implement them at home or at any other places, leading to the breakage of her/his system. The generic warning was intended to such a presumptive user and not to Flemur to whom the post was addressed and I knew could recover the system if the worst came to the worst.

greetings
Marziano
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

Post by karlchen »

Hi, Marziano.

I had thought that it had been obvious that my reply had been ironic and that I had deliberately interpreted your warning too literally, word by word. :wink:

By the way, the instruction on how to upgrade in-place from Linux Mint rel.X to rel.X+1 by switching the software repos had been declared obsolete and removed from the community website around the time when the mintupgrade tool had been introduced (after Mint 18 had been released). Cf. here: How to upgrade to Linux Mint 18.

Cheers,
Karl
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

Post by Sir Charles »

karlchen wrote: Wed Jun 06, 2018 7:55 am I had thought that it had been obvious that my reply had been ironic and that I had deliberately interpreted your warning too literally, word by word. :wink:

Thanks for posting Karl!

I think I understood the irony in your post as well but I thought what if not... It's difficult sometimes to capture all the nuances of a written exchange even aided by emojis. One of my many shortcomings, I confess. I feel :oops: now.

Anyhow, I always appreciate your interventions in whatever thread it might be and I learn (and have learnt) a great deal from them for which I am grateful. And thank you for the link, I'll be looking into it.

Cheers,
Marziano
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Flemur »

Marziano wrote: Wed Jun 06, 2018 6:31 am might be obsolete but they are still functional.
That's me!
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Sir Charles

Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ??

Post by Sir Charles »

Flemur wrote: Wed Jun 06, 2018 10:37 am
Marziano wrote: Wed Jun 06, 2018 6:31 am might be obsolete but they are still functional.
That's me!
:lol:
Same here, lol. But still functional, I hope.
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

Post by karlchen »

As I seem to have a talent of presenting things in a misleading way :oops: , let me try to prevent one further potential misunderstanding from happening:
The link to clem's introduction of the mintupgrade tool is not meant to advise anyone to pick the old mintupgrade tool from August 2016 and to try upgrading from Mint 18.x to Mint 19 beta using the old mintupgrade tool.
It might do some steps which are specific to upgrade from Mint 17.3 to Mint 18 only. I really do not know.
(Telling myself: "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." But failing again to do so.)
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

Post by Blackdove »

Just as a note, since this topic comes up as first result google searching Upgrade mint 18 to 19 :P the above commands are very much your usage may vary...

i've done it on 4 machines, and 3 of the 4 broke after performing the mentioned steps. The upgrade worked, and system boots, but neither Mate or Cinnamon will start after logging into LightDM.

So be patient, and await the official upgrade path if you don't want to debug stuff.
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Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

Post by xenopeek »

Blackdove wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 7:46 amSo be patient, and await the official upgrade path if you don't want to debug stuff.
Exactly. It's likely less than a week before the official upgrade path tutorial arrives.

I can understand the enthusiasm but the saying isn't "if it ain't broke, let's break it" :)
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grobber

Re: Upgrade from 18.3 to 19 by changing repos - ?? [SOLVED]

Post by grobber »

This is just a quick confirmation that the direct method of changing repos works relatively well. I did

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# sed -i 's/xenial/bionic/g ; s/sylvia/tara/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
# apt-get dist-upgrade
with just a few relatively minor hiccups that are all referenced on these forums:

(1) During the apt-get upgrade phase I ran into this dbus-x11 error, fixable as suggested there:

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# dpkg --configure -a
# apt-get install -f
(2) After the upgrade I would get cgmanager failures; again fixable as in the linked thread, by

Code: Select all

# systemctl disable cgmanager
(3) Finally, all kernels newer than 4.10.0-38 would fail to load a graphical session for my NIS user with systemd-logind errors. This is documented in this other thread.

---
I don't know that I would have gotten off scot free from any of these following the official upgrade path. There's some indication in the follow-up discussion to the upgrade blog post that in some cases the dbus-x11 error was self-resolving though.

In any case, this is just an attempt to document all of the issues in one particular upgrade instance, in case it offers some reassurance.
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