Mint Newbie with 2 Questions?

[curmudgeon2]

As a brief background, I'm a newbie to Mint, but I've been using UBUNTU for several years, with the operative term being "using". I am familiar with most of the GUI methods of adding and removing packages, and I know where and what the 'Terminal' is, but don't know much about the different commands, although I can certainly copy them when give specific instructions.

I'm currently running Mint 12 "Lisa", having downloaded and burned the CD version and then upgraded to the DVD version. All of my updates are current. (I have two HDs and and am running UBUNTU 12.04 LTS on the second HD.)

1) I would like to be able to "upgrade" to Mint 13 "Maya" but I don't see that option any place on the "Update" program, nor on the Mint Web site. Is it always necessary to do a complete 'disk' install of new distros??
2) What do the letters "RC" in the 'Mint 13 Maya "RC" signify?

Thank you kindly for your help and forebearance.

[kc1di]

Welcome to Mint good to have you here.

You can upgrade to 13 if you choose that can be done by the terminal command

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sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

RC stands for Release Candidate and is not the final release. which should be coming soon.
However I have mint 13 cinnamon version install and I find it very good already.

My suggestion is that if you don't have a lot of important stuff on your install of 12 that you do a complete dvd fresh install.
there is a very good chance of problems with an upgrade. some do well other seem to be problematic.

but it's your choice.
Cheers,
Dave

[odo5435]

G'day curmudgeon2, and welcome to the Linux Mint forums.

Firstly,...

Is it always necessary to do a complete 'disk' install of new distros??

For information on the various ways to upgrade have a look at How to upgrade to a newer release in the community pages. The reasons why theses methods are recommended is explained under item E1 on that page (Why doesn't Linux Mint upgrade the way Ubuntu does?)

Secondly,...

What do the letters "RC" in the 'Mint 13 Maya "RC" signify?

RC in this context means "Release Candidate". It is somewhat similar to a Windows 'beta' version. One explanation of release candidates can be found at What is a Release Candidate? although a search of the term will give you dozens of other explanations.

[cwwgateway]

I'll give specific instructions on how to update Maya to Cinnamon, although this is risky and might not work, also, you should make a backup before doing this if you have any important files:
Edit your sources. Replace every "oneiric" with "precise" and every "lisa" with "maya." Open this list with this command in the terminal:

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gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Save the file and then run

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sudo apt-get update

Then

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sudo apt-get upgrade

Then

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sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

And then:

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sudo apt-get install mint-meta-cinnamon-dvd

This should work, but again no promises. This process might take a very long time and if it asks you a y/n question, answer y (yes).

[xarmyvet02]

Thank youfor your reply. It seems to have shed some light on what I was asking. Good to see you here.

[curmudgeon2]

Thanks to all for your specific guidance, and instructions. I do appreciate your time and attention; and I now have enough info to make a more informed decision as to the upgrade. I did do a search of the forums before asking my Qs, I just wasn't as thorough as I should have been.

Best to you All!

[kc1di]

Thanks to all for your specific guidance, and instructions. I do appreciate your time and attention; and I now have enough info to make a more informed decision as to the upgrade. I did do a search of the forums before asking my Qs, I just wasn't as thorough as I should have been.

Best to you All!

hope the upgrade / fresh install goes well for you. Enjoy

[makecoldplayhistory]

Thanks to all for your specific guidance, and instructions. I do appreciate your time and attention; and I now have enough info to make a more informed decision as to the upgrade. I did do a search of the forums before asking my Qs, I just wasn't as thorough as I should have been.

Best to you All!

Did it go well?

I'm a n00b and although I've only just got 12 working how I want, I like to try the newest of everything

I won't if it was a nightmare though.

Thanks

[cwwgateway]

Thanks to all for your specific guidance, and instructions. I do appreciate your time and attention; and I now have enough info to make a more informed decision as to the upgrade. I did do a search of the forums before asking my Qs, I just wasn't as thorough as I should have been.

Best to you All!

Did it go well?

I'm a n00b and although I've only just got 12 working how I want, I like to try the newest of everything

I won't if it was a nightmare though.

Thanks

I haven't done 12 -> 13 personally, but I did a 10 -> 11 off of a fresh install (I wanted to see if it would work) and it was complete chaos. My guess is that for a new user (no offense, you said it yourself) it will be a nightmare.

[makecoldplayhistory]

Thanks to all for your specific guidance, and instructions. I do appreciate your time and attention; and I now have enough info to make a more informed decision as to the upgrade. I did do a search of the forums before asking my Qs, I just wasn't as thorough as I should have been.

Best to you All!

Did it go well?

I'm a n00b and although I've only just got 12 working how I want, I like to try the newest of everything

I won't if it was a nightmare though.

Thanks

I haven't done 12 -> 13 personally, but I did a 10 -> 11 off of a fresh install (I wanted to see if it would work) and it was complete chaos. My guess is that for a new user (no offense, you said it yourself) it will be a nightmare.

No offence taken

I'll wait for a final release and then do a fresh install.

Thanks