Installation question(Solved)

Quick to answer questions about finding your way around Linux Mint as a new user.
Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
BoDill
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 624
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:31 pm
Location: St. Petersburg, FL 33702

Installation question(Solved)

Post by BoDill »

My old DELL desktop computer presently has "Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa Mate Edition" (and I hope that I am saying this right?), and the "Desktop" (meaning my computer screen) is heavily populated with "icons" (being symbols that I click on to go to specific places). I intend to upgrade to Mint 20.2 (UMA) Mate soon, and have been looking around trying to find out if I will automatically lose all my Desktop stuff if I upgrade. Before writing this inquiry, I looked around for awhile in an attempt to find an answer without bothering anybody, and I gave up (some of the questions I tried to ask had thousands of answers). Is there a simple answer? Is there an article I can read about how this is done? One article that I found said something like, "it is possible but very difficult". Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Again, all I want to do is upgrade from Mint 19.1 Mate to Mint 20.2 Mate while preserving my existing "Desktop", and obviously, I am not well versed in computer skills.

Thank you in advance,
BoDill
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Desktop: OptiPlex-790 ; Linux Mint 21.3
Laptop: Dell Latitude E6420; Linux Mint 20.3 Una Mate (Renew April 2025)
Laptop 2: HP ProBook 440 G3, Linux Mint 20.3 Una Mate (Renew April 2025)
User avatar
Michael_Hathaway
Level 4
Level 4
Posts: 329
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:27 am
Location: Shebang, USA
Contact:

Re: Installation question

Post by Michael_Hathaway »

I don't believe that anyone here would guarantee you won't lose files on an upgrade. However, backing up is pretty simple. I make a copy of my Home folder and all of its contents to an external drive. I also use the Backup tool included with Mint. I store these files on a external hard drive. As far as upgrading, I prefer a fresh install over an upgrade. I have upgraded many times and I have not gotten an exactly perfect result every time. So I will leave that decision up to you.
Enterprise Dual Xeon 8081 (112) @3.8Ghz, 16TB NVMe Raid, 387Gb ECC, AMD Pro W7700 16Gb
Debian Support. Deb 12/13 Trixie 6.7.9
Image
Petermint
Level 9
Level 9
Posts: 2981
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:12 am

Re: Installation question

Post by Petermint »

An upgrade like LM20.1 to 20.2 usually works. The major upgrade from LM 19 to LM 20 created problems on my first computer so I did both as clean installs. This is where a few things depend on your setup.

If your home directory is separate from your system directory, you can perform a clean install on the system directory. When they are mixed in one big partition, there is more work.

Timeshift backs up your system and I use the similar Backintime for my home directory. I also use some partition copies. About five disks in all.

One big partition starts with backup, backup, backup, a wipe of that partition, then the install of LM 20 then the restore of your home directory. Separate home partitions usually result in the home directory not being wiped and no need to restore. You still do the backup, backup, backup, because you might click the wrong option and wipe the home directory.

There is a way to list all the packages you installed after installing LM 19. I do not have the command handy. It produces a list of what you might install afterwards. You might also decide to install only what you need as some of the extra packages might be obsolete. You will, this time, make a list of everything you add so you can remember next time.

You might also end up with major version upgrades of applications. Some of those can be confusing. Allocate time to go through each application settings. Firefox is one example. They do a Microsoft and override some of your settings during updates.

I find a clean install beneficial as I experiment with so many extra applications. A clean install is often part of my annual spring clean.
RIH
Level 9
Level 9
Posts: 2834
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:47 am

Re: Installation question

Post by RIH »

Petermint wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:04 pm There is a way to list all the packages you installed after installing LM 19. I do not have the command handy. It produces a list of what you might install afterwards. You might also decide to install only what you need as some of the extra packages might be obsolete. You will, this time, make a list of everything you add so you can remember next time
The Backup tool allows you to do this.
If you
Menu-Backup Tool-under Software Selection click on Back up now.

This produces a text file list of all your added applications. After installing the new version of Mint you can then run Backup Tool again & select Restore under Software Manager.

NOTE: It will only restore Applications that you installed via Software Manager/Synaptic.
If you installed an Application from elsewhere it will not install it even if a copy of the Application exists in software manager.
It does create a list of un-installed Application though so you can manually add them in or search for a replacement..
Image
rickNS
Level 9
Level 9
Posts: 2914
Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:59 pm

Re: Installation question

Post by rickNS »

Petermint wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:04 pm
There is a way to list all the packages you installed after installing LM 19. I do not have the command handy. It produces a list of what you might install afterwards.
This command will list all manually installed packages, no matter how....though I don't know about snaps, or appimage type, as I have none of those.

Code: Select all

comm -23 <(apt-mark showmanual | sort -u) <(gzip -dc /var/log/installer/initial-status.gz | sed -n 's/^Package: //p' | sort -u)
Mint 20.0, and 21.0 MATE on Thinkpads, 3 X T420, T450, T470, and X200
rickNS
Level 9
Level 9
Posts: 2914
Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:59 pm

Re: Installation question

Post by rickNS »

BoDill wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:03 pm
Again, all I want to do is upgrade from Mint 19.1 Mate to Mint 20.2 Mate while preserving my existing "Desktop",
Well that's going to be 5 upgrades, according to my math, as you can't "skip over" any .x versions. Not going to be easy, and certainly not going to be quick.

Do your backups, and you maybe able to replace the Desktop folder (with it's launchers I assume) in the new install...After you get the apps installed. I say maybe, because I wouldn't count on it going off without a least a hiccup or two. Frankly, am I missing something, as how hard is it to right click, and add to desktop ?

One only needs a new Mint every 3 to 5 years, and it really is not that painful.
Mint 20.0, and 21.0 MATE on Thinkpads, 3 X T420, T450, T470, and X200
jsb
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 166
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 11:20 am

Re: Installation question

Post by jsb »

BoDill wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:03 pm My old DELL desktop computer presently has "Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa Mate Edition" (and I hope that I am saying this right?), and the "Desktop" (meaning my computer screen) is heavily populated with "icons" (being symbols that I click on to go to specific places). I intend to upgrade to Mint 20.2 (UMA) Mate soon, and have been looking around trying to find out if I will automatically lose all my Desktop stuff if I upgrade.
Are you talking about just the appearance of the desktop, that you want to avoid having to add all those icons back to it? Or is it more about keeping the things that those icons point to?

If it is the first, my experience has been that the appearance has been maintained, for the most part, when I have upgraded. In addition to the desktop icons, I have also have customized the size (I like a "large print" panel) and layout of the panel. I have not done a fresh install since either mint 16 or 17 (whichever was the first to allow the upgrade process), and am now on 19.3 on two different computers, via many upgrades. Both of them have maintained desktop icons with no issues through all those upgrades. The panel has had a few issues with some of the items on it, I think usually it was with items that are called "plug-ins".

I also saved a screenshot of my desktop in case things were lost, just as a reminder of what it had looked like. That was something that I wish I had done back when I did do fresh installs, since those always required redoing all the appearance customization.
BoDill
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 624
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:31 pm
Location: St. Petersburg, FL 33702

Re: Installation question

Post by BoDill »

To All,
This has taken awhile because the guy whom I bought the used computer from took a few days to find me a good one, (an HP laptop), and when I picked it up, he had already installed Linux Mint Mate 20.2 UMA, and he also handed me a 4GB Memorex USB stick "with Linux 20.2 on it". Eventually, I will try to upgrade a couple of my other computers to "20.2", but for now "19.1 Tessa" is working just fine.

Going forward, let me use the word "desktop" with small letters to mean my desktop computer, while "Desktop" with a capitol "D" will mean the Desktop screen which is covered with icons.

So to get back to my question about saving my Desktop, I just had an experience that may relate to this problem of mine. I found amongst my stuff an old 8 GB USB stick with "Desktop Backup, 2014" written on it, so I stuck it in a slot on the "new" laptop computer, and somehow I opened the list of stuff on it, and downloaded it to the "new" computer. Now the Desktop on my "new" laptop computer is populated with icons that I was using years ago, and many of them work when clicked on. (Note that I will probably delete most of them, as I wouldn't be using them any more). Sadly, I was in my exploratory mode, so I did not keep tract of all my steps, and I do not remember exactly what I did (it could not be complicated, as I did not know what I was doing, and I would click-on only easy things).

With that, I tried formatting the USB stick and putting a screenshot of the Desktop from my desktop (meaning the computer on which I am typing right now) on the same USB stick, with the hope of putting all the same stuff on my "new" computer. Unfortunately, when I plugged the USB stick into my "new" computer, all I can get is a picture of my desktop's Desktop, with no way of making it a functional part of my "new" computer.

Evidently, some years ago I loaded (or downloaded?) some sort of configuration of my Desktop that could be loaded (or downloaded?) onto another computer. I do not remember doing it (at 75 years old, my memory is worthless), although I am sure that I did it, meaning that it was not done by someone else.

I am hoping that someone out there can tell me, in the simplest possible terms, how take a screenshot (or a copy, or whatever the proper terminology is) of my present Desktop on my desktop, and copy it to my "new" laptop.

As you can imagine, I have tried to find the solution to this by myself, but have spent hours looking at pages of stuff that turned out to be of no use to me. I guess basically I need to know if I can make a copy of my existing desktop's Desktop and somehow put a copy in my "new" laptop.

I'll say "thank you" ahead of time, as I know that dealing with me is a pain...
BoDill
Desktop: OptiPlex-790 ; Linux Mint 21.3
Laptop: Dell Latitude E6420; Linux Mint 20.3 Una Mate (Renew April 2025)
Laptop 2: HP ProBook 440 G3, Linux Mint 20.3 Una Mate (Renew April 2025)
jsb
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 166
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 11:20 am

Re: Installation question

Post by jsb »

BoDill wrote: Wed Nov 03, 2021 6:23 pmWith that, I tried formatting the USB stick and putting a screenshot of the Desktop from my desktop (meaning the computer on which I am typing right now) on the same USB stick, with the hope of putting all the same stuff on my "new" computer. Unfortunately, when I plugged the USB stick into my "new" computer, all I can get is a picture of my desktop's Desktop, with no way of making it a functional part of my "new" computer.
Sorry if I led you astray, a screenshot is just a picture of the screen, nothing more. My mention of taking a screenshot just meant that was a way for me to remind myself of what I had on the Desktop and what my panel looked like. Like, "oh I had a shortcut/launcher for chrome and calculator in the panel and on the Desktop before, let me add those to my new Desktop and panel".

Different people use the Desktop differently, all I ever put on mine is a few launchers/shortcuts (there are all of 5 icons on my desktop), I do not store any files on/in it. My spouse, on the other hand, (to my horror :lol: ) treats her Desktop as a basically just another file folder that she puts random files in. Those files then appear on her Desktop.

But, it is a folder like any other. If you open your file manager, there is a file folder called desktop. Mine has just the 4 icons that I added to my desktop in it. I think that for the Desktop, itself, not including the panel, that is the folder that you would need to back-up if you want to try to replace the Desktop on a fresh install with what you had before. That folder should have all your desktop icons in it, as well as any files, if you use the desktop in the way my spouse does.
BoDill
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 624
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:31 pm
Location: St. Petersburg, FL 33702

Re: Installation question (solved)

Post by BoDill »

Tp JSB and all,

THANK YOU!!!!

With your information, I just copied the Desktop from my desktop computer onto a USB stick, and put it on my "new" computer, and so far it seems to work. Since my shop is open, I don't have time to click-on everything on the Desktop of my "new" laptop, but the few that I tried worked!

With that, I will address my other concerns (like putting Mint Mate 20.2 on other computers, etc) later. So far, so good......

BoDill
Desktop: OptiPlex-790 ; Linux Mint 21.3
Laptop: Dell Latitude E6420; Linux Mint 20.3 Una Mate (Renew April 2025)
Laptop 2: HP ProBook 440 G3, Linux Mint 20.3 Una Mate (Renew April 2025)
Locked

Return to “Beginner Questions”