Over the years I have upgraded my Ubuntu desktop twice a year using do-release-upgrade.
My root drive SSD is nearly full so I've just bought a bigger one, and I'm looking at migrating across to it. But... Ubuntu 22.04 is nearly here, so maybe it would make more sense to clean things up with a fresh 22.04 install on the new SSD instead?
I know lots of people avoid upgrades and just do a clean install retaining /home (or something along those lines) but I've never done it myself. Is it the right way to go?
It's a desktop PC, but 99% of the time I access it via SSH. Over the years it's had all sorts of stuff installed and uninstalled (or installed and no longer used but still there). So a clearout definitely seems like a good idea. So it seems like what I ideally want is a managed migration where I choose which things I have on the old install I migrate and which I leave behind. Is this going to be more hassle than it's worth?
On 19/04/2022 09:37, Mark Rogers wrote:
Over the years I have upgraded my Ubuntu desktop twice a year using do-release-upgrade.
My root drive SSD is nearly full so I've just bought a bigger one, and I'm looking at migrating across to it. But... Ubuntu 22.04 is nearly here, so maybe it would make more sense to clean things up with a fresh 22.04 install on the new SSD instead?
I know lots of people avoid upgrades and just do a clean install retaining /home (or something along those lines) but I've never done it myself. Is it the right way to go?
It's a desktop PC, but 99% of the time I access it via SSH. Over the years it's had all sorts of stuff installed and uninstalled (or installed and no longer used but still there). So a clearout definitely seems like a good idea. So it seems like what I ideally want is a managed migration where I choose which things I have on the old install I migrate and which I leave behind. Is this going to be more hassle than it's worth?
For some time now I've been upgrading my Linux Mint Cinnamon desktops using Aptik. It's so good I even bought a licence to the pro version. It makes the whole process simple, as quick as it can be, and, so far, totally safe. I highly recommend it.
https://teejeetech.com/aptik-3/
I do the backups to a separate drive, usually an SSD in a USB3 caddy.
Cheers, Laurie.
On Wed, 20 Apr 2022 at 11:50, Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com wrote:
For some time now I've been upgrading my Linux Mint Cinnamon desktops using Aptik. It's so good I even bought a licence to the pro version. It makes the whole process simple, as quick as it can be, and, so far, totally safe. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look. (For some reason your reply went into spam so I only just saw it.)
On 19/04/2022 09:37, Mark Rogers wrote:
Over the years I have upgraded my Ubuntu desktop twice a year using do-release-upgrade.
My root drive SSD is nearly full so I've just bought a bigger one, and I'm looking at migrating across to it. But... Ubuntu 22.04 is nearly here, so maybe it would make more sense to clean things up with a fresh 22.04 install on the new SSD instead?
I know lots of people avoid upgrades and just do a clean install retaining /home (or something along those lines) but I've never done it myself. Is it the right way to go?
It's a desktop PC, but 99% of the time I access it via SSH. Over the years it's had all sorts of stuff installed and uninstalled (or installed and no longer used but still there). So a clearout definitely seems like a good idea. So it seems like what I ideally want is a managed migration where I choose which things I have on the old install I migrate and which I leave behind. Is this going to be more hassle than it's worth?
When I start a new laptop, I usually start from scratch. I don't remember the exact details, but there is a way of getting a report from apt/apt-get that shows you what's installed, and I think there's a tweak that shows you things that were manually installed.
I've backed everything up, installed a fresh install, then compared what's installed on the new machine with the old machine. I then check what I've actually used, install the necessary, then copy over the required files. It usually takes me a while to do, but it does get rid of the cruft that accumulates.
Next time I do this, I'll have a look at Laurie's solution if I remember!
Steve
On Wed, 20 Apr 2022 at 22:17, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
When I start a new laptop, I usually start from scratch. I don't remember the exact details, but there is a way of getting a report from apt/apt-get that shows you what's installed, and I think there's a tweak that shows you things that were manually installed.
This is the route I decided to take, primarily because the more I thought about it the more I could see that I wanted to lose rather than keep. The way I've used the PC has changed a lot over the years and a cleanout was more important than simplicity!
After problems years ago I always now do a fresh install and as this always goes well I've seen no reason to do anything different.
I have /home on a separate partition. I tend to boot into a live CD, mount my home partition and rename my home folder, e.g. mv martin martin_old. Mount the root partition and copy any config files I want to keep. Then unmount both partitions and install with the same username (making sure I don't format the home partition). Once booted into my new install, if the pid is different (it usually isn't) I recursively change ownership and group of my old folder to my new username. Then I selectively copy what I want from my old home folder to my new - whether that's normal files and folders or configuration files and scripts I've spent years crafting.
Once that's done I delete my old home folder and then re-install any applications I use.
Works well for me. If I want to change partition sizes or types then I use an external hdd as a backup,
Good luck.
Martin
On 19/04/2022 09:37, Mark Rogers wrote:
Over the years I have upgraded my Ubuntu desktop twice a year using do-release-upgrade.
My root drive SSD is nearly full so I've just bought a bigger one, and I'm looking at migrating across to it. But... Ubuntu 22.04 is nearly here, so maybe it would make more sense to clean things up with a fresh 22.04 install on the new SSD instead?
I know lots of people avoid upgrades and just do a clean install retaining /home (or something along those lines) but I've never done it myself. Is it the right way to go?
It's a desktop PC, but 99% of the time I access it via SSH. Over the years it's had all sorts of stuff installed and uninstalled (or installed and no longer used but still there). So a clearout definitely seems like a good idea. So it seems like what I ideally want is a managed migration where I choose which things I have on the old install I migrate and which I leave behind. Is this going to be more hassle than it's worth?
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Laurie Brown -
Mark Rogers -
Martin Collins -
steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk