The upgrade tool is ready. It makes upgrading from Linux Mint 5 to Linux Mint 6 trivial. Now, having said that… this is still a risky operation.
Warning
The recommended way to install Linux Mint is to perform a fresh install. We’re planning to release Linux Mint 6 tomorrow so I personally recommend you wait until then and go the safe way, try the ISO, see if it works well with your computer and then decide to upgrade, or even better, to perform a fresh install.
With all these warning you probably wonder why I’m trying to convince you not to use the tool I just wrote. It’s been properly tested, it works well but it still presents a risk. Even though I prefer people to perform fresh installs from the live CD, a lot of people asked for this tool. As usual I provide a choice and a recommendation. If for any reason you can’t afford loosing your current system, then stay away from this tool.
How to
From Linux Mint 5 Elyssa, install the package “mintupgrader-elyssa-main” and run the upgrade tool from the menu (“Upgrade to Linux Mint 6” in the Administration category).
When the upgrade is finished. Reboot the computer by opening a terminal and by typing “sudo reboot” (without the quotes).
Give us your feedback and for those who make it all the way to Felicia, enjoy Linux Mint 6.
Edit: This tool is designed for the Main edition.
thank’s for the info.
for the moment i allready use Felicia, but i will test the tool from VirtualBox. If i find a bug i will report it.
can you already say something about the x64 edition? I was hoping that the upgrade tool was for both, but it’s only for x86.
Forgive me if this is an excessively obvious question, but how do I install that package? I don’t see it in the Mint Software Portal, nor does it show up in Synaptic.
will the tool also allow to upgrade from Elyssa to Linux Mint 7 next summer?
Since Intrepid is considered to be a somewhat buggy release, I’d rather wait for the next version of Mint, based on a hopefully stable Jaunty Jackalope….
Yeah one sentence about the x64-edition would be much appreciated
Far out! sda9 and sda10 are ready and waiting for the official final release! Can’t wait! Yeah, yeah I know ……… just how many operating systems does one guy need ;^)
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2677 21502971 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2678 9729 56645190 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2678 5035 18940603+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 5036 5169 1076323+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 5170 5934 6144831 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 5935 7434 12048718+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 7435 8199 6144831 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 8200 9729 12289693+ 83 Linux
Where is the ungrader located. I can’t find it. Any chance of editing the blog and linking to the upgrader?
John
@4
packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mintupgrader-elyssa-main/
Hello, im new to linux and tried to update with the update tool and now it won´t boot into Mint anymore, stops at the console and this are the last lines:
kinit: name_to_dev_t(/dev/disk/by-uuid/e8fcf9e6-27e3-491f-bf99-5772adab1003) = dev(8,2)
kinit: trying to resume from /dev/disk/by-uuid/e8fcf9e6-27e3-491f-bf99-5772adab1003
kinit: No resume image, doing normal boot…
Is this a easy fix? or should i download the mint6 iso?
/walle
It’s in the repositories for Elyssa – use apt or Synaptic or possibly mintinstall – can’t tell as I’m on Felicia now
Just thought I’d give the upgrade a go to see what happened. Everything very smooth, went well, but 2 minor problems. I have a few old solitaire games that worked perfectly in Mint 5 and my Logitech quickcam was correctly identified and configured. I have already tried fresh installs of Ubuntu 8.10 and Mint 6 but both fail to identify the webcam and wine no longer allows me to play my solitaire games giving an “unexpected error – incomplete zip file” even though the files are not zip files. I use image files so I’m back on Elyssa which is perfect.
Husse,
It doesn’t appear to be there yet. I’ve tried both apt and Synaptic. Is it in a repository other than the main Elyssa “packages.linuxmint.com”?
Regards
John
John Says:
December 15th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Husse,
It doesn’t appear to be there yet. I’ve tried both apt and Synaptic. Is it in a repository other than the main Elyssa “packages.linuxmint.com”?
In Package Manager search for “mintupgrader-elyssa-main” when the download is complete, look in Applications, Administration and you should see an entry “Upgrade to Linux Mint 6” which will then start the upgrade
Cant find it either…
Found the updater using “sudo apt-get install mintupgrader-elyssa-main”. Installed just fine. Upgrade went well, however had some small issues with the Nvidia driver after upgrade. Everything working great now.
forget it..synaptic couldnt find it, but it is there at packages.linuxmint.com. download and install.
It’s there, version 1.4 don’t forget to reload Synaptic.
Updating my laptop as we speak, 611 files!
# Pat Says:
December 15th, 2008 at 12:32 am
forget it..synaptic couldnt find it, but it is there at packages.linuxmint.com. download and install.
synaptic finds it for me
Clem, there is currently a problem with the forum. No one can log in, not even as “guest”. A php error shows at the top of the login page and it does not see passwords that are there.
I posted this here in the hopes that it would be seen.
As tempting as it is to upgrade, I started having to many problems with anything based om Ubuntu 8.10. I’ll stick with LM 5 for now. 🙂
Oh well, that upgrades gone horribly wrong, going to bed now. 🙁
@ exploder
I’ve mailed Clem on his private address about it
It’s the wiki too
Sorry for hijacking the comments
Thanks Husse, The forum seemed like an important issue. Also, sorry for hijacking the comments.
X would not start booted into Recovery – rebooted – all seems OK now. 🙂
I can’t want. Fearful of installing this install of mint is 5 months old (my longest linux install i have switched) and so ill wait for the iso
Will this new mint fix that idiotic busybox booting issue in Mint 5? I had to pass on Mint 5 and go to Ubuntu because of that. Hopefully now I can get back on the mint track.
I was wondering if there was going to be an easy way to auto mount internal hard drives in Linux Mint 6?
Synaptic found the upgrader tool fine for me, but after instalaation it didn’t show up in any of the menu’s. I have mintUpdate, but no mintUpgrader. Using a terminal, none of “sudo mintupgrader”, “sudo mintupgrader-elyssa” or “sudo mintupgrader-elyssa-main” worked.
I found the upgrader through synaptic by doing a search using “felicia.”
The upgrader popped up and i was able to install.
I’d better wait for Felicia
Clem, i would advise an upgrade tool with the *option* of backing up first the current system or installing new ver. in a new partition, that way people can go back to their old system if the new version is not working well. an entry gets added in grub similar to how kernel upgrades. it would be like a Mint_safe_update_tool
i have lots of free space, so that’s something i would definitely use. like i said it would be optional and would really remove all the fears and problems of upgrading your linux box that have been around for years.
a simple solution to an old problem
Yes, a fresh install would be the way to go for any new OS but dang, when you have so much work to have reload all your apps….I almost would rather risk it and try the tool. Im with Manny, need an option to back up our system.
darco
Just finished upgrading. It went smooth, not one problem during downloading and installing packages. After rebooting the X server didn’t displayed GDM, but after reinstalling my Nvidia card modules it was solved.
Although I do have a very SERIOUS problem, my menu button still says ‘Elyssa’ and not ‘Felicia’ ¬¬.
Very good job guys, every one of you. Congratz.
Well, i did it, installed “mintupgrader-elyssa-main” and nothing happened, i do not have mint upgrade to 6 shortcuts…. i am on fluxbox edition
sorry, all ok now… i had to upgrade manually fluxbox menus
I’d also advise against the upgrade tool, I was brave enough to give it a whirl, it’s a nice effort but it totally destroyed my Mint 5 install *** be warned ***
I took an image of the partition first but stupidly I used symanshite Ghost and now I can’t even get it back from a re-image. The files were restored but it wouldn’t boot and complained about some Inode error.
I’m now in the process of running the debugfs -w /dev/partition -R “features ^resize_inode ^ext_attr” and the e2fsck -y -f /dev/partition command in the hope of some form of recovery but it’s been thrashing the hard drive for hours!!! It seems to have something to do with Ghost losing ext2 or ext3 info.
If anyone has any suggestions of how I might recover I’m all ears.
It’s a cool tool although it leaves space for risks that’s the same with Partitioning software; they work fine but always carry a risk with them. so is the upgrade tool Clem made (works perfectly but carries the same risk) A baby on her mother’s back is safe, but again there a risk should the mother stumble and fall. u C! Ok Clem now please consider writing a utility for formatting. Formatting itself takes a few seconds i think so should be the process.
What about the FORMATTING TOOL! Please simplify this! wish I knew HTML i was going to do it myself. Imagine Clem if your daughter had troubles formatting her stick and she only has to run to her friend’s PC running windows. wouldn’t that be shameful??? Pls guys i know u work hard for every release to be a reality. i think python would be just gr8t. must learn it mybe C+
Where are the linux geeks and gurus to help this man. I haven’t read the comments without having found his cry (FORMATTING TOOL FOR DRIVES/USB STICK) Now i ask you Gurus and Geeks to help him. Enough dude u been crying like a child. they should listen to you cries!!! 8(
Is This tool for XFCE (and/or kde…) editions?
good news and thanks for your hard work. i will be waiting for the full x64 edition to arrive and do a fresh install, however. also, i see that the forum is stuttering and at the top of the page is a line saying: “[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /search.php on line 468: preg_replace(): Compilation failed: this version of PCRE is not compiled with PCRE_UTF8 support at offset 0″…but i’m sure you already saw it.
I tried the tool. Generally it’s a great idea. Unfortunately I messed things up in second step. After all the packets were downloaded, the installer in console asked me if I want to keep an old configuration file or to overwrite it with newer version or to compare both files before making decision. I choose the last option and it was my mistake. After then I couldn’t continue with install. In the console I saw the two files: first and then second, but I wasn’t able to make my choice. I tried everything, but it didn’t resume. So my OS is broken. I hope that Felicia will be ready today for download. So I can reinstall the OS.
I to tried the update and pretty much blow out Elyssa. And Clem warned us that is was a risk. So I will wait for the ISO to come out and do a fresh install. I would like to say of all the distributions I have tried Linux Mint is by far the best. If any distro will convert people from other OS this is the one!
Thanks Clem.
Oh, my GOD!!! My button said Elyssa too. 😀 It was such a trouble to right-click, choose Preferences and go to the “Button” tab to rename it to Felicia I now need a vacation. 😛
Everything went well. Thank you, Clem. It’s nothing I cannot handle if anything else goes wrong. A fresh reinstall means nothing to me. Gnome Do starts twice in my configuration but other than that everything’s right. Oh… almost. mintInstall doesn’t behave 100% right. After I install what I need I have to force quit the “Cancel / Install” dialog because it stays faded to black, inactive and unresponsive. Until I give it a fresh reinstall I added that behaviour to my “total ignore” list. :))
Felicia is very nice. Thank you for writing the upgrade tool. It went smoothly even if I have a lot of applications/servers installed. 🙂 Stop crying, people. Read the news carefully just so you know what to do or NOT to do and what’s this all about. It’s easy. Good luck! 🙂
I wait… it’s too early…. Elyssa it’s working great yet!!! 😀
I found it by.
open synaptic package manager.
press search
in the search field enter “mintupgrader”
under the search field choose “lookin”
then press the search button.
when install go down to the elyessa button and right click then re load plugins.
then go to applications/all
scroll down to “upgrade to linux mint 6΅
I found the original instructions confusing, hope this helps someone.
Problem with webcam, and sound (skype) on mint 6… My webcam doesn’t work… the led is on all the time.. but doesn’t work…
The upgrade tool killed my Mint 5 installation. The process seemed to work just fine until I rebooted. It boots through Logon, but then the screen goes white. I have no way to move past this point. I guess I will need to do a full install again. The platform was a late model Toshiba notebook PC.
Any word on the log on problem with the forum? It is Monday 8:23 am here and I am still getting the php errors and can not log on.
Everything works with me.
Great works clem !
Exploder: Yes. It was caused by a PHP upgrade yesterday. Michael will be home shortly, he already knows about the problem. We’re hoping to having it fixed in a few hours and then after that I’ll basically start releasing Mint 6.
Tried the update last night and it seems to have caused a bit of havoc. 🙂
I boot directly into the Terminal, without any sign of my Gnome desktop. I haven’t really had time to play around with it though.
I am likely just going to do a fresh install tonight, which is what I probably should have done in the first place, but my damn curiosity got the better of me.
Upgrade worked 100%. Fantastic job and extremely simple.
Many Thanks Clem.
Hello,
I have checked it on my XFCE Mint version.
1. Webcam problem. Before begin upgrade I have tried my web cam on Ubuntu 8.10 and it works. But whet I upgraded my mint to 6 it stopped working. Webcam is using GSPCA driver.
2 Flash in Firefox also won’t work. I have deleted “flashplugin-nonfree” and installed adobe-flashplugin (10.0.12.36-1intrepid2) to fix this.
3 Nvidia drivers (Envyng) was not upgraded when system was, because of it X wont start. I have change driver to Vesa in xorg.conf, then I have upgraded Nvidia drivers to new wersion.
Thats all.
Anyone could help me in this topic?
http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=19737
do it.
Hi
It is better to wait for the final release … I just break my system with mintupgrader 🙁
Yay! Looking forward to it. =)
I would not say the update was trivial. It took a lot of time and involved many files, but it went smoothly. Thank you for your work.
Ditto on the Nvidia drivers. Had to run envy from the command prompt pick a driver and reboot. All is well after that.
worked fine only one little cosmetic issue for me the thing still says elyssa even tho its clearly felicia
Hi,
I used the update tool but after reboot I have got only a command line screen. No desktop. I have a nvidia card. I read there is an issue with that cards and need to be upgraded. Anyone can tell me how to do the update the drivers?
Thank you
I upgraded a everuthink looks work fine, is a very, very, very long process but everithink perfect. Except a little problem with a toolbar that is alredy remade.
MintInstall take me long to refresh, ¿is normal?
I’m currently using the tentative beta release of Felicia, is it like neccessary for me to upgrade too, or is it fine?
@Julien, log in and then write “envyng -t” and this will upgrade drivers.
Finally, i found how to modify the xorg.conf and now it is working fine.
I just ran the mintupgrader this morning. It was not without problems. Synaptic hung on a package conflict with acroread, and I had to open a terminal window and kill the backgrounded synaptic processes several times to get the upgrader to move on. X didn’t start after the upgrade, but I let the system start in low-graphics mode and the restricted drivers manager then offered to installed the nVidia driver. I let that run and rebooted to a working Mint 6 system.
The most serious problem was the backgrounded synaptic error. Without the knowledge on how to work around that I would have been dead in the water with a borked system. Oh, and I had to fix my menu text too. 🙂
I just done the upgrade, but when I rebooted it gone in text mode and didn’t wanted to start X, I had to use the recovery mode to fix X and now it seems OK.
I followed the simple upgrade steps and did the reboot. First time back at my boot menu there was approx 3 seconds to respond before it booted to default (Elyssa Xfce)…so I rebooted and got a normal boot into a working Felicia system.
I had a black desktop. I did the level 1 and 2 updates and rebooted. The desktop was then fine…however…Gnome Daemon Settings were broken ( reported at both reboots into Felicia) so I just refreshed those in synaptic. I’ll post if that works.
I upgraded and now when I try to login with X or Gnome it splashes my background and then goes all white (with a mouse cursor). It only works in “Gnome Failsafe” mode now. Any ideas? I’m using a Dell Inspiron 1525; could it be a problem with my driver? Thanks.
I think I was over optimistic in my previous post…having allowed all updates in synaptic I now see that a large number of files needed updating. This left me with a dead ‘quit’ button but sudo reboot did the trick….nothing broken!
I accepted all replacements and therefore am back to onboard sound requiring to re-install my E-Mu soundcard driver…no big deal…and my Warzone saves were wiped (great, I didn’t maximize my research first time round).
Thanks for an incredible job! This distro is my absolute favorite ( so far 🙂 )
Ok, sorry, I updated all my packages in safe mode and things seem to be running smoothly… except that Firefox keeps crashing on me. Any ideas there?
upgrade tended to break things, after installing things looked alright but there was alot of weird glitches and it seemed slow so i just did a clean install
Upgrade completed correctly but system would not reboot correctly, lots of beeping and screen flashing 🙁
It is not worth the risk – do a clean install!!
upgrading now against all odd… curiosity got me this time…
Went fine, except the xserver couldn’t be activated on reboot. Ran the kernel in “safe mode”, had it fix the xserver, all fine now.
Does anybody know if the Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless card works straight away after install? I know in Elyssa it was a pain to get working. Ta!!
Upgrade took 1 day but when perfectly.
Everything seems to be working fine. Great Job!
Thanks a lot, Mint Rocks!!!!!
Upgrade: hours (4?) of download, then almost 2 hours to try to recover the broken system. Gave up.
Fresh install: less than a couple of hours counting the install itself (which perfectly recovered the former home folder and then system settings!) and the download/install of the software I had. Everything absolutely flawless!
So, people, in my opinion no need at all to upgrade: do a fresh Mint install, re-install the apps you had and live happy!
___
campamax
Had trouble finding the upgrade program (mintupgrader-elyssa-main). Found it at packages.linuxmint.com. Specifically, at http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mintupgrader-elyssa-main/mintupgrader-elyssa-main_1.4_i386.deb where I downloaded it and installed it with the GDebi Package Installer (/usr/bin/gdebi-gtk). About to upgrade. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Updated without a single hitch! All I needed to do was put Nvida drivers back on. I really like it and the new functions rock!
small thing.. it still says Elyssia in the bottom left!
ok I did it…I started at 1500 and just logged after re installing the nvidia drivers…total time 55min……
I do have ONE problem. I believe when I was prompted to replace the menu.lst, is said no thinking of my dual boot setup. So now it boots up w/the previous kernel 24.16 and not the latest. Can someone help me to get the lastest kernel running?
thxs
darco
I edited my menu.lst and pointed to the new kernel.
darco
I upgraded from 5 to 6 on both my laptop (hp pavillion dv4220tx ) and my desktop.
the laptop went really well, All I had to do was an adjustment in the wireless network connection tab.
the desktop on the other hand kept failing, tried it 3 times. and each time I ended up with broken packages “mint-menu-main” I think. I fixed these and still ended up with 5.
I am now doing a new install with 6 and not an upgrade.
oh just to add, that the laptop is running ati graphics card and the desktop a nvidia card.
Update on upgrade:
I ran the mint upgrade program and it completed but not without some problems. I have one broken package (mint-meta-gnome) and the cleanup script hung (at “aptitude keep-all”). I ran the commands in /mint/cleanup.sh manually in a terminal and they completed successfully. I believe the problem was that aptitude expected a user response that was not handled by the upgrade program. I have not been able to fix the broken package. Here is the output of that failed installation:
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-gnome_1.7_all.deb (–unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/share/icons/Gion/22×22/mimetypes/application-certificate.png’, which is also in package gnome-themes-extras
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/mint-artwork-gnome_1.7_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mint-meta-gnome:
mint-meta-gnome depends on mint-artwork-gnome; however:
Package mint-artwork-gnome is not installed.
dpkg: error processing mint-meta-gnome (–configure):
dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mint-meta-main:
mint-meta-main depends on mint-meta-gnome; however:
Package mint-meta-gnome is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing mint-meta-main (–configure):
dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
mint-meta-gnome
mint-meta-main
I don’t believe this is a critical issue and I plan to ignore it unless and until it becomes a problem.
Otherwise, all seems well. I’m up and running Felicia.
Note: I initially installed Mint 4, then did and “upgrade” to 5. Now I upgraded to 6. Mint 4 was the only “fresh” install I’ve done. While the Mint team recommends a fresh install, I prefer to upgrade… it provides a much smoother transition… I don’t lose all my installed software and configuration settings. I’m glad to see this upgrade tool and hope future versions will continue to provide this feature.
Also, I did have to fix my menu text so it reads Felicia instead of Elyssa. But then I had to do this also when I upgraded from Darnya to Elyssa. 🙂
My Menu text read MENU after the upgrade..strange
d
Flawless update..so far. Downloaded from “packages.linuxmint.com”, sat back and enjoyed the stars & scripts.
All applications — including “rhapsody” worked without any issues. As an added bonus, my wife’s name is “Felicia” — therefore, I’ll probably never upgrade again. 🙂
Correction: I downloaded the upgrade tool from packages.linuxmint.com”. Mint Package Manager, nor Synaptic worked for me. I also had to change the Menu text from Elyssa to Felicia.
To my great regret, I have learned that in software, “latest” is not always “greatest.” Both with Ubuntu (which I used before switching to Mint), and now with Mint, installing the newest version often leads to problems which didn’t exist with the earlier version. I was completely satisfied with Mint 5. When Mint 6 arrived, I did a fresh install, and promptly lost my sound. Wasted 4 days trying to get my sound back. Reinstalled Mint 5, and immediately got my sound back. “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” George
My Menu text read MENU after the upgrade..strange
Nope – that’s how it is now
I suddenly realise we should have told people to shut off Compiz (Appearances > Visual effects > None) and change to the vesa driver for x before attempting the upgrade
(gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf change in Section “Device” drive to Driver “vesa”)
Just to be on the safe side – there are a few reports indicating the kind of X problems you’d get if your video driver does not work properly
I can’t edit my reply
change in Section “Device” drive to Driver “vesa”
should of course be
change in Section “Device” driver to Driver “vesa”
???? probare esta herramienta en mint con xfce si no ha instalar desde 0 ojala me entiendan si no pues vayanse a la verga
I run into the nvidia problem others had, but quickly resolved with the post about using recovery mode.
I do have the text Elyssa for my menu still, how can that be changed?
Please tell me there’s a way to run the upgrader from the terminal? My menu is broken (menu is there, but no apps in it) and I want to try the upgrade to fix it, before I go through the trouble of a fresh install.
Used the upgrader, everything worked fine with a couple of exceptions…
After the upgrade the system portion of the menu had a text error message, but a “sudo shutdown -r now” rebooted the system, and the menu was fixed. The other problem was wireless networking on my Toshiba Laptop took 2 more reboots, to work. Not sure what was going on there. But eventually it worked well.
I used the upgrader, because the mint 6 liveCD would not successfully boot on the laptop. The mint 5 liveCD does. Not sure what is different there.
Cai: I don’t have it in front of me but it’s a .py file in /mint. Anyway you can look at the exec line of the .desktop file in /usr/share/applications to see what menu item is launching what command, and you can also look at the content of the package with “apt content packagename”.
Clem,
Upgrade tool worked well and I am now using Felicia. Very nice work. Been a Mintie since Barbara, and appreciate your efforts very much.
The upgrade worked fine on my Dell 1200 Insperion with a Linksys wireless card. It took a long time over the wireless connection, it went smoothly and nothing was broken. All I had to do was rename my start button, and was good to go. I know that a fresh install is preferable but my curiousity got the better of me. Gnome Do opens twice but causes no problems. The continual development of the upgrader can do nothing but improve Mint’s popularity with new users who just want an OS to work as promised.
Thank you for the upgrader. Things are working well after the upgrade with one caveat:
– After downloading and installing everything the upgrader tried to run several scripts and asked me for the password. I entered my password and it wouldn’t accept it. It did that with all the post installation scripts.
As I don’t know what’s missing after the installation, I will install from scratch.
The most noticeable symptom is that the menu still says Elyssa.
I tried the upgrade last night (after, of course, backing up my Mint partition with gparted).
It took all night to perform the upgrade (and used about 20% of my monthly allotted bandwidth).
The upgrade seems to have gone fairly smoothly. I got a few notices about a broken package (having to do with amarok trying to overwrite a file), and I currently can’t use MintUpdate, because of “broken packages”. However, Synaptic is not showing that there are any broken packages, so it’s a bit frustrating. At the moment, I’m trying a dist-upgrade through Synaptic to see if maybe that will help.
I am also working in 800×600 on my 22″ widescreen monitor, right now, because I’m having issues getting nvidia-xconfig to work properly. I’m sure I’ll get that sorted, soon, though.
Thanks for the upgrade option. I really was not looking forward to trying to install Mint from scratch again and then adding in all of my personal files and all of the packages I had installed.
I did it! Or at least the mintupdater did.
So, lets see here…..I had MInt 5, on a computer that has a Intel Gigabyte board with on-board Nvidia Graphics, There is also 2GB of Ram, 80 GB IDE HDD, and I am using a 22″ wide Samsung LCD Monitor.
Now before all of this upgrade stuff, I ws using a ASRock Mainboard, funny how things go kaput when you move, at first I thought it was the hard drive, but really what happen was that the BIOS decided to go on me. So I went out purchased a new Mainboard, processor and RAM, with a new Hard drive. I installed the compoenets, connected my old hard drive, shich is a Maxtor, (uggh). Started and it went off without a hitch, but then on the next reboot I kept getting an error with the grub. I then downloaded, the Super Grub Disk, burnt to CD-RW, and used that to recover my grub, awsome piece of software. So fearful of another near data loss, I decided to xfer all from Mint 5 to Mint 6, ( my other computer).
After xfer complete, I did the apt-get install mint updater thingy, and ran the program from my menu.. I must admit it was a bit time comsuming, espcially the first part which downloaded 946 packages. Went on all night. After that it took an hour to finish.
Only probelms that i encountered, and very minor were that on the previous system I had install and then uninstalled TorrentFlux. It kept asking to do an update. I just aborted the whole procedure for that part. The other thing I noticed was, during the end, when it was trying to upodate the version drivers for the Nvidia drivers, it encountered an error, and stopped the process. I expected on reboot to get an video driver error, but there was none. I only had to reconfigure my wireless network card by going into Preferences and reset the correct card with password.
Overall it was quite successful, with a few minor things easily corrected. Linux and espcially Mint has surprised me with its adpatability and ease of resolving hardware problems. I recommend when ever I can Linux Mint, and hope that when MInt 7 comes out, it will be another flawless innovation of software, with update.
A big thank you to all who made the Mint Updater possible and the time spent on creating such a piece of software that in my opinion out performs any Microsoft product. I am totally 100% Linux now, with 2 computers running Gigabyte mainboards and plenty of RAM. One is an AMD Processor and an Intel Processor, both with Nvidia onbaord.
I made the jump using mintupgrader. Had a couple of hiccups in the middle of the night and ended up without a decent Xorg config – booted recovery mode and proceeded from there.
Now, to enable the function and cursor keys on the Toshiba Satellite A215 (clues welcomed!).
Then Skype…
J.
I have a great way of backing up my Mint installation so I can try the upgrade tool. I made a 10gb partition with the partition editor, then I use “ping” to make a compressed image of the used blocks. If Mint gets corrupted, I just boot from the “ping” cd and restore my setup.I have restored Mint this way a good few times now.
I consider the Samsung LN46A650 to be one of the best in the Samsung LCD HDTV product line.