Mint upgrade now available

fox · July 09, 2020, 11:58:31 AM

You can now upgrade your Mint 19.3 installation to Mint 20. Instructions are here.

Jason · July 09, 2020, 03:09:18 PM

Thanks for sharing, Fox.

I wonder how many people actually do a Timeshift snapshot before they do the upgrade? Or at least backup their data? Just sayin' as a reminder to everyone, to at least do the latter. It's all too easy to write over your /home accidentally.

fox · July 09, 2020, 08:21:18 PM

I probably have a timeshare backup, but that's not the way I did it. I cloned my Mint 19.3 partition and installed it on an internal spinning drive. That's what I upgraded to test it. It took hours, and I got tired of this so I stopped it. Rebooted, and so far it seems to be working. But I wasn't impressed with the process, vs Ubuntu. I'm still testing, but if it's OK, I'll upgrade the "real" Mint partition.

buster · July 09, 2020, 10:29:43 PM

Looks like a bit of a pain. May instead reinstall but not format /home. No real rush. I can also test the process in virtual. Have two of them on different machines.

Jason · July 09, 2020, 11:37:39 PM

Quote from: buster on July 09, 2020, 10:29:43 PM
Looks like a bit of a pain. May instead reinstall but not format /home. No real rush. I can also test the process in virtual. Have two of them on different machines.

So you have a separate /home partition or drive?

BusterE · July 10, 2020, 02:10:45 PM

"So you have a separate /home partition or drive?"

Only when installed on a real drive, not in virtual.So you have a separate /home partition or drive?

This particular mint has travelled thru machines and a clone. Many upgrades, but used a 'fresh install' only twice, keeping the /home partition.

fox · July 10, 2020, 06:04:06 PM

Update on my upgrade. Everything seems to be working OK, except that the Flat Remix icons donÃ¢â,¬â,,¢t fully work on Mint 20. I just switched to a different icon theme. Interestingly, I can boot into the 4.15 kernel and VirtualBox 6.1 works in it, which it wouldnÃ¢â,¬â,,¢t on Ubuntu 20.04. Other apps I have to install from outside sources seem to be working, too: insync, Simplenote, Zoom, and my stat apps. The 5.4 kernel boots, but takes the usual 4 minutes to load on my 5k iMac, but I expected that. IÃ¢â,¬â,,¢ll check a few more things and if OK, IÃ¢â,¬â,,¢ll upgrade my regular 19.3 partition on the SSD.

buster · July 10, 2020, 10:19:02 PM

Did the upgrade on a virtual machine Mint. However, anything I report has to understood in the context of an 11 year old computer with a Win10 host. Not much memory, an old cpu, and a spinning disc hd.

#1. As Mike said it's a loooooong process.

#2. You can do other things on a different computer, read, or watch TV, but once in awhile you need to check it. You are required to say yes or go to the next step.

#3. The process is quite simple and straight forward. I started from the 'special notice' that came up bottom right, and used the link Mike gave for instructions.

#4. Do all the updates before you do your timeshift save. In fact you probably wont get a notice to upgrade until all up updates are done. When you think all updates are done, do a refresh and update again if anything shows. It did on mine.

#5. The two bits of software I use to enable perfect interactions between host and virtual, when being fixed, brought everything almost to a standstill, but after a reboot, things seemed ok.

I'll test more tomorrow maybe. When I do my Linux box, things should be easier with a better cpu, more memory, and an ssd. I'll get back.

Jason · July 11, 2020, 03:57:52 AM

Quote from: BusterE on July 10, 2020, 02:10:45 PM
Only when installed on a real drive, not in virtual.So you have a separate /home partition or drive?

Don't you recall my topic where I talked about how I did this and asked if anyone else did?

fox · July 11, 2020, 07:35:20 AM

Quote from: buster on July 10, 2020, 10:19:02 PM
Did the upgrade on a virtual machine Mint.
....
#2. You can do other things on a different computer, read, or watch TV, but once in awhile you need to check it. You are required to say yes or go to the next step.
....

Forgot to mention that. This is an upgrade you can't just leave running on its own.

buster · July 11, 2020, 08:06:29 AM

"Don't you recall my topic where I talked about how I did this and asked if anyone else did?"

Yes, but because I can't remember my password, most of my systems do not have me signed into PLUG. So often I read a thread and think I'll respond tomorrow or the next day on my main OS. But things distract me and I forget.

Sorry.

fox · July 11, 2020, 01:36:04 PM

Upon further testing, I had some minor problems with the Mendeley reference manager, but it was fixable with instructions on Mendeley's website. Also, the Flat Remix icon theme has been updated, and it now works. So there doesn't seem to be any downside to upgrading, at least in my system with the apps I use. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any big reason to upgrade either. It won't buy me more time unless a future update fixes the slow boot and shutdown I experience on the 5.4 LTS kernel.

BusterE · July 11, 2020, 02:45:02 PM

Forgot to mention, as did Mike, that within the little message you get (bottom right of screen) to start the update, there is also a link to the instructions. Nicely organized.

Curious to see how my 'real' Mint does during update with an ssd compared to a virtual on an old computer with a spinning disc. Maybe next week.

Jason · July 11, 2020, 06:50:50 PM

Quote from: buster on July 11, 2020, 08:06:29 AM
"Don't you recall my topic where I talked about how I did this and asked if anyone else did?"

Yes, but because I can't remember my password, most of my systems do not have me signed into PLUG. So often I read a thread and think I'll respond tomorrow or the next day on my main OS. But things distract me and I forget.

Sorry.

I checked and you responded but you were asking about RAID so I think my post was misinterpreted as asking if anyone was using it. I was confused; no need to be sorry. And yes, I use /home on a separate "drive" which is actually 4 drives that appear as one. It's the old HDD kind though so not terribly fast which is why I might move my few VMs to a place on / which is on an SDD.

As for your forgotten password, the email system on the forum isn't working right now (don't know if it ever will) so you can't get a password retrieved. However, I can reset it to one I choose. Then I'll email it to you and you can log in and change it. Just send me a private message on here and I'll get it reset. I assume it's your 'Buster' account.

buster · July 11, 2020, 10:49:58 PM

" you can log in and change it"

I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE IT!"

I like having most of my systems such that I can't reply right away. Now to reply I have to make an effort. And when I think about it for awhile, I realize a reply isn't necessary. And then I get off the stupid computer and do something else.