can't upgrade Mint 21 to 22; stuck kernel

[fox]

I have a nice installation of Mint 21.3 Cinnamon with an old stat package installed and which is customized to my liking. However, it won't upgrade from mintupgrade. It is stopped by errors related to an old 5.19.0-43 kernel. It stops on the "Remove foreign packages" component, on Skypeforlinux, claiming that package is newer than the one in the repository and offering to downgrade it. I have tried the following but none of it works:
(1) downgrade the Skypeforlinux package
(2) remove the Skypeforlinux package
(3) remove the 5.19 kernel through the mintupdate app (kernels tab)
(4) remove another older kernel (5.15)
(5) remove the most recent kernel (6.

All of these paths lead to errors related to the 5.19 kernel and the cessation of the process, even when I don't try to remove it. I know I can just install the current Mint (I have that on another partition), but I would like to keep an upgraded version of the older one. I'm thinking that maybe I can do this by removing the 5.19 kernel using another Linux partition, but I don't know how to do this. I know I can mount the older Mint partition from either the newer Mint partition on the same drive (an external SSD) or from Ubuntu on my internal SSD, but then what do I do to get rid of the offending kernel and skypeforlinux?

[buster]

Hi Mike.

I'm still on 21.3 Mint,

I'm assuming you've seen this page

https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4980

However the upgrade is not offered for me. Maybe after a reboot it'll show.

[buster]

No. After reboot Update Manager shows no hidden abilities to move up to 22, which seems odd. Not very important for me at the moment though.

[buster]

However I can use, apparently,

https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrade-to-mint-22.html

[buster]

And one last inquiry: is the hardware Windows or Apple? Not sure why this would affect anything, but your problem does seem odd.

You could also search or post on the Mint Forum.

[fox]

I had to use the second method to get to the Mint upgrade tool. That's what I followed, but it stalled as noted. I haven't tried posting on the Mint Forums yet, but I did Google the problem, got something from the Mint Forums and tried that. It didn't work.

[fox]

Never mind. I'm going to wipe the Mint 21.3 partition. I worked on the 22 partition and it's actually pretty good.

[ssfc72]

I am still running on Mint 20 which has long passed it's end of life.
I will also be starting fresh with Mint 22.

[buster]

Bill, Mike and any other readers who are doing a Mint fresh install: 

I'd strongly suggest before you do a fresh install of Mint that you seriously consider doing an old fashioned 3 partitions of /, /home, and swap.

The HUGE advantage of this, or at least has been so far, is that you can do a subsequent 'fresh install' over top of it and retain much of your data that sits in your /home. You'll maybe still have to reinstall your email and browser and a few other programs but then maybe not if it's what Mint gives you anyway.

The secret is not to allow it to format /home during the install. I have done this before and so far it has worked. Nothing lost if it doesn't work

I am not the only one in the club that does this, and over the years I'd guess I've done it 3 times.

[fox]

I already did a fresh install the usual way (one partition). In my case, I don't actually use Mint (I just play with it), and I didn't have much in my /Home folder. One thing I did have that I like to maintain is an old stats program that requires a lot of 32 bit libraries, and the app resides in my /Home folder. I just copied the files for it from my old Mint partition that wouldn't update, and then added the libraries until it worked in the new partition. I copied a few other things over and then destroyed the old partition.

I'm curious how you did the install without formatting /home.

[buster]

I'm assuming this still works Mike.

When you use partitions, at an early point in the install you will get a page that shows your partitions. Beside each will be the option to format the partition before the install.

/ should be fresh and clean so you click 'format'
/home has things like bookmarks and some data so select 'don't format'
swap I suspect doesn't matter one way or another but I always selected 'format'

I haven't done this for awhile since I've always managed to upgrade my Mint since the last time I did it.
.

[Jason]

The secret is not to allow it to format /home during the install. I have done this before and so far it has worked. Nothing lost if it doesn't work

I am not the only one in the club that does this, and over the years I'd guess I've done it 3 times.

I did it this way on the last install. I've gone back and forth on it. I do regular backups, so restoring my data isn't a big headache, but your method is definitely faster and more foolproof. The only downside of this method is that you don't get to see the snazzy new desktop and settings, basically, that new distro feel that you would get with a regular install.

[Jason]

One thing I did have that I like to maintain is an old stats program that requires a lot of 32 bit libraries, and the app resides in my /Home folder. I just copied the files for it from my old Mint partition that wouldn't update, and then added the libraries until it worked in the new partition. I copied a few other things over and then destroyed the old partition.

Is it R, or a front-end for R? I believe R is console-based. I know the use something R-related in the stats course I'll have to take eventually. Most people hate statistics, I'm looking forward to it. Calculus scares me, though.