Best way to upgrade from 14.04?

[DoYouKubuntu]

Since my 14.04, system-prompted, version upgrade to 16.04 failed...miserably, I'm now back on 14.04. Should the urge to upgrade strike again, what would be the best method to get to 18.04? Without borking my laptop. Or losing data. Or any other fun stuff.

Yes, of course, I have good backups. But I still prefer my hard drive not get mangled, you know?

[claydoh]

Clean install, and restore your data from a backup. if you have a separate /home partition, you can install as normal, and point the installer to the correct partitions using the custom options, very similar to 14.04's installer.

NONE of your desktop settings will carry over to Plasma 5, and I am mostly 100% positive that any KDE application settings won't carry over, either, so you get a clean slate anyway (non-kde stuff should be OK, mostly) . With all the system changes under the hood in 4 years, I don't suggest attempting the 14.04-16.04-18.04 triple jump (or is that a double jump), as there will be too many places for error. I suggest giving a live session a test period to get a feel for Plasma 5. Then do a clean install of 18.04, and restore your personal data, and install any applications you use as you go. All your data will go to the same places as they do in 14.04, so there is no issue with restoring /home backups (other than KDE 4 desktop settings - they now go in a different place, and don't work in Plasma 5)

If you have any, some, if not many system level customizations (server related configs, samba, startup tweaks) probably won't work without some work, most likely.

Most things do look different, but much of it is configured in the exact same places and in the exact same ways, and those that aren't are pretty darn close. There will be some things missing, but also things added feature-wise.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Clean install, and restore your data from a backup. if you have a separate /home partition, you can install as normal, and point the installer to the correct partitions using the custom options, very similar to 14.04's installer.

Yes, I have separate partitions for the system itself, /, plus /home and also /data (it's where all media files go--it's always the biggest partition!). They're all formatted as ext4--I'm going to guess that's still a thing in 18.04. Right?

NONE of your desktop settings will carry over to Plasma 5, and I am mostly 100% positive that any KDE application settings won't carry over, either, so you get a clean slate anyway (non-kde stuff should be OK, mostly)

Hmmm...I don't much like the sound of that. I really love the look and feel of my current setup, and would hate to see that many of its pieces are no longer available.

With all the system changes under the hood in 4 years, I don't suggest attempting the 14.04-16.04-18.04 triple jump (or is that a double jump), as there will be too many places for error. I suggest giving a live session a test period to get a feel for Plasma 5. Then do a clean install of 18.04, and restore your personal data, and install any applications you use as you go. All your data will go to the same places as they do in 14.04, so there is no issue with restoring /home backups (other than KDE 4 desktop settings - they now go in a different place, and don't work in Plasma 5)

Okay, thanks, that's all good info.

If you have any, some, if not many system level customizations (server related configs, samba, startup tweaks) probably won't work without some work, most likely.

Oh, yes, I definitely do...

Most things do look different, but much of it is configured in the exact same places and in the exact same ways, and those that aren't are pretty darn close. There will be some things missing, but also things added feature-wise.

Okay.

I think for right now, I'm just going to sit tight with what I've got. When the time comes that I'm FORCED for some reason to try something newer, I'll dive in then! BTW, I still have one [in use] 9.10 desktop around here. Just never did see a need to upgrade!

[claydoh]

That's a good reason to try a live session a try, or better yet, a virtualbox install so you can see what can be done and what might not. And investigate what system level customizations you have, and look for 18.04 specific how-to's and see if anything has changed. 18.04 is much lighter on resources than 14.04 and 16.04, especially if you do the 'minimal install' option, so a virtual machine is easier to run with it. We're talking Xfce levels of lightness. Plasma 5.12 is several orders of magnitude better in quality and stability than 14.04, and still a huge improvement over 16.04.

[DoYouKubuntu]

@claydoh, would you mind moving this over to the 18.04 board...where I meant to put it?

Thanks!

[mastablasta]

since the upgrade is not working and since the bug has not been fixed i too have this issue. i haven't run the upgrade yet, since i had problem before.

my issue is that i have a dual boot with windows 7. can i safely just overwrite the 14.04 installation? or will there be an issue because of GRUB not having enough space? further info on Ubuntu forums (boot-info script, disc partitioning...) : https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2411265

i would be very happy if someone could help me get the smoothest transition from old to new possible.

also would it help if i somehow uninstalled Kubuntu desktop, did the upgrade in CLI and then install desktop back on?

[DoYouKubuntu]

since the upgrade is not working and since the bug has not been fixed i too have this issue. i haven't run the upgrade yet, since i had problem before.

my issue is that i have a dual boot with windows 7. can i safely just overwrite the 14.04 installation? or will there be an issue because of GRUB not having enough space?

In general, if you installed Kubuntu in its own partition, which is normally /, you should be able to reinstall 14.04 where it was, formatting the disk first to get rid of all the crap. You DON'T want to overwrite the old installation, because it's got crap on it! This assumes that you have at least one separate partition, presumably /home, where you store your data.

further info on Ubuntu forums (boot-info script, disc partitioning...) : https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2411265

I looked, but it's been eons since I had to deal with a dual-boot setup [or anything else involving window$], so I just have to defer to someone with better knowledge of that kind of arrangement.

also would it help if i somehow uninstalled Kubuntu desktop, did the upgrade in CLI and then install desktop back on?

Well, depending on how badly your upgrade attempt went, I doubt it. I think you're best off doing a clean reinstall of 14.04, like I did, and then deciding what to do next. For me, that decision is to wait awhile until the upgrading urge rears its ugly head again! Then I'll do a clean install of a newer version, after testing some out live.

[mastablasta]

well i could just overwrite the data or reformat the partition and create new system. it's not that much data in home anyway. and what is there i can easily backup. this is not a primary PC but some sort of netbook that is light enough to carry around. sicne it is a laptop i can't just add a disk and install there like i did on one of the desktops, where i kept WinXP for old games.

still i would like to keep windows 7 (at least for a few more years, because sometimes it is still necessary to have windows). so the only issue i can see there could be grub. if it doesn't have enough space at the beginning of the drive, i might as well end using linux on this PC or use the 14.04.

[claydoh]

Grub should not be an issue. If your laptop thingie boots via legacy/bios, a fresh install will just update or replace the boot loader that sits on the drive's MBR. no disk space issues there.
If you boot EFI, then the install should replace the old Kubuntu entry with a new one, so again, there should be no issues, unless you already have a large number of OS entries that appear in your computer's EFI boot menu (not grub) for some reason. The default efi directory size can hold a good number of OS entries.

[mastablasta]

yes it's the old BIOS/MBR.

however on the previous machine i did have an issue with grub (and it had only Kubuntu 14.04 on it). although i have to admit i did first upgrade to 16.04 (which of course failed), then i backed up home to data partition and overwrote the OS (no format option) this failed as well. Finally i did install with partition format and all went well.

However in this case i have windows on it as well. and i was warned before about Grub that increased in size. if this is only for UEFI, then as i understand, i have nothing to worry about. and if tis is true is there a workaround by adding a /boot partition?

i also think i need a bit more time to make this "upgrade" and maybe do a full disk close as backup first.

the PC has 4 partitions (windows, widows restore and some kind of live linux version provided by HP + Kubuntu)

[DoYouKubuntu]

still i would like to keep windows 7 (at least for a few more years, because sometimes it is still necessary to have windows).

Just out of curiosity, may I ask why? I haven't touched a window$ box since wiping my mother's hard drive and installing Kubuntu on it--in 2006. I'm sure you're not using your computers in exactly the same way I use mine, but I'm just wondering if it actually is necessary to keep window$ around. Perhaps if you explain why, it'll either become clear that you're right, or I/we can point you in the direction of software/functions on Linux you're not aware of.

so the only issue i can see there could be grub. if it doesn't have enough space at the beginning of the drive, i might as well end using linux on this PC or use the 14.04.

I wish I could help you with that but, alas, it's simply been too many years since I last even THOUGHT about grub, let alone helped someone else having an issue with it!

[jglen490]

The thing about the Grub size issue is that it has nothing to do with the size of the MBR - which is fixed. The BIOS (on pre-UEFI machines locates the MBR on the first bootable drive. te MBR on the drive just points to the boot loader (be it Windows or Linux or whatever OS has the boot loader software). The boot loader has the entries needed to actually start an OS, or one OS from among many. it doesn't matter how big that boot loader and its data files are, they are no on the MBR. So the "beginning of the drive" concept is immaterial.

As I recall, the only rational way to upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04, at the time, and to any higher level version now is a clean install, because of the Plasma level change and other underlying software changes. A clean install is easy, especially on a BIOS machine and only a little less so on a UEFI machine. First back up your data, not your apps (although od take note of what you have or what you want to have at the end). If you are dual-booting, back up ALL your data. Second, know what partitions contain which OS and which data associated with the OSes that you have. Boot into the Kubuntu Live installer version you want, format the Kubuntu 14.04 / partition, then setup but don't format any other Linux partitions you want. Start the installer and go through the entire install process. After the new Kubuntu starts, install whatever software you want/need, test it out, use it.

Doing a fresh install is simple, but does require attention. DISCLAIMER: I do not dual boot, and never will. The only Windows machine I touch is at work, because life is hard, and the paycheck is good.

[dequire]

DISCLAIMER: I do not dual boot, and never will. The only Windows machine I touch is at work, because life is hard, and the paycheck is good.

I want this on a T-Shirt!

[claydoh]

I dual boot only because I might need it for work, possibly, maybe, on the off chance, but that chance has lessened greatly. I boot it about once a month or two to update windows waste an evening
Now, on my laptop, I added an nvme ssd so dual booting was a no brainer. I shrunk the windows down to a minimum size, and use the rest of the hdd for storage.

On the PC, I just let the installer shrink windows, and bam! it was done. Installing 18.04 should work exactly the same as it did for you when you reinstalled 14.04 in terms of dealing with win 7. The install disk should feel extremely familiar, even if it does sport the more modern looks.

[VincentvdBergh]

The best way to upgrade is by doing a fresh install of Kubuntu 18.04.

Make sure you back up your data before doing this.

Best way is to make a separate "/" and "/home" partition.

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