Linux Mint 13 (Maya)
Once again, Linux has scored top marks.
A couple of weeks ago, Linux Mint 13 RC came on line. I tried it out in VirtualBox and liked what I saw. As a result I installed it on my main system.
I immediately came across two problems. One was that I had retained my Home partition and the existing configuration files screwed up Mint 13 and the other was that I wasn’t able to install several of my favourite programmes, due to missing libraries.
I reinstalled Mint 12, but kept a version of 13 within VirtualBox.
A few days ago, I revisited my virtual Mint 13 and found that the missing libraries were now present so on Tuesday I decided to scrap 12 and move up.
The process was pure simplicity.
I took a full backup of my Home folder (including all hidden files and folders). I took a backup of my software repositories (using Y-PPA Manager. An excellent little programme). I could have taken a backup of my software list, but decided to forgo that, as I didn’t want to reinstall all my old programmes.
Installation of Mint 13 was the usual simple affair, but this time around, I formatted all partitions for a clean install.
Once installed, I restored my backup of the repositories and set to loading in my favourite software. For each programme, I restored its corresponding configuration from backup. For example, for Firefox, I restored “.mozilla”, for Filezilla I restored “.filezilla” and so on.
The version of 13 I installed was the MATE one and it is running perfectly. All my old programmes are running smoothly and it may just be my imagination, but the whole system seems a lot faster.
The whole process took a couple of hours, but most of that was taken up with copying files to and from my backup drive.
I can’t help but wonder how long the process would have taken within Windows, between loading the system and then tracking down all the installation disks, licence keys and the rest?
A couple of days?
Aw Man!! I just upgraded to Mint 12 Lisa w/Mate and I feel the same about 12 that you just described about 13. Compared to 11 12 is rock solid on this old laptop and considerably faster. It looks like another afternoon backing up and installing 13.
I’ve tested both Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon and Mate editions on my desktop and both do really well. I have mixed feelings about the MDM login display manager which was forked from the old GDM 2.20 but other than that, both versions work slick. One hardware problem I did encounter was the Nvidia 295.40 driver that’s installed by default by the “Additional Drivers” application. It’s very buggy and didn’t play well with MDM. The solution was to install the “post-release” driver offered in the same application instead. Not Linux Mints’ problem of course.
I chose LM 13/Cinnamon for the desktop and I’ll most likely replace LM 12/Cinnamon with LM 13/Cinnamon on my old Thinkpad r61 laptop as well. LM 13/MATE will be loaded on my wife’s desktop when I replace her hard drive along with Windows 7 (shudder).
Windows? You bet it will take two days. Even at my best (meaning much younger than I am now), it took an entire day of uninterrupted work to install and setup Windows (any version) including restoring all applications, settings and drivers and that’s after years of experience. Bah!
Brianf: Sorry about that! Bad timing either on your part or Linux Mint’s? There is nothing to stop you sticking with 12 of course, but presonally I like to do an occasional Spring Clean just to dump unwanted clutter.
Kirk: You are aware of the problems I had with the early RC release, and I’m delighted they are fixed. I honestly find it hard to believe how fast and simple a complete reinstall is after years of torture with Windows. I used to spend ages tracking down software CDs and invariably I also had a hunt for the licences. Then of course there is the massive overhead of tons of updates to be applied to Windows once installed. Granted there are Mint updates post installation, but they rarely exceed double figures and can be downloaded and installed while you work. And no constant rebooting either!
I was surprised to read that your backups worked in 13 Maya. I tried switching from 10 Julia to Maya and the Firefox backups would not work. I've read that others have had the same problem, but no solution.
As far as I remember, I was introduced to Mint at around version 9, and I have never [yet] had any problems with restoring backups. I run the Nightly version of Firefox so if anything it should be the least stable. Weird!
@Richard
Interesting. I'm now wondering if it was the Firefox backup file or Firefox itself that was the issue. Although the file worked fine in Linux Mint 10 and 12.
When you think about it, an upgrade of the OS doesn't affect Firefox or its data directory. So backing up and restoring [home]/.mozilla should always work. I have two copies of Firefox at any stage. I have the packaged Firefox which is included in Mint, and the Nightly which I have installed in [home]/firefox. After an upgrade of Mint, I just restore both directories to my [home] and have never had a problem. I use the same /.mozilla profile for both which is riskey [if Nightly mucks my settings up it will affext the normal Firefox too], but again I have never had any problems there.
ugh & nb alert
I finally finished tweaking mint 13 mate 32bit on a friends laptop and now mint 14 is finalized? It dual boots Vista and Mint 13 not using grub bootloader.
I have
/ ext2
/boot ext4
/home ext4
(1)
what tool should I use to backup /home?
(2)
how can I backup a list of all the packages I have installed arranged in order of date installed? That can be used to more easily batch install them but not overwrite newer mat14 packages
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1952639
(3)
how do you use Y-PPA to backup repos?
(4)
I really really do not want to format partitions. Is the mint 14 mate 32bit smart enough to deal with existing content?
(5)
I've been led to believe ext2 is better for /home but a competing mind claims I should be using ext4 without journaling.
Quite a few questions there!
1. I backup /home simply by copying its contents (not forgetting hidden files and folders) into an external drive. I usually don't borther with all the hidden folders, but just copy the ones with important settings. In my case that would be .mozilla, .thunderbird, .filezilla, .skype and a couple of others.
2. Backup Tool (installed by default). It won't list them by date but you can select/deselect the packages you want to include.
3. Run Y_PPA and double-click on Advanced. There is a function there to backup and restore repositories.
4. When updating to 14 I did a complete reformat as I wanted to do some resizing. However I haven't had any problems in the past, updating without formatting /home. I would advise formatting the root partition though just to clear out any legacy stuff.
5. I have seen arguments from each side of the table. I usually stick with ext4 and it hasn't let me down yet!
What are some preferred methods to move /home partition from sda to sdb ?
There may be some slick way of doing this, but as a non-geek I would just create a new partition and then copy over the contents.
Maybe some other reader can come up with a neater way?