Can you convert Kubuntu 13.04 to 13.10?

[Red Squirrel]

I have a laptop at work that has Kubuntu 13.04, as that was the latest at the time, and my home machine is 13.10, and that was the latest at that time. I never considered the fact that non LTS versions actually get all the repositories pulled off, I just got lucky with my home system that 13.10 is a LTS version. 13.04 is not. I cannot do much on this system anymore as anything that requires dependencies I'm pretty much pooched. For example I'm trying to get Minecraft to work and it just wont work. I need to install some GTK related dependencies I think. I probably should not be playing games at work anyway, but being in a NOC if it's quiet then it passes the time as long as I keep watching alarms too and not pull off a Homer.

Considering the versions are so close together is there a way to convert/upgrade this system to 13.10 and have access to the repositories? Worse case scenario I'll reinstall but I want to avoid it if I can.

 

[Elixer]

You can do apt-get dist-upgrade can you not ?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Just tried that, this is all I get:

# apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

apt-get update just errors out because all the repositories are 404 and/or don't resolve.

 

[lxskllr]

13.10 is out of support also. You might be able to finagle upgrades using downloaded isos, but a clean install would probably be less hassle.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Crap 13.10 too? That means I'm screwed for my own workstation then if I need to install anything. Took me over a year just to get stuff the way I wanted, can't imagine having to redo all of that again. I guess I just got unlucky and when I picked it it was near the end already. Looks like 14.04 is the next LTS and is good till 2019 though.

I'm going to be moving over to a new machine anyway, original plan was to just move the drive to it and pray everything works, but guess failing that, I probably should upgrade anyway.

Took me a while to get my machine more or less how I want though, going to be a pain having to go through all that again if I do reinstall.

 

[MrTransistorm]

FWIW I upgraded my Ubuntu Server 12.04 to 14.04 without a hitch. It might be a different story with a desktop version though.

 

[phasseshifter]

if your going to fresh install i would suggest linux mint Rebecca it has l.t.s till 2019

 

[Red Squirrel]

Actually I recall reading something about Linux Mint being able to support triple Monitors if you have a Sandy Bridge processor. Is that the case? I'd have to double check my new machine, not sure if it's Sandy Bridge though. Would be nice to get a real triple monitor setup to work.

Maybe it will be worthwhile to completely reinstall after all, and get more features/bug fixes etc.

 

[ArisVer]

You should be able to, but this is old info by now.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SaucyUpgrades/Kubuntu

 

[somethingsketchy]

Do you get a similar 404 error when you try to run:

do-release-upgrade -d

As far as I know of, this usually works, if apt-get dist-upgrade fails to find the latest OS version.

 

[lxskllr]

Crap 13.10 too? That means I'm screwed for my own workstation then if I need to install anything. Took me over a year just to get stuff the way I wanted, can't imagine having to redo all of that again. I guess I just got unlucky and when I picked it it was near the end already. Looks like 14.04 is the next LTS and is good till 2019 though.

LTS releases come every even year during April. The previous was 12(2012).04(April). The next one will will be 16(2016).04(April). IMO Canonical didn't previously do enough to dissuade people from running interim releases. They've started to do so, but should have the whole time. A full upgrade every six months on a production machine is insanity.

For future reference, a separate /home partition will probably ease the upgrade. You'll get to keep your config files and settings that way.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmm are the configs interchangeable between distros? Like the way the desktop is laid out and what not, that's all stored in . files in my home folder right?

If I restore a backup of that to the new system after I install it should pickup all the configs? Or is that asking for issues?

 

[lxskllr]

If I restore a backup of that to the new system after I install it should pickup all the configs? Or is that asking for issues?

Yes :^D

It should pickup the configs, and you may have issues, especially if switching between distros, but it should get you close with minor tweaking. It goes without saying you should have everything backed up in case things go south. If a fresh install keeping /home works terribly, you can try again with a fresh /home, and then selectively copy files over.

 

[FrankRamiro]

I have a laptop at work that has Kubuntu 13.04, as that was the latest at the time, and my home machine is 13.10, and that was the latest at that time. I never considered the fact that non LTS versions actually get all the repositories pulled off, I just got lucky with my home system that 13.10 is a LTS version. 13.04 is not. I cannot do much on this system anymore as anything that requires dependencies I'm pretty much pooched. For example I'm trying to get Minecraft to work and it just wont work. I need to install some GTK related dependencies I think. I probably should not be playing games at work anyway, but being in a NOC if it's quiet then it passes the time as long as I keep watching alarms too and not pull off a Homer.

Considering the versions are so close together is there a way to convert/upgrade this system to 13.10 and have access to the repositories? Worse case scenario I'll re install but I want to avoid it if I can.

Why don't make an ISO of 14.04 it will take less time than figure out how to update and many times it has Problems that you don't have with a fresh install,and any version of the latest version will have more software more everything and will run much better.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Why don't make an ISO of 14.04 it will take less time than figure out how to update and many times it has Problems that you don't have with a fresh install,and any version of the latest version will have more software more everything and will run much better.

I'm trying to avoid a fresh install. Having to reconfigure everything, resetup everything, go through any issues I've run into before and have to fix them all over again etc... Just as a quick example, Minecraft has this weird bug that at random you get stuck in walk mode. Had to apply a special patch for that. There are countless other things of that nature that I'd have to redo.

Worse case scenario I might eventually have to do that, but I'm hoping to avoid it for now. It took me months of troubleshooting and hair pulling, if over a year to have my system in a way that works properly. Well I still have this annoying audio issue but that started recently, and I'm hoping the new machine fixes that, since I will be moving the SSD to a new machine. I may potentially be forced to format at that point if it does not boot but I'm hoping for the best.

I am tempted to try Linux Mint again though. It seems all the systems I've tried to install it on it would refuse to install. But maybe on the new system I got it will work.

 

[lord_emperor]

I had success with this method. Mint article should still be applicable:

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2

Note the caveats.

 

[FrankRamiro]

I'm trying to avoid a fresh install. Having to reconfigure everything, resetup everything, go through any issues I've run into before and have to fix them all over again etc... Just as a quick example, Minecraft has this weird bug that at random you get stuck in walk mode. Had to apply a special patch for that. There are countless other things of that nature that I'd have to redo.

Worse case scenario I might eventually have to do that, but I'm hoping to avoid it for now. It took me months of troubleshooting and hair pulling, if over a year to have my system in a way that works properly. Well I still have this annoying audio issue but that started recently, and I'm hoping the new machine fixes that, since I will be moving the SSD to a new machine. I may potentially be forced to format at that point if it does not boot but I'm hoping for the best.

I am tempted to try Linux Mint again though. It seems all the systems I've tried to install it on it would refuse to install. But maybe on the new system I got it will work.

Well i install any Ubuntu 14.04 distro in 20 minutes minutes, and only have to install Ubuntu restricted-extras from Ubuntu software center to get it full running

 

[Red Squirrel]

Well i install any Ubuntu 14.04 distro in 20 minutes minutes, and only have to install Ubuntu restricted-extras from Ubuntu software center to get it full running

You're not understanding. I still need to get all my programs, short cuts, network mounts, backup jobs etc to work. That's the part that takes long. The actual install does not take long, but that's besides the point.

Then there's all the random issues that I run into and have to troubleshoot and fix one by one and having to follow tutorials on how to fix. For example I spent over a year dealing with tons of glitches, and it turns out the video card driver did not play nice with my distro. So I had to get another video card. A new distro may come with a whole new set of issues like that, where I'll have to re-troubleshoot everything again or try to remember what I did last time I ran into NN issue.

I'm probably going to end up having to do it anyway, but I'm just trying to postpone it as much as possible. I will want to make sure I go with a distro that has a longer support span though. I can't be going through this every couple years. I tend to keep the same OS for the life of the PC, if longer. Just easier that way because I know everything works and keep an acronis image handy for when I do need to clean install, at least the image will have everything configured the way I need to.

That said I can probably do my work machine since there's not that much on it. I'll just have to burn a CD here since I don't have a burner or anything at work.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I just installed Mint 17.1 on the laptop that had 13.04. That one has minimal stuff to setup, just OpenVPN a few network share shortcuts and few odds and ends, so was not too bad.

I'm really liking it so far. Once they pull off the repositories for Ubuntu 13.10 I'll probably end up doing my main system at home too. Think what I want to try to do is standardize on a single distro for any workstations, and setup a local repository mirror. I will need to read up on how to do that. At least that way when they pull the repo I'm not out of luck if I want to install something. I just wont be getting updates. Of course that's not good but at that point I can at least plan on upgrading and not get caught with my pants down.

Also, can you install Linux on a USB stick? I know you can do live USB stick (what I did to install) but I want to actually use the USB stick as a boot drive. Basically I want to set it up on my new system (no SSD in it as plan is to move my existing one over when ready), and when I have everything working, I'll just image it to my SSD and expand the partition.

 

[ArisVer]

You can install on USB, just point to the right disk. USB3 is recommended otherwise slow boot/read/write speeds. Never done it yet.
Edit. Instead of using a USB stick, use a USB hard disk. /Edit.

To stay current with Linux one must install maximum every 3 years (LTS OSs). Setting a local repo does not mean much, maybe more trouble than its worth it. Everything is on the net and usually you can find old system repos archived in the net. You can download or add those pages in your repos. Have done it with Debian, installed older versions packages.

 

[Crusty]

Do you get a similar 404 error when you try to run:

do-release-upgrade -d

As far as I know of, this usually works, if apt-get dist-upgrade fails to find the latest OS version.

apt-get dist-upgrade is not for upgrading from major version to major version. apt-get dist-upgrade command is the same thing as regular apt-get upgrade except that it allows for the installation or removal of packages to satisfy dependency requirements.

Historically in Debian you could use dist-upgrade to upgrade form one version to the next after updating your /etc/apt/sources.list file, but I usually consider using dist-upgrade a dangerous operation.

Regardless of the Debian situation, it is definitely not the case with Ubuntu that you can use dist-upgrade alone to upgrade your distribution to the next version.