Upgrade linux mint in-place using apt

Upgrade an existing Mint using apt

About this tutorial

This tutorial provides the necessary information to upgrade mint to the latest version without reinstalling/restoring. For a potentially trouble-free upgrade method see: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2

The various caveats in the above tutorial apply, and this may break your system, but if you come from the land of rolling releases (gentoo, arch, etc) then it is reasonable to expect upgrading mint in-place to be relatively painless.

This tutorial is for upgrading to Linux Mint 9 (Isadora), and is based on upgrading from Linux Mint 8. The procedure should apply to other transitions, but if you are upgrading to a version other than 9 you will need a different sources.list. You will probably find replacing "isadora" with the new mint moniker and "lucid" with the new ubuntu moniker in the sources.list file will successfully point apt at future repositories.

I will try to update this document for new releases of mint, and with any problems. Please let me know if any configuration files are shipped with the live cd that are not pulled in by apt, and I will link to them here, so that those who want to can reconstitute a complete install. This is not Windows, we should not need to perform fresh reinstalls to keep up-to-date and consistent!

Method

Open a terminal and run 'sudo bash' to get a root terminal
Using a text editor (as root), replace the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list with the following sources list: http://pastebin.com/wVGb13y3 (extracted from Linux Mint 9)
Run 'apt-get update'
Run 'apt-get dist-upgrade'
Follow the instructions issued, don't worry about overwriting configuration files dpkg will keep a copy in the same directory with the string ".dpkg-old" appended to the filename
Run 'apt-get upgrade'
Reboot

Explanation

By changing the contents of sources.list we have instructed mint to use the latest linux mint repositories. Since the mint distribution is (at least should be) the sum of its packages then perfoming an upgrade against the new repositories should pull in all the new features and applications. Notwithstanding major changes in how mint is structured the meta packages (packages of packages) should take care of applications added. Configuration ought to be imported this way too, but I cannot vouch for that.

Known Issues

No colour/Linux Mint customisations in terminals You may have overwritten /etc/bash.bashrc with a vanilla configuration. Simply copy /etc/bash.bashrc.dpkg-old to /etc/bash.bashrc as root, and reload the terminal. Failing that, here's the Linux Mint 8 version of /etc/bash.bashrc: http://pastebin.com/Kd3a1QJe

Tags: isadora mint 9 package upgrade existing installation apt
Created: 1 year ago.
Last edited: 1 year ago.
Read 50495 times.

Comments
2 months ago	TonyM	Upgrading from one release to the next release of Mint is something that is bound to happen to most of us from time to time as mint evolves. Unfortunately this is by far the weakest part of Mint if you want to upgrade mint in-place using apt. If you wish for a new fresh install then that is great, but if you want to to follow the 'Apt' route then you're simply out of luck. The article 'Upgrading Linux mint in-place using apt' appears to be insufficient and out of date. I have followed this article to upgrade from mint 10, and nothing happened!!. It simply doesn't work. Mint developers need to realise that not all of us are 'enthusiasts', but just prefer it to Windows. Therefore we want an easy upgrade path that doesn't involve backing up and starting from scratch. I'm simply not going to do this, therefore the 'back up and apt' route seems to make sense to me. Therefore I'd like to vote for a lot more effort being put into the area of easy upgrading without the need to go back to a clean install. Your thoughts?
3 months ago	cpnick	As per one of the options on the Mint12 iso was to upgrade my Ubuntu 10.04. I filled in Name, my same password etc. However upon rebooting, the password is returning incorrect!?? Files etc transferred but unable to access the system. I was also running Wubi on the XP as a back up linux system but the boot has ceased to function in XP now. Clearly GOOD advice in your other tutorial....Should you wish to upgrade...go for a FRESH install. These are great tutorials. I have been a Linux user since 2007. Still learning,so thanks a lot.
4 months ago	mintedreel	To update sources.list from Linux Mint 11 to 12, do the following: # cd /etc/apt # sed -i 's/katya/lisa/g' sources.list # sed -i 's/natty/oneiric/g' sources.list This updates any third party sources you may have as well. Keep in mind, this only works on sources that are currently available.
4 months ago	Cybeet	I'm updating my Linux Mint that way, because Linux Mint 11 never worked correctly on my laptop, and now it didn't even burn .iso files correctly. :( 12 works, anyway. ^^
5 months ago	bartonlp	For Lisa try: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ lisa main upstream import backport deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-security main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ oneiric partner deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ oneiric free non-free
10 months ago	ckosloff	HP Pavilion DV8000. In software sources changed all instances of julia to katya and maverick to natty. Entered commands, and after a long while I obtained a hopelessly broken system unable to boot, had to restore from Clonezilla image. Moving to Debian edition, I hate the loss of time of upgrades.
11 months ago	tecknomage	The ref above to "sources list: http://pastebin.com/wVGb13y3 (extracted from Linux Mint 9)" I note that one is... deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ isadora main upstream import ... "isadora" does NOT sound correct. If andrewswebb is correct, the package list should be: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ katya main upstream import deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ katya-kde main upstream import deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-security main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ natty partner deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ natty free non-free
11 months ago	andrewswebb	For Upgrade from Mint 10 to Mint 11 change all instances of "julia" to "katya", and "maverick" to "natty"
1 year ago	OS2-User	To upgrade via apt, don't additionally to adjusting sources.list all those *.list files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d have to be modified accordingly, before starting the upgrade process?
1 year ago	mikefreeman	It's really too bad we haven't found a safe, reliable, error-free way of upgrading in-place by now. That would make this distro absolutely perfect!
1 year ago	richardcain	Thanks for the help SilasDavis and CokeDude, I have now successfully upgraded to Mint 10. A couple of small niggles though: 1 - I use XFCE desktop, and this was removed during the upgrade. I couldn't get into Mint at all, so I had to go into a recovery mode shell and re-install XFCE. 2 - some of the packages that I'd installed before (i.e. skype, googleearth and a couple of others) were missing from the new system. All in all though, not so much to rectify as installing from scratch! Thanks again!
1 year ago	COKEDUDE	I'm pretty sure this is a correct sources.list for Linux Mint Julia. This explains all of the information. http://community.linuxmint.com/iso/reports/32/22 Here is the code. http://pastebin.com/Z2ARZTVR
1 year ago	COKEDUDE	When you have some time could you please update your sources.list for Linux Mint Julia?
1 year ago	pellekatteri	As today, GRUB linuxmint theme package 1.3.0 was broken preventing upgade going smoothly. Recovered with dpkg and was then able to startup to Mint 10.
1 year ago	Aeyrin	It's not working. It seems that Aptituse doesn't find the sources of Julia. Maybe I did something wrong ? Has the sources list a different link? Thanks !
1 year ago	cogsmos	You may wish to use 'aptitude full-upgrade' instead of 'apt-get dist-upgrade'. I'd recommend reading the differences and deciding for yourself. http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch02.en.html#_basic_package_management_operations
1 year ago	astahl78	I also would like the sources to be updated for Linux Mint 10
1 year ago	OneDragon	Hey there, what about an update regarding mint10? I'm too lazy to reinstall my whole Ruby/Rails environment so 'd appreciate if you'd post a new sources.lst I'd be happy. If it fails, well than I will have to do it my self but at least I have to try ;-) cheers!
1 year ago	martletandco	I've just upgraded my main machine via apt, everything seems to be in order.
1 year ago	tqk5	I just tried this on my sandbox, and it appears to have worked nicely so far. This's an old P-IV Compaq Evo installed from linuxmint-9-fluxbox-rc-i386 LiveCD. I love this distro. Works great on a couple of boxes I'm building. Thanks all.
1 year ago	13thSlayer	To do it all with one command: cat /etc/apt/sources.list\|sed 's/helena/isadora/'\|sed 's/karmic/lucid/'\|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo reboot
1 year ago	thx1138	There's a good chance you break up your system and having the same issues many Ubuntu users have. Take a look on topics (there are many) concerning upgrades or updates in any Ubuntu forum. There are less problems using Mint the way it is. Following this tutorial you turn a stable system into an experimental one. This procedure is not recommended.
1 year ago	chattr	Thank you for the tutorial. I have a minor point. I'm not sure what you mean by 'reloading the terminal', but the minor point about bashrc: once /etc/bash.bashrc.dpkg-old is copied to /etc/bash.bashrc, you can use whatever is now in /etc/bash.bashrc by 'sourcing' /etc/bash.bashrc. You source the file by doing in terminal ' source /etc/bash.bashrc ' (no quotes) or by doing in terminal ' . /etc/bash.bashrc ' (likewise, no quotes).
1 year ago	kneekoo	Thank you for the tutorial. I was curious if Mint 9 would have an upgrade tool this time, but it's been a while since Isadora was released and still nothing. If there won't be an upgrade tool in the following 2 weeks I might upgrade to Isadora this way. :) Believe it or not, I survived 3 Mint upgrades - from Elyssa to Felicia, from Felicia to Gloria and then to Helena. :)
1 year ago	remoulder	Note to anyone contemplating using this method - unless you know what you are doing, you could end up with a broken system and have to do a fresh install anyway. Upgrading in place will leave all your configuration files and settings in place which may cause many things not to work properly if at all in the upgraded system. Whilst you may think it better to do it this way rather than a fresh install, you could be letting yourself in for a lot of grief and additional work to rectify things. Clem's backup and restore approach is the least painful way to upgrade.
1 year ago	divad	Thank you for the tutorial!
1 year ago	clem	Thanks for this tutorial, a few comments: - Copy the content of the files in the article instead of linking to an external pastebin. - You can use the available apt shortcuts ("apt update", "apt dist-upgrade"..etc) as they're made to simplify things, especially in the context of a tutorial. - Don't launch a shell as root, just become root using "su -". I'd expect the known issues section to grow over time... especially when it comes to conflicting packages and dependencies.