Hi,

I'm librarian and our computers (20) are under LinuxMint 18 (Sarah) but it's obsolete.
They're in dual boot Windows 10 / Linux 18 (Sarah) and I'll want to update the Linux version.

But i believe it's impossible to update directy 18 > 20.1

It's easier to uninstall and reinstall linux ? or update to 18> 19> 20 ... ?

I'm newbie and the french forum are not really helpful (sorry for my bad english..)


Thanks you

Ob

You can upgrade to Linux Mint 20 only from Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon, Xfce and MATE.
So first you need to upgrade to 19.3: https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2416

I guess that should be an easy task, do not need to fully reinstall it.

I assume all of your computers are 64 bit? If not, you can only upgrade to 19.x
Your correct, you can not upgrade directly to 20.

You would need to upgrade to 18.3 if not running the latest, then upgrade to 19. I don't know if it will automatically upgrade to 19.3.
if not, you would need to upgrade to 19.3 then to 20.

https://www.tecmint.com/upgrade-to-linux-mint-19/

Try it with one computer and see how painful the process. Its best to have a separate lab or test environment because if you encounter problems it will not disrupt normal operations. Without knowing what special software you have installed that may not be in the standard repository it is difficult to say what difficulties you might encounter.

no such thing as 'Linux 18' you mean mint, debian aint Linux!

Did you bother to even read the initial post ?.

yes i did did u bother to read the title!

I read the title then read the first post which clarified that Mint was the distro and 18 was the version..

Why resort to being so snarky when the details are there for the reader?

I my opinion your best course of action to to do a fresh install of mint 20.x after backing up all essential files to an off computer storage of some sort IE external disk, cloud, ETC. But that may be quite a task for all 20 Computers.
In any event good luck on your chosen path.

Hi,

Thanks you for your answers !

The version it's Linux mint 18 in 64bits but it's obsolete and I would like to update to 20.1 ...

I wonder if it is not easier to uninstall everything reinstall ? that's a lot of updating 18 > 18.3 >...> 20.1 ?

Thks you again

Ob

it depends on you. Do you need to backup all those hosts at all? Is there any "important" data somewhere?

Capodo,

You don't need to uninstall it.

Just replace 18 with version 20.1 on the same partition. Backup any user files you feel are important.

You will need to reinstall the software packages afterwards if they're not included with the new version.

Thks,

there is nothing important to install on it, it is not widely used,

Kev392 : thks, Can I install can I install the 20.1 directly on top of the 18?

By doing a classic installation?

It will actually be much easier!


Thanks

Easy upgrade guide by the creator of Mint: How to upgrade to a newer release (community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2)

If nothing is important just install 20 over the existing 18. Since the computers are dual boot you will need to select something else at the partition stage and manually select which partition you want to use.

hi Capobo,

The way I do it is download the iso file of your choice. You can still use Mint 18 for this. Create the bootable version of 20.1 by right-click on the iso file and Make bootable USB stick from the menu. Hopefully you have a USB drive.

After that is finished and you are ready, reboot the computer and have it boot from the USB drive.

You can then install it. It should recognize the Windows installation once you begin the install. It will ask you if you want to install it on the whole drive, ect. Choosing Something Else will put you in the disk management section and show you the partitions.

Just select the Mint 18 partition and choose the root setting which is represented by a forward slash /

Also make it bootable. On mine it boots from sda but yours may be different. Wherever it boots from now, leave it in the same spot.

Mint 20.1 should have 2 more upgrades in October to 20.2 and 20.3 April 2022. You don't have to reinstall for those, it's just a software upgrade. Always try to keep your operating system up to date with the Update Manager.

Enjoy Linux Mint!

Forgot to add, the new boot menu after the successful install may not say Linux Mint 20.1 it may say Ubuntu. It's ok. Hopefully the development team will change that at some point.