Hi I'm about to update from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to 10.04.1 LTS. I`m hoping somebody can help me with the following two questions.....
Do I get the oportunity during the update to carry forward settings and/or software (some cost me a real headache to setup initially, e.g. Scanner from Epson).
Is there a sofware I can use to store settings/config and/or software packets from 8.04 so that one click restores everything should some setting not be carried forward during update (I'm thinking here of something similar to a „save registry settings“ from Windows). Much obliged for any help here

Read - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LucidUpgrades

Cheers,

Josh

I have upgrade from 8.04 to 10.04 a number of times (testing for 10.04 in pre release).

I think you are making a mistake in doing so.

I would save your config files from your /home/<user> and use them in a clean install. It would be easiest to do this if you are set up in a 2 partition install (/ {root} and /home).

10.04 is made to run on ext4. Having upgraded a copy of my 8.04 to 10.04 (which leaves it as ext3) and used a lean install of 10.04 and transferred the files to it, on the same machine, I can tell you that performance is quite a bit better on the ext4 install.

If you have 8.04 on two partitions you could install over it with 10.04 with out formatting the /home partition. This will leave your /home as ext3 (back up is important though I have never lost data doing this).

You should back up your data before doing anything. Upgrades have been known to go bad and eat your data.

What if my root is ReiserFS?

That should not be a problem.

I think that you would be better off with ext4 but that is your call.

1 members found this post helpful.

I plan to do a cloned image of 8.04 should things not work properly, then I can just return to 8.04 until I can work up the courage for a fresh install. Could I ask what's your oppinion of „CloneZilla“? Obliged

I have never used clonezilla. A lot of folks do though and they seem to like it.

My problem with it is probably me. Ran MS too long and got real tired of using 3rd party apps. I just do not like getting things that do the things I want to do when I have tools that will do it already.

There are a number of things that it is supposed to be real good at. Has been around for a long time now and with a 3 year old (nearly) OS it should be bullet proof.

I think a plane jane dd command should see you through. check out the LQ wiki for dd.
Thereafter you have to just do a grub install after you restore 8.04 You could use a live CD for the same. The steps should be :-
1. copy existing install to a seperate partition using dd command.
2. to have it back
copy it back using dd command (just reverse the if and of params).
mount the freshly installed partition and do a grub-install on it.
3. boot up your system.

hope that helps
nishith

Personally, regardless of the OS I am using, I hate doing upgrades. I feel that no matter how clean and good the upgrade can go, it's best to start fresh. Backup personal data, scripts, settings and format. Sometimes a clean install is faster and easier than doing an upgrade. For example. Recently upgraded from 10.10 to 11.04 on a devel box. It left a lot of crap. By the time I tracked everything down to clean up things, I could have reinstalled and reconfigured everything with a fresh install. I do have a second hard drive mapped to /home so the amount of reconfig is minimal.

Ubuntu is notorious for nasty upgrades, even between "normal" six-month releases. Going from LTS to LTS is about as safe as a screen door on a submarine.

Backup your important files and do a fresh install.