LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Updating recent Mint versions

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Updating recent Mint versions

I have VMs of Mint-18.1 & 18.3. 18.3 has only gone in recently, and as soon as it settles, I'll delete 18.1.

I'm having trouble updating them both. They exist to run Freecad, with a pile of python modules as dependencies which are an absolute PITA in Slackware, the host.

After any form of update, Mint-18.1 is screwed and won't reboot; I decided it was my bad for not updating quick enough. X won't run, or the kernel won't boot. So it's still the basic cd install. Hence 18.3. Mint succeed in updating 18.3 on the 2nd try (1st introduced nuttiness in freecad).
add freecad repository
sudo apt-get install freecad
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

I know to upgrade regularly now. Is this just me, or is this a messy way to do it? Is Mint bothersome generally to update?

Mint is based on the "Long Term Support" (LTS) branch of Ubuntu and is typically very stable and easy to update.

Can you please copy & paste the full output of:

Code:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -s dist-upgrade

Please note the "-s" flag is for "simulate." This command is for troubleshooting purposes and will not actually make any changes to your system.

OK. I kinda did this. I started on Mint-18.1, and I have a fully functional and often restored backup. I missed '-s dist-upgrade' and actually did

Code:

sudo apt-get update > update.txt 2>&1

sudo apt-get upgrade > upgrade.txt 2>&1

sudo apt-get -s dist-upgrade >dist-upgrade.txt 2>&1

The three files are attached, but you'll have to rename upgrade.pdf to upgrade.txt, because it just topped the 256k attachment limit, whereas I was allowed much more in pdf :-/. Those files were in shared storage with the VM, so they can be accessed in Slackware.

Mint-18.1, needless to say, won't boot. I said Y or I when it asked me questions. I tried not doing that but the results are as bad. Even on my resource-challenged laptop and usb drive, restoring the Mint-18.1 backup is under 4 minutes work.

I noticed this in your "sudo apt-get update" output:

Code:

Hit:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/freecad-maintainers/freecad-stable/ubuntu xenial InRelease

I recommend to remove all 3rd-party repositories and PPA's, then try the update/upgrade/dist-upgrade process again.

In your honour I did a reinstall of Mint-18.1 and attach the two outputs. I temporarily am embarrassed for backups. The '-s dist-upgrade' output was much shorter. The updated Mint-18.1 versions I was bellyaching about hung in one of 2 places:

The thing wouldn't boot - apparently some grub issue
I would get to log in, (prompting a 'startx') and be thrown out again because X had crashed. They showed me logs which indicated a major binary crash, with very little clue as to what caused it. I would guess X server, because the keyboard crap hadn't come up yet

I would get choices on the kernel (new grub.conf) but whatever option I took was error prone. If I was lucky I'd get the X server crash; The file I got asked about there was a 'for this type of file, use that application' listing, which seemed harmless.

With Mint-18.3 happy, I don't need Mint-18.1 and will probably delete this VM when this thread closes. No freecad installed at all. But we can do destructive testing if you like.

Well, somewhat to my surprise, I actually managed to get Mint-18.1 to dist-upgrade.

I did a dist-upgrade without the '-s' but with a '-y' but it still asked me questions. While it was doing stuff, I fed myself and the dog, and then came back and did battle with grub before restarting. I HATE grub. Anyhow, that seemed to get me past a kernel error, and the other rock I perished on (An error in X) wasn't there this time.

I'm not inspired with confidence; Kali Linux was also updated today, which is Debian based. It got excited, told me to attempt '--fix-broken install' logged me out of X by surprise, which of course collapsed the update. But i just restarted, the '--fix-broken install' and it completed. It's dual boot with Slackware, so it's kernel lands in the same place as Slackware's.

It called a point of order on vmlinuz-huge, complaining that you shouldn't begin a version number with letters, found Slackware-14.2, and wisely desisted from grubbing my lilo installation. I had to update lilo in slackware.