Is it possible to upgrade system using iso files without burning it to CD?
 

Hi,

In my case, I am running Ubuntu 8.04 (installed by CD) and an .iso file for Ubuntu 10.04. Normally, we can upgrade system via internet. But it always takes much time to get it, with me it's around 2 hours @_@.
What I need is saving time by upgrade the system from what I have (iso file), not via internet.
Does anyone have any suggestion for my case?

Thanks!
Linh

You can upgrade the system without internet but the upgrades work with immediate versions. To upgrade from 8.04, you will need to upgrade to immediate next 8.10 and so on. The better way is to backup the data and clean install the newest version. But I suppose LTS can be upgraded to next LTS version but I think that can be done over internet. I have not done LTS to LTS upgradation though.

I am not sure that I get you clearly.
Did u mean that I need to update step by step from 8.04 to 8.10 and after that from 8.10 to 9.10 and so on until 10.04LTS? Otherwise, it seems to be hard to download old version like this at that moment.
Actually, I tried to mount the ISO file but nothing happen. I couldn't upgrade the system.
I think we waste of time to download what we already have.
I don't know whether it's possible.

Linh

I don't think you can go from 8 to 10 safely. That is a big jump. Consider a test computer with all your apps before you try this.

One might say that you should have been upgrading it all along but we run stuff for years in place without upgrades.

Yes, this is what I mean. You can not upgrade the major versions of Ubuntu skipping the immediate versions. You will need to go one by one from 8.04 to 8.10 to 9.04 and so on. Also, to upgrade, you need to have an alternate cd. The Live desktop version will not work here.

So, even when I want to upgrade immediate versions, I would need CD ??
If yes, I think I would be better to burn 10.04 ISO files and upgrade instead of putting several discs in CD-ROM for updating step by step.

I have never skipped versions while upgrading. So I would not speak on this. You need alternate cd to upgrade but can you skip the versions and upgrade directly from 8.04 to 10.04? I have not done that and I can not say it will work or not. You can backup the data and try that for yourself.

it is possible. in my update manager , it is set to only notify me about lts versions , which i think it wouldn't if it wouldn't be possible to skip.

maybe do a partition clone of your current root partition , and eventually if you have a separate home , back that up also .

then , run the update from 8.04 to 10.04 . If something goes wrong , you can always restore from your backups .

if the update to 10.04 worked well , then you're very lucky .

if not , then you might be better off installing it from cd . If you have a netbook and try to avoid using a cd , you can also make a bootable flash drive , make a clean install (backup important data first) , and when installing , at the partitioning stage, select advanced , and create 3 partitions there : one partition of like 10GB (is plenty) for the root (choose mountpoint / )

one partition of like .. the space left , but leaving like 4Gb free (it's mountpoint should be /home ).
then the third partition would be the double of your ram, and if space is left after, you can grow your home after installing using gparted from the live usb . (put the filesystem to swap)

so , that way , you can always do clean installs without losing what you have in your /home partition , so therefore not losing your configuration .

still , harddrives fail , and a backup is still recommended.

the best palce to start now is with a clean install , making the partitions as i said .

and if you want an example , here's what it should look like :

/ - 10GB
/home -100GB ( make it accordingly to your space . e.g. if you have a 250Gb drove then it should be like 238Gb)
swap -2GB (if you have a netbook , they usually have 1GB RAM. but still , even if you have 2GB RAM , it should be 4GB , the swap. )

the filesystem of the first 2 partitions , should be ext4 , but if you prefer other , it can be .. but i recommend ext4 , very fast filesystem checks ...

You can upgrade LTS to LTS. You will miss out on some things like Ext4 and grub 2. I would back up and do a fresh install.

ext4 is just ext3 with a faster file system check. i guess and bigger partition size limit.

grub 2 .. isn't worth it . if it breaks is harder to fix it , and only to boot to the distro , i don't really see any benefits .

so .. anyways a clean install is always better than upgrading ...

"so .. anyways a clean install is always better than upgrading ..."

I second that.