Linux Mint 20 New Features

I had to comment out my crypttab entries for the “mintupgrade check” error to disappear. One down, one to go! :slight_smile:

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i think LoneSt4r’s experience here is probably more helpful than my answer, but i can add that i have read that some ubuntu users wait until the first point release (from 20.04 to 20.04.1) to do their upgrades just to make sure the kinks have been worked out of the system. since bodhi doesn’t have a direct upgrade mechanism, i always re-install for a major release (and sometimes a time or two in between).

if you use timeshift and follow the guidance to make a snapshot, that should help make sure things are at least recoverable in case there are problems. of course that only covers system data so i would take the time to create a clonezilla image if i were trying the same to safeguard my personal stuff (including config files).

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Yes, I am kind of leaning towards a “fresh” / clean install of Mint 20 vs the upgrade to Mint 20. How do you keep track of your mods / updates / packages installed to perform over again when you re-install? Does Linux have a place where all the packages added to it are kept?

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i do mine a little old school :bookmark: i keep a libreoffice document called “bodhi fresh install” (pretty sure i got that idea from @ElectricDandySlider) and do my best to add things to it when i make changes to my system. there was a previous discussion here about trying to come up with a list of installed applications after the fact. this was chosen as the solution. Abhishek also offered a suggestion before that one. i have not run that script myself to verify, but it’s just a dpkg-query so it doesn’t make any kind of changes to your system.

most program mods or configuration changes (all maybe? well, probably some in /etc too now that i think about it, but definitely don’t copy that) are stored in your /home/user directory. my understanding is that is why some people choose to create a separate /home partition when they install. i have never done so. again, i default to my list and just go about setting up things like they were previously :slight_smile:

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i missed this part when reading the upgrade instructions previously, but the other mint 20 upgrade discussion encouraged me to take a closer look and i saw this in the notes:

The upgrade overwrites files in /etc/ with default configuration files. You can restore files indivually by the Timeshift snapshot you made prior to upgrading.

that would give me pause if i were in your position and considering upgrading. i don’t know everything that /etc contains, but it probably has your printer configuration (which i know was a frustration in the past) as well as any installed fonts or icons.

that also reminded me that since

and there have been some printer compatibility issues discussed here recently in relation to mint and ubuntu 20, i would recommend grabbing a copy of your printers.conf file in /etc/cups/ if it exists (you can check in your file manager). since you have an hp (maybe still do?) and if you use hplip there may be a different location, but checking it out certainly wouldn’t hurt.

that file usually only has root read and write permissions so you may need to sudo cat /etc/cups/printers.conf and then copy the output to a regular text file.

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