Hi everybody,
I just wanted to ask: has anyone performed the UPGRADE from Lubuntu (64bit) 16.04(xenial) to 18.04(bionic)?
I mean the upgrade itself, not a clean install.
How did it go? Any problems?
I´m interested to learn about your views and experience before attempting an upgrade or clean-install.
Tnx in advance.
Rosika 
Past experiences of doing this type of upgrade with Ubuntu and Fedora based distros, have been mixed and these days I prefer a fresh install.
Most notably, if you have made (even simple) custom settings, it tends to produce errors and pollute the OS.
I suggest you back up all your data to a separate disk, prior to doing your upgrade
I use a iDsonix USB connected docking station for this purpose
Make a note of your settings, i.e icons, gtk themes, how you set up your /home folder etc.
At the end of the day, it is suck it and see. Try it, if doesn’t go according to plan, at least you will have data safely stored, and you can do a fresh install.
Hi mack,
tnx a lot for your suggestion.
I do a complete system-backup once a month with clonezilla. That way I can go back to a working system if need be. So that´s covered, I think.
I was just wondering if anyone has used the upgrade-path successfully…
Yet I think the fresh install would be the way to go. You´re certainly right there.
Plus: as I have a separate /home-partition I hope to be able to keep that one.
Have a nice weekend.
Rosika 
This might help you decide 
Hi again and thanks for the links.
I´ve read them through and it seems they give interesting insights. Yet I´m still not quite sure as far as choosing the way of upgrading is concerned.
Though I tend to perform a fresh-install. It seems safer and more hassle-free.
The only thing I´m a bit concerned about is getting all my installed packages back. I´m still investigating…
Greetings
Rosika
I’m not familiar with Clonezilla, but for some reason I get the notion that it backs up EVERYTHING including the OS and when you go to put it back, it puts EVERYTHING back. Not sure if you can choose specific files or folders to restore. I prefer spending three hours to do a straight copy between storage devices and make a complete copy of only my HOME partition. I have about 600GB of data I save.
Yes, that’s the whole point of Clonezilla. Hence the name. It is supposed to clone an exact 1:1 image of the source. Therefore it should not be used as a normal primary backup solution. It’s worth doing it if you have to archive a certain state of a machine or if you are changing the HDD but want to keep your OS, etc. Normal backups are, as you touched it, not the primary goal of Clonezilla.
Hi,
as far as clonezilla is concerned you´re basically right. It clones/backs up the whole drive although you can do the same with partitions only.
It´s also correct that it doesn´t provide means to restore specific files/folders natively.
Yet there´s a workaround for achieving this. Example:
sudo cat /path_to_clonezilla_backup_img/sdd2.ext2-ptcl-img.gz.* | sudo gzip -d -c | sudo partclone.ext2 -C -r -W -s - -O path_to_output_file_sdd2.img
This produces a mountable .img-file of the respective partition (e.g. /home).
Then:
sudo mount -o loop ./sdd2.img /mnt
for mounting it. From this place you can copy whatever file you want to wherever you want. After that unmounting with
sudo umount sdd2.img
I already tried it out and it worked perfectly. So clonezilla remains my backup-choice No 1.
P.S:
If anbody is interested what the particular options in the command mean:
Here´s some info:
sdd2.ext2-ptcl-img.gz.* # covers all image segments of the respective partition, here: /home
gzip -d # the same as --decompress, equals gunzip
gzip -c # the same as --stdout, redirects result to stdout
partclone.ext2 -C # free space is not checked
partclone.ext2 -r # restore partition from the special image format
partclone.ext2 -W # Create a file that you can embed as a loop device
partclone.ext2 -s # source FILE
partclone.ext2 -O # Overwrite FILE, overwriting if it exists
Further info: https://drbl.org/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/68_manually_partclone_restore.faq#68_manually_partclone_restore.faq
Cheers.
Rosika
i had read this was an option, but never did put in the time to verify. thanks for the info.
Hi cordx,
you´re welcome. Glad that my info is of interest to you.
Have a nice day.
Rosika
Hi Rosika , Still using a Pentium 4 (hence 32 bit) desktop PC I have upgraded Lubuntu 16.04 successfully to 18.04 RAM on this machine is only 1 GB.
Frank in County Wicklow Ireland
Hello Frank,
thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds good.
Glad to hear that it went smoothly. Perhaps I´ll give the upgrade a try after all.
Greetings
Rosika 