This Week has arrived a new version of Linux with a mint flavor, and a few moments ago they published the guide on how to upgrade to Linux Mint 22. It is a simple process, or two if we take into account that there are older versions from which you can also make the jump. And what we are going to do here today is publish a version in Cervantes' language that is somewhat more detailed and with more screenshots, so that everything is even clearer.
Although the process has been simplified in the latest versions of Mint, and this is reflected in the official note, some more steps will appear in our guide. And it is not obligatory, it is optional, but make a backup of all important documents is a good practice, and even more so if we take into account that Timeshift is an XApp and is installed by default on mint systems.
Upgrade process to Linux Mint 22
- First of all, and as we have explained, it is worth making a backup copy of all important data. For example, if we have documents that we don't want to lose in the Documents and Photos folder in Photos, we can copy them to an external drive. Another option is to create a snapshot with Timeshift, something that is explained in this related article. During the process it will give us the option.
- Next, we update all the packages that need to be updated, something that can be done from the terminal:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
- With everything important already saved, let's start the update process itself. The first thing will be to update the repositories and install the update tool, for which we will have to open a terminal and write the following:
sudo apt update sudo apt install mintupgrade
- Next, we launch the update tool with administrator privileges:
sudo mintupgrade
- The official documentation almost ends here, indicating that you have to follow the instructions that appear on the screen. We will expand a little more and add captures. In the first one, we click on "Let's go there."
- In the following image we see that it is going to start some tests to check if everything will go well. We click "Accept" to start.
- Once the check is complete, if we did not have a snapshot with Timeshift it will tell us to do it. If we don't want to, we can go to the hamburger settings/Preferences and uncheck the option. This will allow us to continue without snapshot.
- It will then perform a download check. We click "Accept" to continue.
- Once this check is done, we will see a summary of everything, something like the following, which explains the size of the download, packages to add and delete. We click "Accept" to make the changes.
- We wait. It may take a while, depending on the network status of your servers, our Internet connection, and the power of our equipment.
- Once the download process is complete, we accept the following window to update.
- When the update phase is finished, it will ask us to update a list of external packages and remove orphans, if any. We do this by clicking on "Correct".
- With the process completed, we accept, eliminate the update tool and restart the operating system, something that can be done with the following command.
sudo apt remove mintupgrade && sudo reboot
How to update from previous versions
To update from versions earlier than 21, what you have to do is go up the version in leaps and bounds until you reach the most modern one. Another option is to perform a clean installation.
Another thing that can be done, although it is not recommended, is to download the new ISO and, During installation, ask to update the operating system. It might work out fine, but the jump from previous versions is big, and the software you're updating from could end up causing unexpected crashes.
Mint being a distribution that releases LTS versions and then point versions, It is advisable to update with each new release. Versions such as Linux Mint 22 released this week are the start, and the following three are point updates that would be equivalent to, for example, Ubuntu 22.04.4: they are not totally new versions, although the graphical environment, therefore except in the main edition, yes it is
In any case, these are the instructions to update to Linux Mint 22.