What's the easiest way to move from Linux Mint 13 to 14?

Question

I want to switch to 14 as easily as possible. What's the best way? Do I have to remove 13 and install 14 from scratch, or is there another way?

Answer 1

Because Mint is Debian derived, the easiest way is to update your sources.list to use the new version of the repositories, then use apt-get (or aptitude) to install debconf and apt-get (and/or aptitude). Then dist-upgrade.

Not being a Mint user myself, I don't know what the correct sources.list should be (and 5 seconds on Google didn't reveal it) and I've obviously not tested this. But being a long time Debian user this is reasonably likely to be safe. Even still, test this yourself before actually doing it and have a back up of your data.

Answer 2

As bahamat said, Mint is Debian derived, so you should

1. update your sources.list:

   sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

2. Change maya to nadia and precise to quantal:

Paste this into sources.list:

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ nadia main upstream import
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ quantal partner
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ quantal free non-free
#deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu quantal-getdeb apps
#deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu quantal-getdeb games

1. Update packages:

   sudo apt-get update

2. Update and upgrade distribution:

   sudo apt-get dist-upgrade sudo apt-get upgrade

3. To clean up

   sudo apt-get autoclean sudo apt-get autoremove

4. Reboot

   sudo reboot

5. After rebooting select desired desktop environment.

Hope it helps!