Migration from Ubuntu to Mint [closed]

Question

I'd like to migrate from Ubuntu 12.10 to Mint 14, but it's important that I keep everything which is in my /home directory. Will it work if I just put the directory on a USB stick, then replace the default one by ny old one after the install is complete (I'll use the same username/paaswd on the new install)?

Answer 1

Sure. I'd use something like tar (there are other options, rsync, cp, cpio):

cd /media/usb-stick/
tar -pcvzf home.$USER.tar.gz /home/$USER

To unpack on new computer:

cd /
tar -xvzf /media/usb-stick/home.$USER.tar.gz

If you have any permission problems after, do this:

# own everything in your home dir by you.  This is usually safe/correct,
# unless you have some unusual permissions set up somewhere (like a directory
# for sharing files with other users on the system) 
chown -R $USER:$USER ~

Some problems you may run into:

• Disk Space: make sure your usb stick has enough space
• File size too big: If your home directory has more than 2G of files, you might create a file too big for a fat32 usb-stick. Either format it ext3, tar up partial directories, copy in batches or use another method to archive things (rsync, network copy it, etc)
• if you don't use tar, and use cp or rsync, you need to copy to a unix filesystem, like ext3. Copying to a fat usb-disk without using tar will mess up permissions.
• dot files: make sure if you do partial directories, you don't forget all the files in your home directory that start with a dot (hidden).

Answer 2

I wouldn't do it. It will be safer to save your data & do a clean install. There's no guarantee that the config files will match & that could create conflicts.

Answer 3

My suggestion is to use cinnamon instead of migrating to mint

http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/09/20/install-cinnamon-1-6-in-ubuntu-12-04-lts/

Cinnamon 1.6, the latest edition of the desktop environment whose development was partly inspired by popular dissatisfaction with Unity and GNOME 3 was released yesterday. It is a project from the developers of Linux Mint, a desktop distribution derived from Ubuntu.

As a Free Software desktop environment and project, you can install it on any distribution, provided there is a binary package for it. Without that, you can compile it from source, if doing business at the command-line does not scare you.

Ubuntu Cinnamon PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install cinnamon