Is a clean install better than upgrading? [closed]

Question

Is it better to install Ubuntu completely new or is the upgrade process just as good? In other words, will my computer run just as problem-free and efficiently when I upgrade as opposed to a fresh install?

Answer 1

Typically, upgrades are just fine in Ubuntu. It's not like Windows where you have a huge registry to carry over from your last system. As long as you haven't had to follow many tutorials or done any workarounds to fix problems in a unique way (i.e. using a special application to enable your wireless card or made some major changes to your kernel for whatever reason) you'll be fine.

In fact, I'd say about 90% of people who are asking this question will be fine with the upgrade.

If you want to stay absolutely safe, you can always wait for the vetted point release upgrade, or even maybe wait for the next LTS release in a few years. It's your choice. You'll still be supported for the next three years with updates if you're on 10.04 right now.

Answer 2

I'd suggest one of two things:

1. Back up critical files and data in Dropbox. This way no matter what you do, ever, you can retrieve them (even on completely new computers)
2. Back up critical files and data to a thumb drive. This might be the best option for you, as it will not require a high-bandwidth Internet connection.

I suggest you do (2) in either case. If you upgrade, you risk losing data. If you do a fresh install, you will lose data.

Answer 3

Do a fresh install if at all possible.

I was presented with this choice last year.

Best of all I had TWO systems to upgrade so I could compare by doing each.

In summary, as others have noted, if you can do a fresh install, that's the best option. It will clear out things that miht otherwise be issues going forward. It'll make you ensure that all your important data and personal programs are not fixed to that machine (obviously you'll be backing them up in this case).

My 'production' machine was the one I upgraded because I was using that for key work stuff.

One thing I would recommend though, as I know hard nerve-wrecking this process can be: Get another machine (you can get a bar bones machine for < $300 now. Set THAT up with your key stuff and then when it's really working ok, do your core machine. That way if something goes wrong, which with an OS install/upgrade can be pretty scary, you can use your other machine while you resolve it. You'll also end up with a physical backup of your data plus a 'go-to' machine if yours fails in the future. Its basically insurance.

Answer 4

Upgrading is fine but if you are "that" active and have so many softwares and packages installed, you will be having "obsolete package" alerts. So,

1. if you are a Common user do Upgrade
2. If you are an Active user do fresh install

Answer 5

The AptOnCD software is used to create an offline repository of your downloaded packages in a cd. You can use your AptOnCD (created by you, with all your downloaded packages) as a repository source. It is a useful tool for those with less bandwidth. (I have used this before). You can also have a metapackage which install all the installed packages.

you can get more information about AptOnCD here.

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Actually you can restore(install) all the packages in a single AptOnCD compilation with a metapackage, if you choose the 'create a metapackage' option. From the metapackage description: "Auto generated meta-package that contains as dependencies all packages in APTonCD media, previously generated by APTonCD".

But you can backup the list of packages by entering command dpkg --get-selections > packages_list, where packages_list is the filename. You can later use this list to install all your packages with the program synaptic or dpkg. this may help you. But make sure your newly installed system also has the repository sources which was in your previous installed system. otherwise, it will not work.

To install all the packages using 'Synaptic Package Manager', follow these

• Install synaptic with sudo apt-get install synaptic
• Open synaptic by typing synaptic in the dash
• Select 'File' from menu, Click 'Read markings'.
• In 'Open Changes' window, select the file which you created using dpkg --get-selections command. In this context it is packages_list file.
• Then click 'Apply' button.

Answer 6

Generally a fresh install is preferred for the reason I have seen a lot of issues with the upgrading process. Upgrading process generally ends up going in some crappy graphic driver problem or a GPU one. I even got weird problems, like non availability of shared folders and data loss.

Well its all up to you, as problem also persists when you are going for a clean install. But clean install problems are generally easily understood and recoverable.
Well enjoy installing Ubuntu :)

Answer 7

I did a fresh install of 12.04 Beta 2 after backing up my home folder on an external hard drive, then joined the AU community. It was the best learning experience ever. I updated every day and experienced issues others were having and when 26th April came around I was done and the ride was smooth. This way I had the best of both worlds, trouble free and highly recommended.

Answer 8

I've encountered a few problems with upgrading from v11.10 to v12.04-LTS, however I was able to perform first an automated cleanup via ubuntu-tweak, and then later I followed that up with a manual cleanup from the command-line by first running 'updatedb' to update my location database of all items within the filesystem, then 'locate oneiric' to locate any objects that called to the 11.10 distribution specifically, then I simply opened a 2nd terminal and deleted each object tied to oneiric that wasn't obviously something that needed to be handled differently, such as via an uninstall/reinstall, first.

I did have to reinstall my graphics drivers for my laptop's Nvidia Go chipset, and I've encountered a few problems from some of my screenlets that I carried over from oneiric, but overall it's not been a bad deal.

I'll say this about upgrades: If you have a lot of experience with troubleshooting an Ubuntu or other Linux based system, then upgrading is not a bad deal because it doesn't seem to produce any problems that a competent Linux technician cannot sort out fairly quickly. But, if you do not fit into this category of users, then I recommend backing up all of your personal data from the system before you start, along with a package list of everything you have installed on the OS you want to replace, and then do a clean install. Personally, I have 15 years of experience in working with Linux based systems, so for me... working out the problems after an upgrade were pretty simple.

I had done some testing with the Beta 2 release in preparation for the final release so I would know what I would need to adjust for when the final release was available. This has helped immensely. For instance, I knew from my testing that in order to get manual login capability to lightdm, I would have to add "greeter-show-manual-login=true" to /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf. I also knew that I would have to make a few slight adjustments to /etc/sudoers and /etc/group in order to allow flawless management and login of my system by any member of the "Domain Admins" group in Active Directory, which I require since I run AD on my home LAN for single-sign-on authentication across all of my systems, both Windows & Linux based. Knowing these facts up-front have served me very well, since I'm now running Ubuntu 12.04-LTS final on my laptop that I'd been running Ubuntu 11.10 on the previous day, and for the past 6 to 8 months. With this system-upgrade being a stunning success overall, I have much less in-trepidation about upgrading several of my other systems to Ubuntu 12.04. However... that said, not all of my Ubuntu systems are equally loaded out, so in some cases I will still want to do a clean install and base that install on the particular hardware I'm working with. My Zotac ZboxHD ID-41 Plus will require much more care where the upgrade is concerned, because it's a dual boot system that runs Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04-LTS. Fortunately, I'm well versed enough to perform the installation without wrecking the system overall and having to start from scratch. I will simply backup all of my personal data from the Ubuntu partitions and reload after I've wiped those partitions to ensure a clean environment. I also have to take into consideration that each of my systems are configured to be connected to via an xrdp gateway on another system (a virtual server, running Ubuntu 10.04-LTS Server), and so I must have XDMCP capability. But, I've already researched and tested the solution for that, using lightdm, vnc4server, and xinetd. The main thing there is to simply remove 'vino' up front so that port 5900 is freed up for vnc4server. The rest is a standard installation and configuration. I will publish several articles soon in regard to my research and howto's on www.stormnine.net. But, it may be a few weeks before I get around to that, since I have a fairly large group of systems that I want to port to Ubuntu 12.04 first, which could end up leading to my writing a few more articles and howto's based on that experience.

Anyway, I know this response is kinda long winded, but I hope that it gives some insight into the upgrade process from a resulting-experience perspective, coming from a technician that works with multiple operating systems professionally. Good luck, everyone, in your own projects. :)

Answer 9

People mess with their systems. Adding this and removing that. A fresh install from a Live CD with the / partition being formatted will start off with clean configuration files. And this sometimes fixes some annoying little problems that are difficult to solve.

Do not forget that when you install from a CD with an internet connection, the install process will update the system as the process moves along. As for danger this is no worse or better than upgrading over the internet.

I have found it quicker to download the iso and upgrade from that with an internet connection than when upgrading directly over the internet. This is just my impression. It is not scientific fact. I also like to have a copy of the latest live CD available in case I mess up my system so much that a fresh install is needed.

At the moment I am in two minds as to whether I upgrade 11.04 to 11.10 or fresh install 11.10. I may wait until 12.04 to do the fresh install. It is a matter of personal preference. People should not make comments that suggest one method is more dangerous than the other. It is misleading.

Answer 10

Sometimes new features (e.g. the update from ext3 to ext4) are only enabled on fresh installs. I'd recommend you check release notes or changelogs for that, but otherwise there is no real difference.

Answer 11

Both of them should not be (necessarily) true.

Upgrading is always supported from:

• previous to current (for example, from 11.04 to 11.10)
• previous LTS(*) to current LTS (for example, from 10.04 to 12.04)

Updating online: no reason either, except for time and bandwidth. If you download the ISO, and update from the ISO, the update experience would be better than online, if you do not have a fast Internet connection. Of course, I am not counting the time to download the ISO, but this is usually a fire & forget action: we start the download, and go do something else.

This is all supposing you did not install packages from external sources, or manually built & deployed other things. In this case, it is difficult to say if an update will work flawlessly or not -- it depends on what you installed, and where you installed.

(*) Long Term Support

Answer 12

That depends what you use Ubuntu for.

• If your installation is only a toy or an appliance (e.g. just for web browsing) and you haven't customized it, reinstall. Make sure you save any personal data (typically you'll want to back up your home directory and restore selected parts).
• If the only customizations you've done on your installation are to install additional drivers or make other tweaks because your hardware was poorly supported under the old version, it may be better to do a clean reinstall.
• If you've customized your installation in any other way (configured system settings, installed more than a couple of additional programs, etc.), upgrade. If you've used Ubuntu actively, this case probably applies (if nothing else, you're likely to have installed a bunch of packages).

At the system level, Ubuntu is very good at smooth upgrades. Upgrades are tested before each release. This is a supported mode of operation, and it's more likely to leave you with the system you want than reinstalling and trying to remember all your customizations.

At the user level, Ubuntu's default interface is Gnome, which is not so good at importing settings from one version to another. Thus the choice is between

• starting from a fresh home directory and restoring all documents and selected settings from a backup; and
• keeping your home directory across the upgrade, and looking into the problem if something goes wrong.

In either case, you might as well do a system upgrade.

Answer 13

for me upgrading is a bit slow down the boot process, but no other problem appeared.

Answer 14

I suggest you wait and see how other upgrades went. Then see what issues they caused, since the release before this was a LTS, no need really to jump ship until your sure, its stable. :)

just my opinion, really! there are some cool features 10.10 though FONTS for example. also something to do with clouds :P

Answer 15

For me upgrading always led to problems, sometimes big sometimes small. And most of them was in old config files in home folder.

So my usual flow is like this -

1. Backup critical data which may reside on root partition like mysql dbs for example
2. Boot into live cd
3. Carefully delete hidden files in your home folder, but you may leave some of them like .purple, .VirtualBox, .wine etc
4. Format root partition and use old home partition

Answer 16

Configuration files and workarounds can persist in an upgrade. Your best bet is basically remove all hidden files and folders in your home directory, and perform a non-format installation over your previous install. Unless there's a new file system or something, this gives most of the main benefits of all methods. Your personal data is still there, the install process is really fast, and you don't risk odd problems later on.

Due to the nature of Ubuntu software packages, Ubuntu is theoretically immune to upgrade cruft and problems. The catch is that configuration files used by applications are often NOT SPECIFIED IN THE .DEB but instead created dynamically by the software once installed. As long as applications are allowed to create configuration files on the fly like this, upgrading between releases will continue to be risky business.

The long term solution is to enforce a system wherin if say, ..minesweeper-- wanted to make a new file, the OS simply refuses and terminates it. It has no business making files. File creation permission should be extended to only maybe 7 total binaries on a fresh Ubuntu installation. Once this is fixed, upgrading between ubuntu installs should pose no real risk.

This entails that any log or configuration file that any binary may ever need is present as an empty stub file from the time of installation. To compensate for this by usability, Nautilus should be able to hide empty files.

Answer 17

The upgrade can have some issues on certain software and it definitely isn't full proof against idionsyncries with older packages. For the most you shouldn't have problem but remember to back up any settings or data that is important to you.

For a full proof installation reformatting and installing from scratch is the best option. Though it will take much longer of course to set it all back up correctly.

Answer 18

A clean install is the best way to insure you're getting the experience the developers intended for the release, whereas upgrading can use old data, configurations, packages, etc. or create scenarios developers didn't anticipate or failed to tolerate correctly.

If you're asking - fresh install. Just copy your home directory to the base and change the name to something not used by the system, then during the installation select that partition as "/" and make sure not to select "format" This will install the operating system, but you'll have access to your data without a re-format or anything.

Answer 19

I don't remember if canonical added this to maverick or not, but there is a module the upgrades and creates the environment of a newly installed system.