Upgrading from Linux Mint 15 (Olivia) to Linux Mint 16 (Petra)

To upgrade, as opposed to the recommended method, which is to re-install with the new CD, recover the apps you've installed using mint backup, restore your data, and re-configure everything, I used the apt system, which is a bit more risky. (It may be worth burning the install disk and running it as a live CD to ensure your hardware is well-supported). Here's what I did:

1) Update the repositories to point to their new locations:

$ sudo sed -i 's/raring/saucy/' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list
$ sudo sed -i 's/olivia/petra/' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list

2) Update the repositories:

$ sudo apt-get update

Look for any errors. Some repositories for non-mint apps may not yet have a special version for Mint 16, but they will likely still work. If you do get errors, find the corresponding .list file and undo the above change (eg, change 's/raring/saucy/' --> 's/saucy/raring/'), on only that .list file. Re-update the repositories.

3) Quit any open apps. Then, perform the upgrade. This step will require several gigabytes of downloads, which will take a while (if it doesn't, something is wrong; abort and fix).

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Along the way, you'll be prompted whether to keep or overwrite any config files that have been changed by the maintainers. Almost always, you'll want to say Yes. It will keep your old files with an extension like .dpkg_old, in case you need to do any merging. The main case where I needed to do this was with my samba setup.

Then, just to be safe, run:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

4) Finally, some last minute changes. Make sure your drives in fstab will still mount. I use the ufsd from Paragon (instructions here) for ntfs and hfs+ drives, and this will need to be re-compiled for the newly installed kernel after reboot. But for now, comment them out in /etc/fstab.

Also, if you had to use the default UEFI boot file, copy the new grub file to that location (you might want to back it up first):

$ sudo cp /boot/efi/EFI/linuxmint/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

When you think you've sorted out all the kinks, reboot: sudo shutdown -r now

5) If you're lucky, the machine will come up and you'll be able to log on. Otherwise, another good opportunity to use that linux live disk you've got.

Install the ufsd drivers for the new kernel following the instructions linked to above. Uncomment the lines in /etc/fstab and run sudo mount -a then verify they all loaded. For some reason, under linux mint 16 (but not 15), the ufsd kernel module will not autoload - it's necessary to add the ufsd driver to /etc/modules by adding a line "ufsd" to the end -- otherwise the file system will not be recognized and boot will hang.

6) After update, I had some duplicate icons in the menu for some reason. These are easiest removed by running gksudo nemo and navigating to /usr/share/applications and removing dups, retaining those that utilize the currently running cinnamon-settings app.

Done.