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How to Upgrade to Linux Mint 19?

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Linux Mint 19 code named “Tara” is the latest Mint project. Through this article, we will show you how to upgrade from Linux Mint 18.x to 18.3. Then we will show you how to create a system snapshot using timeshift, change the system display manager to LightDM, and upgrade to Linux Mint 19 from 18.x.

Requirements for upgrading:

  1. You must have experience with the APT package manager and the command line.
  2. You must have running Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, or XFCE edition, otherwise, first, upgrade to Mint 18.3, then you can upgrade to Mint 19.
  3. Set your terminal to unlimited scrolling; from the terminal windows, go to Edit=>Profile Preferences=>Scrolling. Check the “Scroll on output” or “unlimited” option and click “OK”.

Upgrading to Linux Mint 18.3 From 18.x:

As we have said you need to upgrade to Linux Mint 18.3 from previous Linux Mint 18, 18.1, or 18.2 using the upgrade tool as shown below.

Go to Menu => Update Manager (if the window is showing the update policy screen, select the policy you want and click “OK”), then click on the “Refresh Button”, to check for the new version of mint update.

If you found any updates then, apply them by clicking on Install Updates. Once you have installed all updates, as shown in the below screenshot.

Then, go to Edit => Upgrade to Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia as shown in the below screenshot.

You will see the screen telling you, a new version of Linux Mint is available.

During the installation of upgrades, the system will ask whether to keep or replace configuration files, click on “Replace”. Once the upgrade is finished, Reboot your computer. Once you have rebooted, you now have Linux Mint 18.3 running, and you are good to go…

Upgrading from Linux 18.3 to Linux Mint 19

This is a crucial and important step, in case the upgrade process doesn’t go well, you can reclaim your system by restoring your latest system snapshot.

Create Linux Mint System Snapshot Using Timeshift

Step 1: To install timeshift, open a terminal and run the following command.

$ sudo apt install timeshift

Step 2: go to the System Menu and search for Timeshift, then “click” on it. Choose the snapshot type and click “Next”. The timeshift will try to estimate the system size and determine the attached storage.

Step 3: From the pop-up, select a destination for your snapshots, then click “Finish”.

Step 4:  click on the “Create button” to make a manual snapshot of your operating system.

When the creation of the system snapshot is finished, move to the next step.

Switch from MDM to LightDM Display Manager:

Step 5: Since MDM display manager is not supported by Linux Mint 19, so you have to install LightDM. To look over your current display manager, run the following command.

$ cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
/usr/sbin/mdm

Step 6: If the output shows like this “/usr/sbin/lightdm”, then head over to Step 7. But if the output is “/usr/sbin/mdm” as shown in the above output, you have to switch to LightDM and remove MDM by running commands as shown below,

$ sudo apt install lightdm lightdm-settings slick-greeter

Step 7: Throughout the package installation process, the system will ask you to choose a display manager between MDM and LightDM, select LightDM, and click “Enter”.

 Step 8: Now remove MDM using the command given below.

$ sudo apt remove --purge mdm mint-mdm-themes*

Step 9: reconfigure LightDM using the “dpkg-reconfigure” command given below and reboot your system.

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
$ sudo reboot

Upgrading to Linux Mint 19:

Step 10: Go to Menu => Update Manager (if the system is showing the update policy screen, then select the policy you want and click “OK”), then click on “Refresh” to update the APT package manager cache and click Install Updates to apply all updates.

Step 11: If your system is updated, then move to install the upgrade tool by running the following command given below from a terminal.

$ sudo apt install mintupgrade

Step 12: Now, run the following command given below to imitate an upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

$ mintupgrade check

 Step 13: download the package upgrades by running the below commands:

$ mintupgrade download 

Step 14: Now it’s time to apply the upgrades. Run this command to apply the upgrades.

$ mintupgrade upgrade

Step 15: Wait for the upgrade to finish. Once it’s done, reboot your system, enjoy Linux Mint 19.

Note: If the upgrade process didn’t go well, needless to say, restore your OS to an earlier state, either from within Linux Mint or by launching Timeshift from a live Mint session from a live USB or live DVD.


Last Updated : 16 Oct, 2021
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