[lug] Finding and removing obsolete packages after system upgrade

[Michael Hirsch]

On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 2:38 PM Davide Del Vento
<davide.del.vento at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Not really an answer to your question, but something to mull on....
>
> Because of this and similar issues I do not do any system upgrade anymore (I just update individual packets, obviously). During the overlapping time between one version going out of support and the new one being ready for installation, I make a separate, fresh install of the latter. I always set up partitions in a way to ease this process: two partitions mounted respectively as / and /old-os similar to a double-swapping-buffer (during the brief overlapping period, the /old-os on the old system actually points to the new system which replaces the "very old" one, but that's not a big deal). During this transition time, I do multi boot. If I don't like something in the new install, the old, untouched one is just a reboot away. I used to share home directories, but ran into troubles there too (new versions of software getting "crazy" about old format of data which their former selves saved in home). So that has led me to do something similar for home directories too.

Wow.  My philosophy is exactly the opposite.  I haven't done a
reinstall since 2005 when I first installed Kubuntu.  I try to only
use system upgrades.  I usually wait a month or two after a new
release before upgrading.

Actually, I may have done a fresh install when I've bought a new
computer, but usually I move the hard drive over and boot from it.  So
maybe I've done a couple of fresh installs, but very rarely.  I'm
doing an OS upgrade as I type.

My /home directory is on it's own partition.  I've kept that around
for close to 30 years, now, transferring it from drive to drive.

The two things most likely to go wrong are my X setup and KDE.  My
monitor can do 1600x1200, but it isn't exactly standard.  I can make
it work, but it is tough.  I usually just let X put it in whatever it
thinks is best. I think it is running at 1280x1024 right now.

Also, KDE has occasionally not been backwards compatible.  So I have
to abandon my KDE setup and just start fresh.

Michael