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When Ubuntu Hardy Heron arrives, will I be able to upgrade without formatting my harddrive? So I can keep all of my music, documents, applications, etc.

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asked whether Hardy can be installed without reformatting. , and already noted the supported in‑place route and some users reported trouble when trying manual repository edits. The short takeaway: an upgrade without wiping is the normal path, but a few careful prep steps substantially reduce the risk of a failed or broken system.

  • Make two backups: a full disk image (for quick rollback) and a file‑level copy of personal data. A quick file snapshot can be done with tar -czvf /root/home-backup.tgz /home.
  • Capture installed packages so reinstalling missing software is easy: dpkg --get-selections > installed-packages.txt.
  • Identify and disable third‑party sources (PPAs and vendor repos) before the upgrade. Look in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and move or rename non‑official files out of the way.
  • Check for low disk space, especially on / and /boot, with df -h. Clean old kernels and package cache if needed.
  • Note proprietary drivers (graphics, wireless). Be ready to reapply or reinstall them after the upgrade.
  • If the system is heavily customized or has a history of package conflicts, test the procedure in a VM or on a spare partition first. A fresh install with a preserved /home is often the fastest way to get a clean, trouble‑free system.

After the upgrade, reintroduce third‑party repos one at a time and check logs for errors. These prep and recovery steps expand on community suggestions and are aimed at avoiding the common pitfalls reported in this thread.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for DimaYasny

apt-get install dist-upgrade

Member Avatar for linux

Thank you both so very much!

Member Avatar for John A

apt-get install dist-upgrade

You'll have to update /etc/apt/sources.list to reflect the sources of the new repositories... With that said, this method doesn't tend to work very well on Ubuntu systems; many users have dependency issues and whatnot when upgrading, and it becomes a big hassle.

The officially-supported method of updating an Ubuntu system is to use update-manager, which supposedly takes care of all the problems that could be induced by using dist-upgrade. If in doubt, look at their website page:

Member Avatar for linux

Thanks, John.

When Hardy comes out and I upgrade that way, will I still have to update my /etc/apt/sources.list file?

Member Avatar for John A

update-manager should take care of that. You can always check after upgrading; the repository links should contain 'hardy' in them.

Member Avatar for linux

Hardy's supposed to be out June 5th. I actually can't wait for its release.

How is Ubuntu compared to say, Microsoft? Do their released have a lot of bugs in them? Do we need to wait a few months before it's usable?

Member Avatar for jbennet

On the software updater (update-manager) it will say at the bottom that a new release is available and you can choose to upgrade. DO NOT an edited sources.list then use dist-upgrade, it tends to break thinbgs

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I wasn't planning on doing that.

Member Avatar for John A

>DO NOT an edited sources.list then use dist-upgrade, it tends to break thinbgs
Well, if you're intending for dist-upgrade to do anything, you will have to edit your sources.list file first. :)

Member Avatar for 1337455 10534

Yeah, it may be better to backup your files and Gconf, then do a manual reinstall via CD.
The dist-upgrade method messed up all of my default programs (on Feisty).
To linux:
do you have an UbuntuForums account?
You'd benefit, its a great forum.

Member Avatar for jbennet

>DO NOT an edited sources.list then use dist-upgrade, it tends to break thinbgs
Well, if you're intending for dist-upgrade to do anything, you will have to edit your sources.list file first. :)

use the ubuntu update manager thing instead of the apt method.

Member Avatar for John A

>use the ubuntu update manager thing instead of the apt method.
That's what I said in my first post.

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