Gina

Installed Mint 20.2 on my Asus Laptop wiping W7 in the process as I couldn't think of anything I might want W7 Home for.  I now have it running but as yet I haven't got multiple instances of Terminal available.  With Terminal open, clicking on the Terminal icon simply closes it rather than opening another instance.

Since I don't seem to be getting any answers here I think I should start a new topic.

Glad I'm not the only one.  I have a triple imaging rig with 3 RPi boards so SSH individually into each with 3 Terminal instances.  Then I run 3 instances of KStars/Ekos, one for each.

While on the subject of upgrading Linux Mint I have a question :-

LM 18.3 as installed on this tower system, allows multiple instances of Terminal meaning that I can SSH into several remote systems at a time (which I do for astro imaging).  I have a laptop running Mint 19.2 and that only seems to support one instance of Terminal.  Booting into a 20.2 Live Linux Mint USB (on the laptop) also only supported one instance.  Does this mean Mint no longer supports multiple instances of Terminal?

Format is Ext4 except for the boot partition/

10 hours ago, rotatux said:

Yes, given its volume, may be better to keep /dev/sda1 as your future /home. If you mount it without formatting, you can get your accounts back by declaring the same users names with the same numeric UIDs (and possibly GIDs), and then relinking the folders to the expected place ("ln -s /home/home/* /home/") or move them definitively once your new install tested.

Does this mean it would be possible to leave my VB/W7/AI setup intact and link to it from the new installation of Mint?

This one looks fine :-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Internal-Solid-State-MZ-77Q1T0/dp/B089QXQ1TV/ref=sr_1_4?crid=X0RNSOGX4X7G&dchild=1&keywords=sata+ssd&qid=1634732179&s=computers&sr=1-4

I don't know what LVM is.  May Google it.

I'm wondering it it would be better to backup what's left in one of the 500GB HDDs and replace with a new SDD to use for the new system.

Sorted out the checksum problem with LM 20.2, I had the wrong date.  Produced a Live Linux USB stick which I booted into and reduced the /dev/sda2 partition by 66GB leaving a few GB for the old system.

When I tried to install LM 20.2 I wasn't certain the old system was safe so quit.  It looked as if it might overwrite sda2 rather than install beside the old.  I'll look at it again tomorrow.  Maybe I need to create a partition in the gap and then install there.  Just thought of that.

I did backup /dev/sda1 but it now seems that going back to LM 18.3 is not an option due to end of life.

Managed to find PSU and mains cable for W7 laptop.  It works too.  It has an SD slot so I can copy the AI download onto a card to install on the laptop.

Now copying the AI 2008 Pro Install Files to SD card - 4GB.

Run a Live Linux USB and see there's about 70GB free space on sda2 which I could reclaim for a new installation.  Think that should be enough.

Been having a bit of trouble with the checksum for LM20.2 so have that to sort out first.

OTOH I'm wondering whether to reinstall the older PixInsight and take sorting things out more gradually.

Been examining my Home directory and there's over 300GB assigned to VirtualBox for running W7 and AI.  That's where most of the system drive has gone.

I have often thought the VB was not such a good idea.  I don't really have enough resources to share them and was considering dual boot with W7.  Trouble is, I'm not sure how to get out of it.  Maybe install AI in W7 laptop.

Looks like I need a total rethink of what to do!!

Software list :-
  1. Autodesk Inventor for designing printed objects.  This needs Win7 and could be run on a W7 laptop
  2. Slicer - Simplicity3D - maybe just reinstall
  3. KStars/Ekos may just need re-installing on any Linux system
  4. PixInsight.  What started it all.
  5. Arduino IDE.  Should be fine.  Reinstall.  I have all the sketches backed up
  6. MQTT Explorer (programming for MQTT network).  I dunno.

Nothing!

I can try Option 3 and see what happens

7 minutes ago, Gina said:

I wonder if I've found the answer Upgrading Linux Mint 18.x to Linux Mint 20.1 Information.  A YouTube video.

NO

He says you need to start afresh!!  It is NOT possible to upgrade from 18 to 20.  AARRGGHH.

Even worse he says Mint 18 is no longer supported and there are no updates/upgrades available and the system is open to attack.

I wonder if I've found the answer Upgrading Linux Mint 18.x to Linux Mint 20.1 Information.  A YouTube video.

Reading the information on installing Linux Mint, it doesn't seem possible to upgrade the OS or replace it with the new installation.

Quote

If another operating system is present on the computer, the installer shows you an option to install Linux Mint alongside it. If you choose this option, the installer automatically resizes your existing operating system, makes room and installs Linux Mint beside it. A boot menu is set up to choose between the two operating systems each time you start your computer.

As I see it, this would mean I would need to install all the software into the new system and lose all the settings.  I don't want that!

All this to be able to run the latest PixInsight!  Maybe I should post in the PI forum.

5 minutes ago, JamesF said:

You could potentially make /home a separate filesystem, but that's possibly not trivial to achieve from where you are right now.

You'd probably need to do something like copy everything from /home to a backup device, delete /home, shrink the root filesystem to a more reasonable size for the OS files, repartition the disk to create a new partition for /home, arrange for the OS to mount it on boot and restore the data from the backup.  You'd need to do it all when directly logged in as the root user too, as obviously deleting /home whilst trying to use it isn't going to go well

James

Yes, that's the sort of thing I had in mind.  If I want to install the latest Linux Mint I shall need enough room for it and I haven't got that ATM.  To do this I will need to run a Live Linux USB as GParted won't allow working on the running drive.  I've done this before and feel pretty confident.  I have a number of separate drives in my tower.  Currently the Home folder contains ordinary files in Documents etc. and also lots of dot files which I assumes are to do with installed software.

What I'm not sure of is how installed software will work with a dual boot system.  I'm guessing a new Linux installation would need all the software re-installed in it.  OTOH if the latest Mint works with my current software that is all I need. 

I was hoping I could just upgrade my OS to the latest version but it seems this isn't so simple.

The standard Linux system seems to like having the Home directory with its sub-directories of Documents, Downloads, Pictures etc. in the system partition.  I would prefer to have my data files separate from the system so that I can upgrade the OS without touching the data files.  It would make backing up easier too.

Any comments on this, please?

I'm thinking I might completely reorganise my partitions with data files on a separate partition or even drive.  Then I might install the latest version of Mint alongside the old one and have dual boot.

Ah - understood.