MX Linux Forum

I tried to upgrade from 17 to 18.3.

Initially and immediately after the upgrade I was no longer able to login to my account. The screen would change every 1 second between the login prompt and the terminal. The only way to break out of this was a reboot. No matter how many times I dropped the laptop off the 29th floor, ran down the stairs caught the laptop and ran back up, the problem was still there!

So I booted with a live USB, launched the install, preserved Home, Swap, and [updated] the existing root partition. YES I saw the warning... However part of me was hoping that the developers were going to preserve previous non-MX entries and install ONLY 18.x required files. On reboot everything from my original setup was gone, applications, config, you get the point.

My question is simple, the answer may not be, How do I rollback to a point where my original content and config were? NO there was no backup... don't lecture me pls.

Thx.
Chris

The good news may be that you get to keep all the pieces...

Edit: I have no words of wisdom to solve your problem.... However in the misery 'loves company' sense, I have done similar things over the years. I think a rebuild is probably in order. I hope your data remains reasonably intact somewhere and is recoverable.

I don't know what happened in your case, but every time I've reinstalled MX-18.3 (from the downloaded ISO, not from a personal snapshot) into my existing partitions and preserving /home, upon rebooting I was presented with the standard desktop and the welcome screen instead of my customized desktop, but my data files were untouched. And yes, with a reinstallation your apps are gone and have to be reinstalled, as prior to installing MX-18 it deletes everything in root (except /home) which includes /bin, /usr/bin, etc. where the apps' binaries are. However the apps' config files are still there in home, so after the apps themselves are installed again their settings will still be the way they were before.

The bright side is that your actual data should still be there (stuff in Downloads, Music, Pictures and so on) and that it's actually a pretty good idea to reinstall from scratch every so often, say once a year, to get rid of accumulated cruft: apps that you've installed but never actually used. ancient backup files, and that sort of thing.

Regarding your question, unless you have a complete system backup or a snapshot ISO of your old system, you can't roll back from a complete reinstallation. All of your directories except /home have had their contents deleted and the disk space they were using overwritten. It's gone. Just resign yourself to now having a fresh install of MX-18.3 and move forward.

<Insert ad for Timeshift here>

Stevo wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:25 pm <Insert ad for Timeshift here>

I've used Timeshift for years - in fact I kept pushing it for years elsewhere to help get it integrated into the OS (well, it didn't hurt that I mentioned it often... nothing to do with me really )

I wonder if it might be worth taking a leaf out of Linux Mint's book and incorporating it into MX19? And prompt the user to take a snapshot after a successful install and before any updates? Set it up on a schedule etc (which is part of the program anyway)

ChrisUK wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:55 am

Stevo wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:25 pm <Insert ad for Timeshift here>

I've used Timeshift for years - in fact I kept pushing it for years elsewhere to help get it integrated into the OS (well, it didn't hurt that I mentioned it often... nothing to do with me really )

I wonder if it might be worth taking a leaf out of Linux Mint's book and incorporating it into MX19? And prompt the user to take a snapshot after a successful install and before any updates? Set it up on a schedule etc (which is part of the program anyway)

People have been told to backup since computers were introduced. I doubt there is anything aside from disasters like the OP to convince a person backups are wise. But others will continue blithely until it is them...

Is there any difference between the preinstalled Snapshot utility and Timeshift?

Snapshot creates an ISO image of your system which can be "burned" to a USB stick and installed on other computers or on your own. Timeshift is kind of like Windows' system restore points.

I use both MX Snapshot and Timeshift. Snapshot can be used as a system backup. I have saved a corrupted system by using it. With Timsshift you can include Data partitions.

I know about Timeshift, I've been using it for a couple of years, but the difference is clear.
Thx.