Installing fresh Ubuntu 13.04 instead of Ubuntu 12.10

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 12.10 and I'm going to install Ubuntu 13.04 tomorrow night. In Iran internet speed isn't very good to upgrade from Ubuntu 12.10 to 13.04. My partition scheme is / , swap and /home. Is it necessary to format the /home partiton? What about the / partition?

Answer 1

It all depends on what you want to achieve and/or how you want to achieve it. Generally speaking, you can either upgrade your existing Ubuntu installation, or make a clean installation of the newer version. Your internet connection speed (or quality) doesn't actually matter, you can upgrade from an old version to a new one even offline. If you'll do it offline, here's my advice:

1. Download Ubuntu 13.04 installation, and create a bootable USB installation on a flash memory stick. Instruction here. Note: It can be done on a CD or DVD instead of a memory stick, it won't make any difference. You choose your preference.
2. With your newly created USB Ubuntu installation inserted in your computer, restart your computer and boot from that USB. You will be asked whether you want to run a test environment or install Ubuntu on your computer. Select the second option.
3. During the installation, you will have several options (upgrade, or make a clean install etc.) You should select the "specify partitions manually" option, it's the third one.
4. Now it becomes extremely important that you act very carefully, because if you don't, you will very likely lose your important data. You will see a list of your existing hard disk partitions.
   • If you already have separate partitions for File system (or "/", as you say) and "/home", that's great. In that case select your existing File system partition and click "Change". Mark the "Format" checkbox, put "/" in the Mount Point field, and leave everything else unchanged. Next, select your existing Home partition and click "Change". Be sure the Format checkbox is NOT checked, but set the Mount Point to /home.This will install a fresh copy of Ubuntu on your computer, while at the same time keeping all your data and program settings, which is great.
   • If your "/home" partition isn't separated, then you shouldn't format your File system. So don't check the "Format" checkbox, in order to keep your data and settings.
5. After that, all that's left is to just follow the Installation wizard's steps (select time zone, Keyboard layout, User profile) and restart the computer once everything's finiished.

So to summarize, if you have a "/home" partition, it is very important that you don't format it. As for the "/" partition, you can format it freely, however you'll have to re-install some programmes afterwards. But even that's not a problem that much, because all your settings will be restored.

Caveat: It is good practice to ensure your vital data is backed up BEFORE modifying partitions (whether during an install or otherwise). An unexpected interruption of the process could cause irrevocable data loss.