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For non rolling release like Ubuntu, I'm always confused on what to do after an upgrade. In a very short time 11.10 will be released. So I'm asking what to do after the upgrade.

The objective is to preserve the system as it was, taking advantage of the new features and the new versions of apps, but preserve the stability of the system, as get the same documents, ppa's, applications installed, and settings.

  1. In case of upgrade using the update manager, what I should do after, in order to preserve the ppa's i had but updated for the new release? And what things should I do in general?

  2. In case of a fresh install, with separate home partition that will not be touched or changed, what should I do, in order to get the ppa's as they were updated for the new version? How do I preserve all the settings and apps? And what general things I should do?

P.S. I'm not interested in the upgrade itself, it's the various actions to do after the upgrade on both occasions, fresh or not. It's about time to explain this aspect for new and old users.

Bruno Pereira
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suli8
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    This is highly subjective and argumentative - everyone does it differently, some don't do it at all. – jrg Sep 28 '11 at 11:48
  • that's the point. i did a lot of mistakes last upgrade, and i don't want to lose all ppa's again and other stuff. so it is not an absolute answer, but still i need to see what different ways i can follow. and follow the most convenient for my case. and others will do also. – suli8 Sep 28 '11 at 11:52
  • It will only lead to arguments, and we also have posts like this already: http://askubuntu.com/questions/1283/a-fresh-install-and-clean-up, http://askubuntu.com/questions/5466/is-a-clean-install-better-than-upgrading. – jrg Sep 28 '11 at 11:58
  • i really don't get you. my question is different. but hey i don't wanna argue about it. thanks anyway – suli8 Sep 28 '11 at 12:12
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    This would perhaps be better as split up individual questions like "How do I readd PPAs after an upgrade" and "How do I preserve individual settings and applications after an upgrade" – Jorge Castro Sep 28 '11 at 14:05

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User configurations are completely independent on the operating system. As long as you don't touch the users home, the settings will be automatically applied. No action required.

With regards to PPA, you'll have to add them afterwards since it will be different software. You can not depend on a PPA being available for new versions. It's up to the developers of the application to make sure it'll be available for future versions.

  • thanks for the info. just to be sure, if i do upgrade through the update manager, the only thing will go missing is my 3rd party PPA? and there is no way but to do it manually afterwards? – suli8 Sep 28 '11 at 14:31
  • They will only be disabled during upgrade. You can enable them back again with synaptic and check if they made the switch too, e.g. in deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/someproject/ubuntu natty main try replacing natty with oneiric – aquaherd Sep 28 '11 at 17:28