There isn't a way to upgrade between OS releases

[elementaryBot]

danrabbit from IRC offered the information below:

As far as I know there are a few issues.

Update manager disables ppas during upgrades. So since we're using ppas it wouldn't work.

It would need to be patched to used lsb_release -u so that it sets the repos to "trusty" and not "freya" (which doesn't exist)

Lewis Goddard: If we were to patch the update manager in Luna, it would be do-able, but there could be a lot of other issues we haven't even seen because it hasn't been done yet.

Launchpad Details: #LP1486694 Amelia Rose Khan - 2015-08-19 18:11:28 +0000

[elementaryBot]

I think Launchpad will auto-confirm this soon since I clicked "affects me too".

Launchpad Details: #LPC Lewis Goddard - 2015-08-19 18:14:08 +0000

[elementaryBot]

For clarity, the last sentence in the filing was from myself, not from Dan.

Launchpad Details: #LPC Lewis Goddard - 2015-08-19 18:14:43 +0000

[elementaryBot]

There seems to be no bounty source link for this bug

Launchpad Details: #LPC nucc1 - 2016-02-24 16:38:51 +0000

[elementaryBot]

Maybe release upgrades could work if sources.list points to some elementary.io server that redirects to launchpad servers.

This could prevent the package sources from being automatically deactivated like launchpad PPA repositories when doing a release upgrade.

If this works, it could also allow updating freya installations to loki by editing the sources.list.

Launchpad Details: #LPC ceg - 2016-03-23 15:16:39 +0000

[elementaryBot]

In case you are looking for a more broader solution that brings among other things also systematic, continious package building and testing, there is another option.

Have the elementary OS packages build with the http://tanglu.org/faq infrastructure. This debian distribution project has now implemented the most advanced community package build system to and repository creation. They have expressed that are willing to support additional desktop environments and would help you getting up to speed.

It works like this: New source packages versions are uploaded to Debian experimental and propagate to testing and stable there (or directly to tanglu during debian freezes), but the tanglu infrastructure is able to manage custom releases.

Launchpad Details: #LPC ceg - 2016-03-23 18:47:29 +0000

[elementaryBot]

If you'd like your own build system and package repositories, elementery os would be a welcomed member in the tanglu community "...the direction Tanglu takes should be decided by people who develop it, and Tanglu should be as inclusive as possible - in case something can't be realized in the main branch, e.g. because it is only useful for a small target audience, we can always offer a spin of Tanglu." https://tangluusers.org/thread/tanglu-3-efi-install-46/

Launchpad Details: #LPC ceg - 2016-03-29 19:09:35 +0000

[elementaryBot]

Hi :) does the change of milestone mean this won't be implemented in the loki? If so will there be way how to upgrade system somehow else? I am using Freya in my professional laptop, which would take too much to set up (I have multiple projects for clients which have to run and might take days to setup properly)

Launchpad Details: #LPC hotovo - 2016-05-05 06:24:31 +0000

[cassidyjames]

Now that we do updates in AppCenter and don't ship the Ubuntu upgrader, the PPA issues from Ubuntu's release upgrader aren't a concern. However, it also means we need to design how release upgrades work both from a UX and in the back-end.

[pedrohjordao]

Hey guys,

Any tips on where one should start at to make some advancements on this front?

I don't think I'd really be able to solve the issue as a whole, but if I can make any contribution I hope it will get the ball rolling for a next version.

[peteruithoven]

Can we use Aptik to make this easier?
https://github.com/teejee2008/aptik

[dumblob]

@peteruithoven doesn't sound like a bad idea - it would allow atomical switch to the upgraded OS version (i.e. installing it first to a separate directory and then just booting it, running aptik and if anything crashes, it would simply reboot to the previous version and say what went wrong). On the other hand this would require a note in the installation wizard, that there has to be enough space on the main partition also for the upgrade which might be let's say 8 Gigabytes more than the current requirements.

[ShadowWarfare]

Will it be possible to have this "upgrade" feature ready in time for the next feature upgrade 6.0 or whatever it'll be? This doesn't seem to be like a bad idea it would be nice to have an upgrade process in place so that we don't have to do a clean install after 5.0 etc.

[cassidyjames]

@ImpWarfare 5.0 to 5.1 will be a simple in-place upgrade. It's possible that new installs of 5.1 will be easily upgradable to 6.0, but I'm not sure about existing 5.0→5.1 installs being able to upgrade to 6.0. The reason being that the new installer ideally will add a recovery partition which doubles as an upgrader. I guess it may be possible with 6.0 install media (upgrading by booting to the USB), but I don't think that's 100% clear yet.

[chasinglogic]

Are there any updates on this now that 5.1 is out? (i.e. did the above mentioned recovery partition make it into 5.1, I don't see it in the blog post about Hera).

My main concern with eOS now is that when installing it for friends / family / myself I will need to nuke and pave every 2 years and this problem is exacerbated by the loss of App Center purchases when doing so.

[linuxr01]

Maybe this could help -> https://github.com/pop-os/upgrade

The PopOS Upgrade is very good. Maybe @mmstick from system76 can help.

[mmstick]

It's very easy to integrate (DBus API), but there are some Pop-specific things here and there that would have to be changed if another Linux distribution wanted to use it.

[cassidyjames]

Mentioning that this has been raised by OEMs a primary concern. Some OEMs are not shipping elementary OS solely because we do not have a supported upgrade path.

[ChildishGiant]

This really limits the lifespan of installs as many users will want the latest features and simply move off elementary to avoid losing all their files, system settings etc.

[4jNsY6fCVqZv]

an exciting issue! what does it take technically to be able to solve it? in this context, i would actually find some form of migration tool supportive. elementary/os#266
or does it not need that anymore, when i think about how system upgrades work under fedora or ubuntu?
i also wonder if this type of upgrade is not only convenient, but also useful, considering the potential problems, perhaps critical, for users' systems that may have been running reliably up to the time of the upgrade.