Migration

Here are the migration paths to the current version of MX Linux from earlier versions.*

Migration between major MX Versions

Because of the change in the base between major Debian versions, there can be no official upgrade option. A clean install is highly recommended for most users, most easily done by following these steps:

1) in case there is a problem, save any critical data (settings, documents, pictures, music etc.) from your existing installation away from your target site; or make an image with MX Snapshot.

2) run MX User Installed Packages (HELP here) to get a list of all the extra applications you added to your previous installation.

NOTE: Some MX users may not have the package (“user-installed-packages”) by default but it is in the repos. Use Package Installer or Synaptic to install it, or open a terminal (F4) and paste in this command: sudo apt install user-installed-packages.

Image

Opening screen of the app migration tool User Installed Packages that is used before and after installation

3) install MX OVER your current installation as you proceed:
a) at the beginning, select to make a “Custom” installation.
b) choose the same user name that you used before
c) select to re-use (PRESERVE) the existing home directory
NOTE: As of MX 25, there is a “replace existing installation” function that will attempt to do these steps for you.

Note that if you have multiple users, their homes will be preserved but you will need to use MX User Manager to recreate the users after you boot into the new system.

Installer
Installer: selecting to re-use the existing Home folder that has the same user name

4) once installation is finished, run MX User Installed Packages again to get back the applications you had installed; note that a few may no longer be available in the new Debian Stable.

Manual

There are unofficial methods for experienced users to migrate without re-installation:

For MX 23 to MX 25, consult In place upgrade from MX 23 to MX 25.

For MX 21 to MX 23, consult Upgrading from MX-21 to MX-23 without reinstalling.

Success is not guaranteed, and some users encounter configuration problems afterwards.

From MX-21 to MX-21.3

Run the usual updates via apt/mx-updater. In addition, some optional things:

Xfce

  • orage is now preinstalled. orage is available in the repos
  • AHS kernel is now 6.0, available in MX-PackageInstaller->Popular Apps->Kernels.
  • AHS now uses backported debian firmware. User’s can switch by installing mx-debian-firmware metapackage. “linux-firmware” (preinstalled on MX-21.2 and MX-21.2.1) will be removed when mx-debian-firmware is installed
  • A new conky theme, MX-CownTangram, can be copyied into your $HOME/.conky folder from /usr/share/mx-conky-data
  • mx-menu-editor is now deprecated. we are now shipping menulibre as the menu editor. Users will need to adjust the editor command to “menulibre” in the whiskermenu settings, if they wish mx-menu-editor will not be removed from existing installs.

KDE

  • Now uses the AHS available in MX-PackageInstaller->Popular Apps->Kernels.
  • A new conky theme, MX-CownTangram, can be copyied into your $HOME/.conky folder from /usr/share/mx-conky-data
  • mx-menu-editor is now deprecated. we are now shipping menulibre as the menu editor. mx-menu-editor will not be removed from existing installs.

Fluxbox

  • There are new themes available for rofi, which will be available at first run of mx-rofi-manager.
  • A new conky theme, MX-CownTangram, can be copyied into your $HOME/.conky folder from /usr/share/mx-conky-data
  • mx-menu-editor is now deprecated. we are now shipping menulibre as the menu editor. mx-menu-editor will not be removed from existing installs.

Migration Archives

MX Linux