I've been working on a process for converting existing installations of
gNewSense to Trisquel LTS. I know the gNewSense team has been working on a
new version for a while now, but I think this could also be helpful as a
general guide to convert from an existing Ubuntu to Trisquel, for example,
without having to reinstall. I'd like some help where applicable.
1) The first step is to disable any third-party repositories you have
enabled. You can do this via the Software Sources application. Upon exiting
allow it to refresh the package cache. You'll have to manually enable these
later, and if needed re-import
2) The second step is to download Trisquel's sources.list and GPG key. Those
can be copied from a LiveCD or an existing installation (the files you need
are /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/trusted.gpg). Take note any 3rd-party
repositories you'd added will be gone. Is there a way to keep them and just
add Trisquel's key and repos to existing ones?
3) sudo apt-get update
4) sudo apt-get dist-upgrade - this will overwrite every package you have
installed with the corresponding one from Trisquel's repository. This takes a
while, and occasionally it has these popups asking be about services and
stuff, which I don't totally understand so I leave the default. Once or twice
it asks whose version of something I want, I tell it to install the package
maintainer's version, which I hope is the right call.
5) After that, you'll want to install trisquel-specific stuff, so: sudo
apt-get install trisquel trisquel-desktop-common
trisquel-desktop-common-recommended trisquel-gnome-base
trisquel-gnome-base-recommended
6) Reboot (and you should see the Trisquel logo as you boot. The GDM
background as well as the GNOME background and panel layout doesn't change.
I'm not sure if there's an easy/fast way to change it to Trisquel's. You can
change the background and icon theme manually, for example.
So that's all. Can anyone fill in the loose ends? Should we be recommending
folks switching from gNewSense? If not, I definitely think switching from
Ubuntu is a good thing to promote.
- [Trisquel-users] Converting an existing gNewSense instal... r . verzub
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