When a Linux Mint release goes out of support, together with the Ubuntu release on which it is based, the Ubuntu packages become unavailable. This can be annoying for old fossils like me who stubbornly contue to use a release that has gone out of support, as I’m doing with Mint 14 (Nadia), based on Ubuntu 12.10, (Quantal Quetzal). (“Yeah, yeah; I’ll upgrade soon; I promise.”) Luckily, the out-of-support packages remain available in a different location.
So, in /etc/apt/source.list, I could simply replace all instances of archive.ubuntu.com with old-releases.ubuntu.com, so that my /etc/apt/source.list now look like this:
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ nadia main upstream import deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal main restricted universe multiverse deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-security main restricted universe multiverse
I was using Mint 16 for a few months while unsupported. I still was able to install stuff. Recently, I upgraded to 17. I just had to tar up my home, install, unpack home and done. It all was almost painless.
I’ll be installing Mint on my other PC too. I’m sick of Arch.
Why the tar, as compared to, for example, your regular backups?