Q4OS Forum

franky44

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 28

Install Without Losing Everything

How do I install a new version of Q4OS without losing everything in my current installation.  I have most all of my current media files on a local server. It's my settings that I want to keep. I like to see what the newest version of our beloved OS is, but resetting everything puts me off from exploring what's new.

So, tencho-geniuses out there, how the heck do I do that?

Last edited by franky44 (2020-06-25 12:26)

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: Install Without Losing Everything

Use your advice from this post https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.ph … 227#p18227 and install alongside (dual boot).

franky44

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 28

Re: Install Without Losing Everything

If only I could follow my own advice. Q4 Gemini didn't want to play nice with Windows.

I should have mentioned that there is a download that can be used with Windows that does a side by side install. V 4.1 doesn't seem top have that feature.

In the mean time, I'm going to give it all a rest for the night.

Last edited by franky44 (2020-06-26 21:01)

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: Install Without Losing Everything

Tbh I haven't had much time recently to try Gemini on real hardware otherwise I could have better help for you, but I always used to multi-boot both the stable and testing versions of Q4OS and only issues I had were with UEFI grub installation, they were both using the same directory (/boot/efi/EFI/q4os) and couldn't both have their own grub, but I did manage to get around it and from memory I think the devs addressed it.
I might have some spare time over this weekend to give it a go and see how I get on, and I should probably update my tutorials to reflect the new versions too.

franky44

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 28

Re: Install Without Losing Everything

Many thanks. I appreciate your time for looking into this. I'm trying out Gemini on my desktop machine. I'll be loading the production version when it's available on my Linux Box (Laptop). I really like this distro of Linux. I even made a poster for it.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: Install Without Losing Everything

I just ran through installing both Centaurus and Gemini on a laptop, installation went fine and I had the usual issue with Grub having the same location for both versions, I thought this would happen so I simply copied the contents of /boot/efi/EFI/Q4OS/ to another location and then after installing Gemini I created /boot/efi/EFI/Q4OS3/ and copied the Centaurus backup of grubx64.efi into it.

Then I changed the name of the /boot/efi/EFI/Q4OS (Gemini grub) to /boot/efi/EFI/Q4OS4.

After that I had to delete the current Q4OS boot entry in the UEFI settings and added the two new ones labelled Q4Centaurus and Q4Gemini accordingly and I can now boot them both without issue from their own grub menu by selecting the boot menu (F12 in my case) and choosing which to boot.

To note also is that I do not use secure boot, this would have made that task much more complicated (or maybe not doable) as I have found out in the past.
I will be following the devs advice on removing Plasma and hopefully end up with my preferred DE for them both.