Question: I’m running Linux Mint right now. Is it possible to change distro to … for example OpenSuse - without a clean install ?

  • abrahambelch@programming.dev
    2·
    8 days ago

    That depends on a couple of things:

    If you have a separate partition for /home (your personal data) it is pretty easy since you can reinstall the system, leave /home untouched during installation and just configure it to be used as /home in your new setup.

    This does not work if you either do not have a separate /home partition or you encrypt your system via LUKS.

    It technically still is possible in the aforementioned cases but involves expert knowledge and probably a lot of manual steps which I’d say for you and me it probably is impractical.

    • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
      2·
      7 days ago

      It’s totally unproblematic to use an existing encrypted partition even without a separate home partition. You just unlock your drive and delete everything except for home. Never encountered a single installer that couldn’t handle it.