future upgrade from KDE3 8.04 to KDE4 9.10

[Orion2000za]

I have just downloaded and am running Karmic Alpha in a VBox. And I must
admit that this far I am impressed. Yes there are some things I don't
get just yet, such as why KPackageKit has replaced the (for non-pros)
intuitive Add/Remove Programs completely. And a few other things.

But it DOES look good and most things work well. It seems the time to
switch is coming.

So I am trying to think of how to plan this. Given that I would like a
"partially clean start" meaning I do not want to lose my emails (Kmail)
or old saved feeds (Akregator), Kopete accounts, files such as documents
etc but I want to "lose" most of my other hidden .whatever directories
that have amassed over time.

If I make a clean install with the same identity as now and then copy
back files/folders (non-hidden), then what directories in .kde do I
need? Any others?

Should that copying be done before I fire up Kmail, Kopete etc the first
time?

Will the transfer from a ext3-based harddisk to the new ext4-based home
directory be a problem?

how about the /etc directory?

Best regards,
Sinclair

[Orion2000za]

Bump! Am now on Beta, still running in VirtualBox and am seriously considering the upgrade - but how to best go about moving from KDE3 and 8.04 to KDE4.3 in Kubuntu 9.10??

[con]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing myself. Adept is giving me the option of upgrading to 9.04, will it give me the option of upgrading to 9.10 when its released?

And if it does will it completely replace the kde3 desktop with kde4 and somehow keep some of the app settings?

thanks

[dabl]

Couple of thoughts:

1. The migration from KDE 3.5 to KDE 4 is fairly challenging for the user, even assuming everything is working correctly after installation. If it were possible to keep your 8.04 installation, and add the 9.10 installation as a second/dual boot OS, you would not have to force the 100% transition all at once.

On the filesystem, you don't HAVE to use ext4, if you don't want to. But if you could go to the second OS/second partition, then you could just format it ext4 before installing and have no worries on that.

2. There's more focused help available, for KDE issues, on Kubuntu Forums here:

http://www.kubuntuforums.net/

[Orion2000za]

I have actually done this now on 2 computers - gone straigth from 8.04 to 9.10 Beta.
Note that both had separate HOME partitions that I could leave untouched.

Apart from the icons going bananas (the existing icon theme stays) so you have to download a new icon theme all went surprisingly well.