Upgrading from extremely old versions

[amckenzie]

So I've recently "inherited" a machine I need to maintain which is, much to my dismay, still running 7.10. Obviously, that's not ideal, but neither is backing up and wiping it.

Is there any reasonable way to update to something a bit more recent (8.04 would be fine by me, since this is a server), or do I need to wipe it out and reinstall?

Thanks all!

[drs305]

This link on End of Life upgrades should give you some guidance:
EOLUpgrades (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades)

IMO, doing a clean install is going to be a lot less hassle, especially since you have nothing "invested" in this machine's configuration.

[amckenzie]

This link on End of Life upgrades should give you some guidance:
EOLUpgrades (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades)

IMO, doing a clean install is going to be a lot less hassle, especially since you have nothing "invested" in this machine's configuration.

Perfect... thanks!

The other question, of course, is "Should I bother?" That is, am I likely to see substantial problems, or is this likely to work?

[shaggy999]

That depends on a lot of things like hardware compatability, how much was required initially to "get stuff to work", how far from a default install your system is, what configuration files have been changed, etc.

Make sure you backup before you upgrade.