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·
    2 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·
      2 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.

      • Kornblumenratte@feddit.org
        5·
        2 days ago

        Might be wise to not accept the offer of the installer to partition the device in this case. That’s self–evident to anyone who lived through losing data, not so for beginners.