Upgrading Trisquel 9 to 11 versus fresh only Trisquel 11?
On an hp laptop, a few days ago, something went wrong with upgrading from Trisquel 10 to 11, which resulted in black screen after Nabia picture, no log-in page. Could only find Trisquel 9 .iso file on a different OS, made bootable USB with that, installed that on a so far unused 'empty' laptop someone had given me a while ago, then upgraded to Trisquel 10, then to 11. Did it that way, because I wasn't sure whether the hp Compaq mini CQ10-400 with Trisquel mini 11 on it, which I mostly use, could handle the Trisquel 11 file download. Does anyone know whether it can?
In Trisquel 10 noticed that there was also Firefox offered as browser for 'Internet', which I certainly don't want to use, and checking the exceptions in Abrowser Privacy and Security settings for 'Warn you when websites try to install add-ons' contained four listings, which I removed and saved change. Why was Firefox included with Trisquel 10?
My question is: Software wise, would the Trisquel 11 coming from upgrading to it from Trisquel 9 through 10 then to 11 be the same as coming straight from only Trisquel 11.
This Dell laptop had a different OS on it, but I chose to have only Trisquel on it, no dual-boot. Somehow I feel that making a bootable USB of Trisquel 11 and installing that might be better. Thank you in advance for answers and suggestions!
I'll try to get the Trisquel 10 on the hp laptop working again to finish the upgrade to Trisquel 11, as I'm able (not good with tech). It had complained about libwfm-0.2.7 :Breaks libwmf0.27 (<0.2.12-1) but 0.2.8.4-17ubuntu1 is to be installed. I got suggestions how to fix that, but haven't made progress yet.
First of all, backup the user data. If you go for a fresh install of Trisquel 11, you will obviously need the backup. You may also want to save the list of installed packages so that you can easily reinstall them. You can do that graphically as https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/cloning-system-or-how-make-copy-installed-packages-one-computer-another explains. If you rather upgrade, all that should not be necessary, but the upgrade might go wrong, as you have already gone through. Here, the odds are worse because you are on an unsupported version of Trisquel. The system can usually be fixed from a root terminal though.
For a long time, Trisquel has been shipping Abrowser rather than Firefox. If you have seen Firefox installed on Trisquel 10, then it was not taken from Trisquel's repository.
Thank you for this reply, Magic Banana! When trying to fix the Trisquel 10 on the hp laptop, is it okay to use the bootable USB with Trisquel 9 on it? Had left W. 10 on it in dual boot. Would it be as easy to install Trisquel 11 on it in dual boot as well? Had copied the home folder to a USB before trying the upgrade. Hadn't heard of cloning, not sure I want to do that if it came from Trisquel 10 that had included Firefox.
If you think that the Firefox I saw included in Trisquel 10 did not come from the Trisquel repositories, where did it come from?
I don't use W. anymore, to prevent W. 10 to force upgrade to W. 11, had put it on airplaine mode as soon as it came up quite a while ago already.
Is it possible to use the bootable USB with Trisquel 9 on it to make a bootable USB of Trisquel 11? Would it be possible to verify the keys?
If not using a live Trisquel 9, would it be safe to install Trisquel 9 on the Dell, download Trisquel 11 (that way skip Trisquel 10), verify, make a bootable USB of Trisquel 11, then install that on the Dell? If that's not safe, what could go wrong?
Thanks in advance for answers!
When trying to fix the Trisquel 10 on the hp laptop, is it okay to use the bootable USB with Trisquel 9 on it?
If you do not even manage to get a text session, then you can indeed boot any GNU/Linux live system (including Trisquel 9) and 'chroot' in the install system to then try to fix it and end the upgrade: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing#via_ChRoot
Would it be as easy to install Trisquel 11 on it in dual boot as well?
The "Something else" type of installation lets you partition your disks the way you want, in a graphical way. You can keep Windows if you want. Or not.
You need a partition that will be formatted and where / (the root of the filesystem) will be mounted. You certainly want a swap partition (probably as large as your RAM) and possibly a partition for /home. If the current system has /home on a separate partition, you can actually specify the existing partition, *not* format it (unchecking a box) and, later in the install, specify the same user login as on the existing system. In this way, the backup is not even necessary (I lied earlier when I wrote that you will "need the backup"... but you absolutely want that backup anyway and not take the risk to lose the user data because you made a tiny error in the partitioning step!).
Hadn't heard of cloning, not sure I want to do that if it came from Trisquel 10 that had included Firefox.
I am here only referring to the two lists of numbered steps on https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/cloning-system-or-how-make-copy-installed-packages-one-computer-another that allow to "export the list of packages installed" on "to actually install the packages on the fresh Trisquel". I here assume that you want to install the same packages. That is apparently the case since you considered upgrading.
If you think that the Firefox I saw included in Trisquel 10 did not come from the Trisquel repositories, where did it come from?
Maybe from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/ or from FlatHub, or a .deb was downloaded from the repository of Debian, or Ubuntu, or...
I don't use W. anymore
Then you probably want to take up the space it currently occupies on the disk. You may want to choose to install Trisquel 11 on the whole disk or choose the "Something else" type of installation I have mentioned earlier.
Is it possible to use the bootable USB with Trisquel 9 on it to make a bootable USB of Trisquel 11?
Yes, it is, as long as you have two free USB ports for that. See https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/how-create-liveusb
Would it be possible to verify the keys?
Yes, it is. See https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/download-trisquel
Maybe the gpg package is not on Trisquel's live system but you can install there in the regular way, using the package manager. That installation is not permanent (it is installed in RAM) if no permanent storage was configured when the live system was installed on the USB device.
If that's not safe, what could go wrong?
Just pay attention to the device where the live system is written: it must be the right USB key and not an internal disk!
Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed answer!! In the meantime I had made the bootable USB with Trisquel 11, see answer #5. Used a different brand USB to distinguish them because couldn't figure out how to rename at least one of them, though their location was different.
"If you do not even manage to get a text session, then you can indeed boot any GNU/Linux live system ..." SORRY, forgot to mention (because I was fixated on not getting to a login screen) that after starting the hp laptop, the Grub screen does appear: GNU GRUB version 2.06
Trisquel GNU/Linux (where it would normally go from to login)
Advanced options for Trisquel GNU/Linux
W. boot manager (on /dev/sda/1) that's where Efi is according to sudo fdisk -l
UEFI Firmware Settings
On the bottom it explains about up and down keys, Press enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the commands before booting or 'c' for a command-line
Because I can get this screen, should I rather use the bootable USB with Trisquel 11 rather than the one with 9, or make and use one with 10 on it?
Pressing Advanced Options gives four choices of Trisquel GNU/Linux, with Lunux-Libre
5.4.0-208-generic
5.4.0-208-generic (recovery mode)
5.4.0-204 generic
5.4.0-204 generic (recovery mode)
Pressing 5.4.0-208 (recovery mode) checks things, there was one Failed in the list, but didn't catch what exactly it was, something with update
. After that is a blue screen with a grey box with options for Recovery Menu(filesystem state: read-only)
resume, clean, dpkg, fsck, grub, network, root system-summary
It's weird that black bars, most of which include [ok],
are scattered across the screen, e.g. [ok] Finished Rotate log files. Pressing 'esc' shows just the recovery menu, no scattered black bars. Pressing grub here brings: continuing will remount your / filesystem in read/write mode and mount any other filesystem defined in /etc/fstab. Do you wish to continue? - Wasn't sure what to do.
System summary offline without bootable USB attached gives
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /dev
tmpfs 777M 1.3M 775M 1% /run
/dev/sda6 420G 13G 386G 4% /
tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
Resume from recovery menu brings back the black screen. Is there a way to get out of the black screen when the login screen didn't appear, or reboot from there without turning the laptop off?
Because I can get this screen, should I rather use the bootable USB with Trisquel 11 rather than the one with 9, or make and use one with 10 on it?
That would make no difference: after executing chroot (present in any GNU/Linux live system), you are using the installed system... but you do not even need a live system! Indeed, as you have apparently understood by yourself, a GRUB recovery entry directly gives you a root terminal. Are those entries configured by default on Trisquel 11? I believe that they are not, that I commented that line of /etc/default/grub and then executed update-grub to get them on my system:
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
filesystem state: read-only
Here is you problem: your root filesystem was corrupted.
Pressing grub here brings: continuing will remount your / filesystem in read/write mode and mount any other filesystem defined in /etc/fstab. Do you wish to continue? - Wasn't sure what to do.
You could try to continue. If that does not solve your issue or if you rather want to do something with your brand-new live system, you can boot it, install on it gnome-disk-utility with the package manager and try to repair the file system from that graphical frontend (maybe simply named "Disks" somewhere in the main menu). To do so, select the disk on the left, the 420 GB partition on the right, and click on the button below with gears. The menu that opens allows you to check the filesystem and to repair it. Hopefully, it will work, but that is not guaranteed.
Is there a way to get out of the black screen when the login screen didn't appear, or reboot from there without turning the laptop off?
You cannot log in a text session, right? To try to get one, type Ctrl+Alt+F3. If you can log in, then simply execute:
$ poweroff
If you cannot, it is worth knowing that Raising Elephant is So Utterly Boring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key#Uses
Type the initials (REISUB) after pressing (and keeping pressed) Alt+SysRq or, in absence of the SysRq key, Alt+PrtScn. Unless the kernel crashed, the system should reboot right after you pressed the B key.
Actually, it is probably because you (or another user) powered off the system while it was writing on the disk that you ended up with a corrupted filesystem... or because the disk is dying. GNOME Disks allows you to test that too: click on "SMART Data & Self-Tests..." in the menu that opens if you click on the button with three stacked dots, in the upper part of the window.
Thank you, again, for this helpful answer, Magic Banana! When installing Trisquel 11 on the Dell noticed that it showed two things mounted: Kingston (the USB I had copied the .iso to) and 'writable'. At the end of the blue bar before the end of installation it said 'copying logfiles'. After restarting did an update, it said there were 400+, so did that which took a while. Not sure whether this is normal. Mounted the USB on a different device later, there is indeed a part called 'writable' with 3 install-logs folders: 2025.06.23.0, 2025.06.23.1, 2025.06.24.0, and lost+found. Had used Startup Disk Creator to make this USB. Did I do something wrong? Should I reformat this USB with the .iso again, do another fresh install of Trisquel 11 on the Dell? In the past I've also used Universal USB Installer, don't remember having seen 'writable' on USBs made with that. Just trying to get direction whether it's okay to use this USB for working with the hp laptop I'm trying to fix. Thanks!
After restarting did an update, it said there were 400+, so did that which took a while. Not sure whether this is normal.
That looks entirely normal. The latest ISO (version 11.0.1) was released more than one year ago. Many packages of the default install have received updates since them.
Should I reformat this USB with the .iso again, do another fresh install of Trisquel 11 on the Dell?
If the live system works, then there is no reason to reinstall it on the USB device again. You can use it to install Trisquel 11 on all your computers.
On hp laptop, am able to get to a login screen with Ctrl+Alt+F3 (not the graphical one like it used to be). Also $ poweroff, and Alt+prtsc+REISUB to reboot, work as you explained. Thank you, Magic Banana!
Using Disks, performed 'check' and 'fix' of Linux filesystem. It says it was fixed, really quickly. Just doing extended 'SMART Data & Self Tests', so far OK, 50% remaining. Once it's finished, if overall assessment is OK, that's sufficient, or should look for something specific? The 'system check' in recovery mode had said system is okay.
Last night, had tried sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade again, but it couldn't finish setting up the locales, said that there was no space left.
Not sure where no space is left. On the bootable USB two more log files are now in its writable partition.
Am confused about the different numbers for size: in the system check in recovery mode it says 420 G, with sudo fdisk - l it says 426.6 G for Linux filesystem, in Caja as well as when looking at it with Disks it says/has said 458 GB.
With sudo fdisk -l, attached to the hp laptop, the USB shows as
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size ID Type
/dev/sdb1 * 0 6121631 6121632 2.9G 0 Empty
/dev/sdb2 292 2339 2048 1M ef EFI (FAT..
/dev/sdb3 6123520 30218841 24095322 11.5G 83 Linux
Had also looked at USB with Disks, I think (remembering what the diagram looked like): 3.8 G Trisquel 11, small efi, over 11 writable, with lots of free space.
Maybe I should try to fix GRUB to get back to a regular login screen, but that by itself won't fix the upgrade. Could not figure out how to deal with the Error message
libwfm-0.2.7 :Breaks libwmf0.27 (<0.2.12-1) but 0.2.8.4-17ubuntu1 is to be installed
Someone suggested to use info on this Link
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26571326/how-do-i-resolve-the-following-packages-have-unmet-dependencies
to do it, but I don't know how to adapt that to my error message, or how to use dpkg utility(?) that I opened somehow (large page with lots of fields and choices!).
Any further suggestions are welcome. Still would like to get it fixed in order to learn. No rush as I can use two other devices with libre OS installed. Thank you!
Not sure how to proceed
I am a translator!
> Not sure where no space is left.
$ df -h
Besides, fdisk -l does not allow to see file system information. A more informative command (which also shows space left) is
$ lsblk --fs
.
Thank you very much, Avron!
$ df - h The only thing that is 100% use is /dev/sdb1 3.0G, where Trisquel 11 is
I find this USB strange because it contains a 12G writable part, of which 1% is used. Maybe I should make a new bootable USB with more space for /dev/sdb1. Or is there something where I can change that, make it bigger, and writable smaller?
$ lsblk --fs shows two things with 100% use:
loop0 squash 4.0 mounted at /rofs
sdb1 iso966 mounted at /cdrom
sda6 where Trisquel 10 is which I tried to upgrade to 11 is only 3% used.
Been trying to understand what's explained here
https://web.archive.org/web/20200129121506/http://karuppuswamy.com/wordpress/2010/06/02/how-to-chroot-to-ubuntu-using-live-cd-to-fix-grub-rescue-prompt/
but am stumped at step 3 to find the /media/xx..xx Is the hard disk partition unique id the long number showing up in lsblk --fs for sda6 UUID 6f.....c5?
Did those bind commands a few years ago when there was a black screen, but can't remember exactly how I managed to get it solved.
Alt+prtsc+REISUB to reboot
To be clear: it is a last-resort solution. If you have a working terminal and need to reboot, execute the eponymous command:
$ reboot
Once it's finished, if overall assessment is OK, that's sufficient, or should look for something specific?
It should be sufficient.
Last night, had tried sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade again, but it couldn't finish setting up the locales, said that there was no space left.
You executed those commands on the live system (you should not) or on the installed one? I believe on the live system, because you only use 4% of /dev/sda6 according to the output you gave at the end of https://trisquel.info/forum/upgrading-trisquel-9-11-versus-fresh-only-trisquel-11#comment-180193
libwfm-0.2.7 :Breaks libwmf0.27 (<0.2.12-1) but 0.2.8.4-17ubuntu1 is to be installed
Try that in the text session of the installed system:
$ sudo apt-get -f install
You're right, Magic Banana, I shouldn't have updated the live USB. Must have gotten confused somehow. Made a new bootable USB of Trisquel 11. When trying to use Startup Disk Creator on the Dell laptop with Trisquel 11 installed, it asked to Authenticate, but there was no place/window where to do that. So not sure whether something's wrong with this installation, or whether this is a new thing in Trisquel 11. So again, used Trisquel 9 on the hp laptop to make a bootable USB of Trisquel 11, it didn't ask for Authentication.
Today, offline without bootable USB attached
lbsk --fs gives 385.6G available and 3% use for sda6 (looked when it was mounted, folders incl. home are still there)
Offline without bootable USB attached $ sudo apt-get -f install gives
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1253 not upgraded.
Still willing to work on it. Thanks for help!
Then, still in a terminal of the installed system:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt full-upgrade
Thank you, Magic Banana, I'll give it a try later. Do those commands with the bootable USB with Trisquel 11 attached, or without? Connected to internet, or not?
You need an Internet connection. You do not need a live system since you can log into a text session of the installed system. Mounting it does no harm but it is entirely useless.
There were some errors:
Err:1 https://archive.trisquel.org/trisquel aramo InRelease
Temporary failure resolving 'archive.trisquel.org'
it got 2 to 10, fetched 7812 kB
W: failed to fetch https://archive.trisquel.org/trisquel/dists/aramo/InRelease
Temporary failure resolving 'archive.trisquel.org'
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old one used instead.
Calculating upgrade... Error! Some packages could not be installed This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. ...
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libwmf lite-0.2-7: Breaks: libwmf0.2-7m[< 0.2.12-1) but 0.2.8.4-17ubuntu1 is to be installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generate breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
Retry after:
$ sudo apt purge libwmf0.2-7m
Are you sure you have an Internet connection? You can test:
$ ping gnu.org
Ping command indicates internet connection. Purging libwmf2.0-7 seems to have helped. Did sudo apt update, sudo apt upgrade, sudo apt dist-upgrade It was able to connect to archive.trisquel, got the aramo in-release. Did autoremove twice, it removed (parts of) gimp.
Now it says: WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed. This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
apt adduser (due to login) trisquel-keyring (due to apt) libgnutls30 (due to apt) e2fsprogs init sytemd-sysv (due to init) login libpam0g (due to login) libpam-runtime (due to login) libpam-modules (due to login) mount util-linux (due to mount) sysvinit-utils
84 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 1128 to remove and 406 not upgraded.
Need to get 153 MB of archives. After this operation, 2767 MB disk space will be freed. You are about to do something potentially harmful To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'
Didn't type in the phrase. It says 'Abort.' Prompt is ~$
I'll try to leave the page as is for a while, in case someone can advise what to do next, but will turn laptop off for the night in about 6 hours.
Thanks in advance for help!!
The trisquel-recommended package was removed too. The idea was to reinstall it now that the blocking package is gone:
$ sudo apt install trisquel-recommended
Nevertheless your autoremove (that I was not expecting) has apparently removed far more! Does tasksel show that a desktop environment (that you want, don't you?) is installed? To know:
$ sudo tasksel
If none is preceded by an asterisk, I would select one (with the down key and space) and press with [Enter] the Ok button, which can be accessed with the Tab key.
Thank you very much for the help, Magic Banana! The command line still shows ~$, which I looked up means I'm in the home directory. Tried ~$ sudo apt-install trisquel-recommended. It got a bunch of things but said it would not install them, if I remember correctly. Then tried ~$ sudo tasksel Two things have asterisk, Cups print server and Trisquel console environment. Got red cursor to Trisquel desktop environment (doesn't have asterisk), but can't figure out how to get to OK, command line showed up at bottom of screen. The ~$ stayed after rebooting, had hoped it would go to $.
Really need to work on something else right now for tomorrow. Will check back here and look for info tomorrow, likely afternoon. Again, thank you very much!!
It got a bunch of things but said it would not install them, if I remember correctly.
The autoremove apparently put your system in a bad state. We will see if tasksel manages something. Otherwise, the error message would be necessary... or you can reinstall from scratch.
can't figure out how to get to OK
As I wrote in my previous message: "the Ok button can be accessed with the Tab key".
Things have not changed. Had used tab to get to ok, but then not pressed space. Pressing ok and space shows a progress bar, usually it was red 100% right away. Typed in the long command found in tasksel section on trisquel website how to install Trisquel deskop, initial blue progress bar also went red, failed.
Will try to install Trisquel 11 from bootable USB. It does not seem to see Windows, does not offer to install in dual boot, rather shows Welcome screen to choose language. Not sure whether I can handle steps described how to install in dual boot when it's not offered right away.
Thanks again for all the help! Learned some things in the process.
Not sure whether I can handle steps described how to install in dual boot when it's not offered right away.
Right away, the first entry is "Try Trisquel without installing". Choose that. You will end up with a live system whose desktop has an icon named "Install Trisquel 11.0". Double click on it. It launches the installer. It will let you choose a "Something else" type of installation. It will later lead you to a partition step where you can keep the Windows partition(s), delete the other partitions and create in the empty space those for the newly installed system. It can be a partition as large as your RAM for the swap (so that you can hibernate your system) and the remaining space for / (ext4 is a good choice for the type of the filesystem). If you suspect you want a different partitioning scheme (typically /home on a separate partition to later allow to reinstall the system keeping /home), we can discuss your needs here.
Thank you for the explanation and continued offer to help, it is appreciated, Magic Banana! Right now feel a little discouraged. (Also managed to 'misplace' the F drive in Windows trying to copy something from there to USB. May try to fix that later if W. stays on this device.) Should read a bit more regarding partitioning before getting there. Good that installig Trisquel 11 can be done offline, so can work on it without being on ethernet cable as well. Glad that I have Trisquel mini 11 and Trisquel 11 installed on two other devices. Will reach out here again, report on progress.
Thank you for this reply, Magic Banana! When trying to fix the Trisquel 10 on the hp laptop, is it okay to use the bootable USB with Trisquel 9 on it? Had left W. 10 on it in dual boot. Would it be as easy to install Trisquel 11 on it in dual boot as well? Had copied the home folder to a USB before trying the upgrade. Hadn't heard of cloning, not sure I want to do that if it came from Trisquel 10 that had included Firefox. My concern would be that it could include packages to do with Firefox.
If you think that the Firefox I saw included in Trisquel 10 did not come from the Trisquel repositories, where did it come from?
I don't use W. anymore, to prevent W. 10 to force upgrade to W. 11, had put it on airplaine mode as soon as it came up quite a while ago already.
Is it possible to use the bootable USB with Trisquel 9 on it to make a bootable USB of Trisquel 11? Would it be possible to verify the keys?
If not using a live Trisquel 9, would it be safe to install Trisquel 9 on the Dell, download Trisquel 11 (that way skip Trisquel 10), verify, make a bootable USB of Trisquel 11, then install that on the Dell? If that's not safe, what could go wrong?
Thanks in advance for answers!
Using bootable USB with Trisquel 9, downloaded Trisquel 11, verified the download, made bootable USB with Trisquel 11 on it, checked md5 of that, all ok. Will install that on the Dell laptop tomorrow.
It was my understanding that you couldn't jump two versions and expect things not to go VERY BADLY wrong.
Debian's own wiki says something about this. I would think the same would be true for Trisquel as well since it is based on ubuntu.
Maybe this should be put in the wiki as a "Do not do!" type list?
@Zoma: I know not to "jump two versions", that's why I upgraded from Trisquel 9 to 10, and then from 10 to 11. I also made a bootable USB of Trisquel 11, from the Trisquel website 'downlad'.
Learned this the hard way from trying to go from devuan stable to devuan unstable. :P
Trainwreck.
I checked with people on forum and they indicated what I did was a no-no.
So yeah... no one should jump two versions. lol
Using Debian (Devuan's base), it is possible to upgrade from stable to unstable (what is different from upgrading from oldoldstable to stable; unstable is not even a "version"): https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUnstable#Installation
Hmmm... maybe I got mixed up somewhere. I don't quite remember the versions I was using at the time, I guess... I thought it was that, but apparently my memory was wrong.
Well in any case, there is a reminder of my mistake somewhere on devuan forums. Id have to check to remember what happened.
EDIT:
Beowulf to Daedalus was what I did, I checked my past information just now on devuan forums.
Beowulf = debian 10
Daedalus = debian 12
I jumped from the 10 to 12 basically.
Anywho, appreciate you getting me to check. My memory was off.