14 DAY TRIAL // The upgrade path from the Linux Mint 18.2 "Sonya" operating system is now officially open and users can upgrade their installations to the latest Linux Mint 18.3 "Sylvia" release.
Linux Mint 18.3 launched the other day with both Cinnamon and MATE editions, which were previously available for download from the project's main FTP mirror. And now, the upgrade path is already open for Linux Mint 18.2 users, allowing you to upgrade your installation to the latest Linux Mint 18.3 release.
However, the upgrade path appears to be open only for Linux Mint 18.2 "Sonya" Cinnamon and MATE users, as Xfce and KDE users will have to wait until later this year for the Linux Mint 18.3 "Sylvia" Xfce and KDE editions to be released. Anyway, follow the instructions below if you want to upgrade to Linux Mint 18.3.
Here's how to upgrade Linux Mint 18.2 to Linux Mint 18.3
To upgrade your Linux Mint 18.2 installation to Linux Mint 18.3, you'll have first to make a backup/system snapshot of your most important files using the Timeshift utility, and then disable the screensaver. Cinnamon users will also have to upgrade all their Cinnamon spices.
To upgrade to Linux Mint 18.3, simply open the Update Manager application, click the "Refresh" button to check for new versions of the mint-upgrade-info and mintupdate packages and install them if available. Then, open the System Upgrade utility, go to the Edit menu and click on "Upgrade to Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia”."
Follow the instructions on the screen to upgrade your Linux Mint 18.2 "Sonya" installation to Linux Mint 18.3 "Sylvia." Make sure you replace any configuration files during the installation if asked to do so. When the upgrade process is complete, reboot your computer and you're all set to use Linux Mint 18.3 on your PC.
The Linux Mint devs inform users that the upgrade process won't update the kernel packages, so you'll have to do it manually if you want to run the Linux 4.10 kernel of Linux Mint 18.3. Also, you'll have to manually install the newly introduced apps like Redshift and System Reports from the official software repositories.
