Chapter 1.  Before Starting

Prepare the installation materials, back up anything important that might be unique to the machine.

  1. Download the new distribution

    Either KDE Neon or Kubuntu. Remember that KDE Neon will have the latest KDE and will be out-of-date for everything else, because it's based on the Ubuntu LTS. So: use Neon if an LTS has just come out, and Kubuntu otherwise.

  2. Make USB Stick

    Download the iso

    Burn it with usb-creator-kde, not as root.

  3. Backup

    Check for things that have been lost in the past.

    • /etc/fstab

    • Network settings

    • .config/Synergy/Synergy.conf

    • Home directory symlinks

    • monitor configuration, especially /etc/X11/xorg.conf

    • text files in home dir

    • unison working files

    • certificates

    • Local ~/bin scripts

  4. Wipe the old hard drive

    shred -v -n 1 /dev/sda

  5. Reinstall

    Install from USB