## hpr3285 :: Upgrading Lubuntu on my Samsung N150 Plus netbook

 Samsung N150 Plus upgrade from Lubuntu 16.04 LTS to Lubuntu 20.04.1 - performed 17/12/20
Backup and prep process

Copied all documents and important files from Samsung laptop to removable hard drive. Used Lubuntu gui file manager which crashed at least twice, probably due to netbook limited RAM.
Found out that a direct upgrade from 16.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS is not possible, refer to the following links.

Upgrade path from 16.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu release-cycle

Downloaded Lubuntu 20.04.1
Found a spare 32GB USB stick and copied all the files that were on it to a removable hard drive.
Opened downloaded Lubuntu image using Disk Image writer (1st time I've used this), wrote image to 32GB SD, found process very easy
On Samsung netbook hit F2 at boot time to select boot from USB
Booted from USB stick containing LUBUNTU 20.04.1

Live distro 1st boot.

Once booted I found the trackpad speed to be very slow and my first attempt at adjusting the speed in preferences made no difference.
Connected to WiFi, setting this up seemed much more clunky than previous connection method, however it did work.
Went to Youtube and played some video, everything worked fine, also found that volume keys on netbook worked.

Install Process

Went through install and selected manual partitioning,
Used existing swap on sda6 and format and mounted new Lubuntu root filesystem on sda7 replacing 16.04 with 20.04.1

After first boot

Upon first boot was surprised that it had remembered my WiFi connection details and told me there were updates
It asked if I wanted to perform a full upgrade without giving any details. At the time I didn't know what this meant. I wasn't sure I would remain on an LTS or upgrade to 20.10. After the full upgrade I check OS release using the following command. This confirmed I was still running 20.04 LTS
  cat /etc/os-release
The logon screen has desktop options, by default it's set to Lubuntu, I found this to be a bit slow and unresponsive also the screen decoration on terminals was rather clunky taking up unnecessary screen space.
The next time I entered the logon screen I selected LXQT. I was pleased to find that this option was remembered. The netbook was now a bit more responsive though not quite as good as it was before the upgrade. The terminal screen was now much tidier and more usable.
Preferences / LXQT settings / Keyboard and mouse / Mouse and Touch Pad / Acceleration speed now 5.0 think was 0.1, also selected single click to activate item
Installed mc, ncdu, screen, pv, moc, ssh
Generated RSA ssh keys and copied them to Pi13, they installed with no problems and allowed me to SSH into my Pi13.
Copied all my files and documents from my portable hard drive back onto the laptop. This time I used mc "Midnight Commander" to copy the files back which I found much easier than using the GUI file manager the first time around. Midnight commander is an Ncurses file manager.
I had forgotten just how good the ncurses file manager Midnight commander is.
Midnight Commander gave a constant percentage progress of each individual file being copied and the overall progress which was very useful and reassuring with such a slow laptop. The first time around the laptop actually crashed a couple of times when I was using the LUBUNTU GUI file manager to try and copy the files from the laptop to the hard drive.
Also even though I generally use keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste operation I still tend to use the track pad at places when using a file manager. It's easy to limit yourself to keyboard navigation using mc. I found this to be greatly reassuring and I feel doing this makes the likelihood of disastrous errors much less likely.

General thoughts and Observations

The keyboard screen brightness buttons don't work however I can adjust it within preferences. Further investigation will be needed to resolve this minor annoyance if / when I get the time and inclination.
The netbook now has a much slower boot time
The netbook now feels a little sluggish but I think it's still perfectly usable. I have a feeling this might be the last upgrade this netbook sees as it's now getting a bit long in the tooth. It also has a broken power switch which I believe was a common fault. I have to use a pair of scissors to turn it on.

