Upgrading Atari Mint vesion

Following these guides, you would have installed Mint version 1.16.1 on your Atari hardware. If you chance upon a newer version of Mint, you would surely be very eager to try it out. You can always install the new version which mean that you loose all your configurations and settings that you applied to your old Mint and may even possibly need to re-install all the applications again. Instead of installing the new version, you can upgrade to the new Mint, while having the older version in parallel!

The newest public release version of Mint can be downloaded here

Upgrading mean that you replace the old programs with the newer programs, usually overwriting it. However, as of Mint version 1.16.1, Mint upgrading can be easily done by creating an new and appropriately named folder structure to store the new programs.

Upgrading to v1,17 is used as an example below. You can upgrade to newer versions, just replace 1.17 with the version number. For example, upgrading to v1.18, just replace numbers 1.17 reference to 1.18 and that's mostly it.

1. The MINT kernel in Auto folder

The Mint Kernel is normally in the archive subfolder AUTO and is called MINT.PRG.

1. 1. 1. 1. Rename the old MINT.PRG file in C:\AUTO\ to some name that can identify it as the old version, example to MINT1161.PRG.

         2. Copy over the new MINT.PRG file to C:\AUTO\ and rename to some name that can identify it as the new version, example to MINT1163.PRG or MINT1170.PRG.

Make sure that the new version MINT1163.PRG (or MINT1170.PRG) is the last executable in the AUTO folder. You should use a boot selector like XBOOT to select the version of Mint to load.

2. Mint System Folder

Before we start updating our MINT setup, we need to understand how MINT system folder works. As of Mint version 1.16.0, Mint will load XIF, XDD, XFS and Mint configurations from the Mint system folder.

In general, all major release version number of MINT will have 0 (zero) for the 3rd part of the version number (normally called revision part of the version). Subsequent revisions to the version will see the 3rd part as 1, 2, 3... etc. Thus the 3rd revision of v1.16 will have the version 1.16.3.

The Mint.PRG (living in the AUTO folder) will look for a Mint system folder that follows the version number with the dots replaced by dashes. For example version 1.16.1, the system folder is C:\MINT\1-16-1\, note that the folder 1-16-1 is derived from the version number. This folder convention allows several versions of Mint like 1.16.3 and 1.17.0 to co-exist in your in your hard disk at the same time. The developer's release of MINT.PRG, it will normally look for a Mint system folder with the revision part replaced by "cur".

With the theory done, let's move on to creating our new Mint system folder.

For version 1.16.1, the system folder is C:\MINT\1-16-1\.

So for newer version of Mint, just create the corresponding system folder based on the version e.g.

1. 1. 1. • version 1.16.3 should be C:\MINT\1-16-3\

         • version 1.17.0 should be C:\MINT\1-17-0\

Copy all the distribution executables and binaries (normally in the archive MINT subfolder) to the new system folder.

If you have the developer's release, remember to rename the folder name from 1-xx-1 to 1-xx-cur as an example. For Mint v1.16.3, it's probably developer's version, so just rename the system folder to 1-16-cur. For Mint v1.17.0, we can leave it as 1-17-0 as it is a public release version.

3. Copy your configuration files

To have your previous settings for Mint & XaAES carried over to the new Mint, just copy the MINT.CNF & XAAES.CNF files over.

1. 1. 1. • Copy your Mint configuration files - MINT.CNF from your old version (v1.16.1) over to the new system folder (C:\MINT\1-16-cur\ or C:\MINT\1-17-0\). Rename the new version MINT.CNF so you can refer to new settings if needed.

         • Copy your XaAES configuration files - XAAES.CNF from your old version (v1.16.1) over to the new system folder (C:\MINT\1-16-cur\XAAES\ or C:\MINT\1-17-0\XAAES\). Rename the new version XAAES.CNF so you can refer to new settings if needed.

4. Touch up the configuration files

Your copied configuration files will contain references to the previous version system folder, you need to change these to the new version system folder.

• 1. 1. 1. Run QED and load in the MINT.CNF file from the new system folder (either C:\MINT\1-16-cur\ or C:\MINT\1-17-0\).

        2. Change all 1-16-1 to 1-16-cur (or 1-17-0).

        3. Save the file.

Do the same for your XAAES.CNF file.

5. Redirect SpareMint default console to new AES

If you are using SpareMint in your setup, then you need to modify the file /etc/ttytab default console to execute the new AES. Modify the following to the location of the new AES. In our example will be from XaAES in folder 1-16-1

#console "/c/mint/1-16-1/xaaes/xaloader.prg" tw52 on secure

To the XaAES loader in folder 1-16-cur (or 1-17-0).

#console "/c/mint/1-16-cur/xaaes/xaloader.prg" tw52 on secure or

#console "/c/mint/1-17-0/xaaes/xaloader.prg" tw52 on secure

6. Reboot

In the AUTO folder, make sure the that the new version MINT1163.PRG (or MINT1170.PRG) is enabled and the old version MINT1161.PRG is disabled (rename to PRX for example).

Reboot the system.

You should see the new version of Mint loading and goes into your desktop. Use a tool like Mint Setter to review the version of the running Mint.

You may need to copy over your favourite XDD, XFS & XIF files from the previous version if they are not standard in the new distribution.

Next: 15 Auto Update RPM