How do I upgrade from Fedora 20 (Heisenbug)

Hello,

I’ve been working with Fedora 20 Heisenbug for years and was very happy with it. I’m now starting to have problems and it seems I should upgrade to a more recent version.
The problem is I don’t know how to proceed. I read carefully the manual, I downloaded the ISO image of the workstation distribution but I don’t know how to create a bootable USB key out of it.
The manual says I should install flatpak but I don’t know how to do this, it’s not on the old repositories.

Thanks for your kind help !

You should definitely upgrade at least once a year to the most recent version (less upgrade cycles), or every six months to the 2nd newest version (maybe more stable for you) because older versions will no longer get (security) updates. This makes your system strongly vulnerable. Also, other technologies/developments get no longer updated/introduced, which may be the reason for problems you now encounter.

As you cannot upgrade more than two versions at once, it may be much easier for you to re-install the system.

I don’t know which manual you read, but at this stage, flatpak is no concern and has nothing to do with the upgrade process. I suggest to stick with the “normal” Fedora.

The following links may help you to install a new Fedora version:

If the mediawriter does not exist on your old Fedora 20, you have to use the dd command, which is explained at the section " Using a direct write method" of the following link:

On the left side of the first link, you can then proceed with the categories “booting the installation”, “installing using anaconda” and so on.

Supplement: In future, I suggest to keep your system upgraded with: DNF System Upgrade :: Fedora Docs

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Welcome to ask.:fedora:edora @helpmeplease

Sorry to tell you that, but upgrading a such old system will give you a lot of headache.
Please try a Live-Iso and check if your Hardware keeps up with the newest version of Fedora.

If yes backup your data and do a new install.

Welcome to the forum!

Boy, that was presumably a long time ago. On what hardware are you planning to install a more current operating system? Especially include processor details, RAM, graphics card(s), hard drive capacity, and any other requirements you have for peripherals, favorite/essential programs, etc.

Greg.

The live system will show if it works, but generally, I think that most 2013/14 hardware is still able to manage current Fedoras. I think the hardware of these years was already 64 bit.

@helpmeplease ensure that you download the correct architecture of the ISO :slight_smile:

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Once you have downloaded the proper workstation iso you can create a bootable usb from that iso by the following. (use a 4GB or larger USB)

sudo dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/sdX

Make sure you replace the ‘/path/to/iso’ with the actual name and path to the iso file you downloaded.
Also replace /dev/sdX with the actual device name your system gives the USB device.
Most systems will automatically mount the usb device when it is connected, so you should also use the mount command to see what was mounted and used sudo umount /dev/sdXN for each partition on that device that was mounted before you write to it using dd.

fedora has an app for writing iso to USB: media writer.
you find it on the getfedora site.

I don’t remember whether that app was available for fedora 20 or not so did not mention it; though it was mentioned by Christopher in post #2 above.

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