Upgrading Slackware 14.1 to Current and MATE 1.12 to 1.14

Since Slackware 14.2 is getting closer to release, i decided to try migrating my wife's desktop machine from Slackware 14.1 to Slackware 14.2 (current). It still uses MATE 1.12 since i don't build MATE 1.14 for Slackware 14.1 (mostly because some deps require higher version of library that what's included in 14.1), so it's a good opportunity to try the upgrade process from MATE 1.12 to MATE 1.14 as well.

Since my wife's usage on this machine is limited to simple activities, i didn't install many third party packages besides LibreOffice and some other packages (less than 10 i counted). This gives me an easy start because i can simply wipe all of them during the upgrade process and reinstall it later if deemed necessary.

Here's what i did :

• rsync a backup copy of slackware-current repository from my desktop
• change the mirror in slackpkg to local file instead of remote repository
• slackpkg install-new (install new packages introduced in 14.2)
• slackpkg upgrade-all (upgrade all packages)
• slackpkg clean-system (remove deprecated Slackware + third party packages)
• reboot

For MATE, it was wiped clean during slackpkg clean-system procedure. I haven't built MATE 1.14 for x86 architecture, so i had to clone the repository and built it manually using the build scripts and in short time, i have MATE 1.14 ready and i can enter the MATE desktop again. She will never notice that the underlying OS and Desktop Environment have been upgraded.

In short, the upgrade procedure from Slackware 14.1 to 14.2 and MATE 1.12 to 1.14 is straightforward and smooth. When MATE 1.14 packages is ready for Slackware 14.2, if you use slackpkg+ and configured msb repository in the configuration, the above procedure will also upgrade MATE 1.12 to MATE 1.14 so no need to built it manually.