Linux Mint new upgrade tool: LMDE 4 can be easily upgraded to LMDE 5

While the graphical tool does simplify things, you still need to do a few things in the terminal when installing the upgrade tool. To install it, run the command below separately (sudo may be required, but the command below is provided directly by the Mint team):

apt update

apt install mintupgrade

You may be asked for a password to execute these commands, but once they are done, you will have the upgrade tool installed on your machine. Next, you want to start it from the command line, do it with the following command.

south mintupgrade

Now you can turn your attention to the graphical tool and follow the instructions to perform the upgrade. When it’s done, you need to uninstall the upgrade tool and restart your computer, which you can do with the following commands.

apt remove mintupgrade

sudo reboot

During the upgrade process, you’ll be asked to make sure you’ve installed all available updates and backed up with a system snapshot in case something went wrong. Since this is a major upgrade, the Mint team emphasizes that you need to take your time and follow the rules.