Hello Dennis,

>> ray carter  wrote:
>>> Next - go for it:
>>>   sudo apt-get update
>>>   sudo apt-get upgrade
>>>   sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>>>   sudo reboot

I did this once, and I discovered many differences when compared to a new
release installed from scrath.

>> At this point the pi account is locked on my machine, will that interfere
>> with upgrading? Seemed to me that the pi account is rather integral to
>> the system, sort of like root on *bsd.

> The "sudo" command is used to temporarily elevate the account you are
> logged in as to run "root" commands.

> Though it may be easier to just create a tar archive of /home,
> (s)ftp that archive to your "mainframe",

Why transport via EtherNet and/or InterNet?
A big USB stick or HDD will also do.

> create a new SD card with recent NOOBS image,

Good Idea, but NOOBS is not a good complete system.
It is only usefull to find out the OS you like most.
After that DowndLoad the real image of the OS you have choosen.
In this case Raspbian Stretch.
Many people found out that almost all the OSes on a NOOBS image are incomplete.
At least Raspbian and RISC OS on the NOOBS versions are.

> install that and go through the NOOBS configuration stuff,
> (s)ftp the tar archive to the new Raspbian,
> and untar it over the default /home of the new SD card.

Before using SSH for the first time, change the default password when connected
to an EtherNetwork which also has InterNet access.
Otherwise you may be hacked immediately via cable or WiFi.

I did the other way round, i.e. switched off SSH login for security,
as I never used SSH.
Then all the internal USB ports suddenly broke on my Pi 3B in july 2017,
so no keyboard to switch on SSH ;-(.
Then I put the microSDcard in my Pi 2B, changed the default password,
and swithed SSH on in the case USB falls down another time.
Luckily I got a new Pi 3B in the 2 years garanty period.

As I am a Pi user from the beginning I have installed almost every year a new
image. After that I had to change some default (=your fault) settings every
time. So I made a text file in which I wrote down all the changes I have to
make after every new installation.
And ofcourse that text file "personalisation" has to be updated too
every time ;-).
Because after a year you have forgotten all the changes you made earlier.
And during the year if you change something, update your text help file also
for the next install in the future.
By doing it this way, you have less stress to update to a new release.
Good luck with it.

Henri.

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