Upgrade ubuntu Desktop 16.04 LTS,17.10 to 18.04 LTS

May 4, 2018
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04


Ubuntu 
is a free and open source operating system and Linux distribution based on Debian. Although ubuntu can be used for different purposes, ubuntu Desktop for personal computers, Ubuntu servers for servers and cloud, Ubuntu core for Internet Of Things Devices. Ubuntu releases its new standard version in every six months while LTS occur in every two years. Ubuntu provides support  approxmimately upto 1 year for standard releases and upto 5 years for LTS releases. 

A new ubuntu release 18.04 LTS is available for upgrade. The ubuntu Desktop users can upgrade ubuntu Desktop to latest release or download. But if you are running ubuntu server especially production server, it is recommended to wait for 2-3 months before the upgrade to ubuntu 18.04 release.

Ubuntu Desktop can be upgraded to latest release in different ways, among them i am following the method from ubuntu terminal. I strongly recommend to have a backup for the important datas to a remote location from your computer, beause something may go wrong while upgrading. Then follow the steps below.

Run your ubuntu update

Before you do anything, make sure that your system is already up-to-date. Run a full ubuntu update and upgrade command in terminal with apt.

$ sudo apt update 
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt dist-upgrade

This will help to ensure that the difference between the packages is as small as possible. Now before you begin to upgrade ubuntu to 18.04 LTS you may also want to remove all no longer required packages using the command below.

$ sudo apt autoremove

Upgrading with the ubuntu way

 You first need to install one package first. So install the package first.

$ sudo apt install update-manager-core

When the package is installed then run the command below to upgrade.

$ sudo do-release-upgrade

If you are doing  the upgrade too soon, then it will tell that No new release found. In that case, run the upgrade command forcefully at your own risk. For this you have to add the flag -d to upgrade forcefully.

$ sudo do-release-upgrade -d

After the above command the Ubuntu will ask you the couple of questions that how you will handle the upgrade process.