In this article we will demonstrate how to upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS. There are two ways to do it either via command line or GUI (Graphical Interface). To complete the upgrade smoothly, a stable internet is required on your Ubuntu system.
Upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS via Command Line
We strongly recommend please the take backup of your existing Ubuntu 18.04, may be on some external drive.
Before start upgrading, let’s take a note of existing Ubuntu Version, open the terminal and run below command.
brao@redaix:~$ lsb_release -a
Step 1) Apply all updates of installed packages
Rub below apt command to install all the updates of installed packages,
rao@redaix:~$ sudo apt update
rao@redaix:~$ sudo apt upgrade -y
Once all the updates are installed including the kernel then reboot your system
Step 2) Remove unused Kernels and install ‘update-manager-core’
Once your Ubuntu 18.04 LTS desktop is available after reboot, then it is recommended to remove unused kernels to free up the space from /boot partition, run beneath command:
brao@redaix:~$ sudo apt --purge autoremove
Execute below command to install “update-manager-core“, as it is required for upgrade, though on most of the systems it should be installed by default. In case it is not installed run below command,
brao@redaix:~$ sudo apt install update-manager-core
Step 3) Start Upgrade Process
Run following command to view whether new 20.04 LTS version is available for your system.
brao@redaix:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade
If, in the above command’s output, you got a message that “There is no development version of an LTS available” then we can force the above command by passing the parameter “-d” to look for the new latest LTS version.
During upgrade procedure, it will prompt you couple of times to type “y” to update package repositories and sometime “enter” to confirm to proceed with upgrade,
Once the upgrade process is completed successfully then we will get following message.
Above output confirms that upgrade is completed, upgrade tool prompted us to press ‘y’ to restart the system.
Step 4) Verify Upgrade
Once the system boots after the upgrade, open the terminal type following to verify the Ubuntu version,
Another way to verify the Ubuntu version, Go to Settings and then choose About
This confirms that we have successfully upgrade our Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to latest Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
