Is it possible to upgrade from Ubuntu 5.1 to 6.x?

[Jessevl]

I want to install Ubuntu, but i found out DapperFlight4 isn't stable enough.
So I want to install 5.1, but is it possible to upgrade to 6.x without messing up my linux install when it's stable?

[abhaysahai]

Absolutely,
go ahead and install 5.10.
Ubuntu naming is based on the month in which it is released, so 5.10 means the released in 2005 and 10 means the 10th month ( October)
The next release will be released in 6.04 ( 2006 April)
upgrading to 6.04 will be as easy as
changing dapper in place of breezy in /etc/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Just these 3 steps and you are done.

Well a more detailed guide will be available on Dapper release.
Its safe and very easy.

[Miguel]

In short, yes, it is possible. I just did it yesterday from my laptop. I also dist-upgraded from hoary to breezy. You just have to be careful and have some knowledge on how apt works.

First, if you don't feel yourself comfortable in a development version, hold on. Don't hurry up. But if you feel corageous... and have broadband to download some 700 Mb of packages (gnome+xfce in my case)... you should know a few things.

First, while it didn't happen on hoary to breezy, while upgrading to dapper dpkg asked me a few advanced configuring options (about printing system and RAID setup).

Then, whenever apt finds that you have a config file in /etc different from the original (e.g. you modified /etc/hdparm, or /etc/X11/xorg.conf), it will ask you what to do: change for the new one, keep the old one (default), view differences (in a vi-like editor) and use a terminal. Keeping the old one usually works.

You should aslo install all ubuntu metapackages before dist-upgrading. This assures that new included programs will also be installed. In my case, this lead to a few incompatibilities after installing the base system. These were luckily solved with an "apt-get dist-upgrade -f".

Furthermore, I found myself after reboot with a few obsolete packages (synaptic is cool for this). I removed everyone that didn't have dependencies outside these obsolete packages. I also removed programs I knew were no longer default, like the old Xchat.

I do not tell you all this to discourage you. I'm just being honest about what you are going to face. If you feel like you can do it, why not?. Just remember to backup your data.

[aslocum]

ist probably better to use the update-manager that is currently in testing and will be ready for the dapper stable upgrade:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2006-January/014700.html

[Jessevl]

Ok, thanks
I know it was possible to upgrade from hoary to breezy, but I just wanted to know whether the same thing would work on 6.04. And luckily it works!

[nocturn]

Ok, thanks
I know it was possible to upgrade from hoary to breezy, but I just wanted to know whether the same thing would work on 6.04. And luckily it works!

Thanks to the Debian apt system, this will always be possible.

What could be a problem is doing Hoary -> Dapper or even Warty -> Dapper (skipping releases). That's what I find a shame because I don't really need a release on my server every 6 months, but rather yearly (so skipping one each year).

[Cybolic]

ist probably better to use the update-manager that is currently in testing and will be ready for the dapper stable upgrade:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2006-January/014700.html


I must say that is a really cool and easy interface for the job! Great work!!! :D

[az]

Thanks to the Debian apt system, this will always be possible.

What could be a problem is doing Hoary -> Dapper or even Warty -> Dapper (skipping releases). That's what I find a shame because I don't really need a release on my server every 6 months, but rather yearly (so skipping one each year).

I have done Warty->breezy, woody->breezy, woody->hoary and the like and other that having to answer a lot of debconf question (taking the default) everything pretty much worked.

Typically, dist-upgrade, install ubuntu-desktop (if not already installed) and apt-get -f install as needed...