Upgrading from 20.10 to the recent version using the terminal

[orengolan]

My laptop is on Ubuntu 20.10 and I am thinking of upgrading it to a new version. What's a good way to do that and can it be done using the terminal? (I am using I3).

[Bashing-om]

orengolan; Uh OH -- But there is a way !

Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla) was the 33rd release of Ubuntu, support ended July 22nd, 2021. See https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ne/000269.html

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOL and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases for more info. Looking to upgrade from an EOL release? See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

-terminally, but this is not a terminal issue -

[TheFu]

My laptop is on Ubuntu 20.10 and I am thinking of upgrading it to a new version. What's a good way to do that and can it be done using the terminal? (I am using I3).

FWIW, if you choose to install a non-LTS release, plan to do a fresh install every 6 months. If you can't commit to this, then only use LTS releases which provide 3 yrs of support for most DE flavors. That's enough time to move from LTS to LTS.

Once a release isn't supported anymore, upgrading becomes more difficult. Always. Always, migrate to the next LTS **before** the prior release support ends. Always.

At this point, my best advice is that you should backup anything you don't want to lose and do a fresh install of 22.04 which is an LTS release.

Sorry, I don't have a magic time machine to go back and make all this easier.Support for 20.10 ended 2 yrs ago.

[ian-weisser]

At this point, my best advice is that you should backup anything you don't want to lose and do a fresh install of 22.04 which is an LTS release.

This is indeed excellent advice. Heed it.

There are some back-door methods, and sometimes they work. But they are complex. Some are unsupported. They might make things worse if you make a typo or click the wrong unfamiliar option.

[orengolan]

Thanks for all the replies!

[guiverc]

I actually wrote a reply for this awhile ago, but as I don't use i3 and your setup is therefore rather different to a default install, I likely opted to close the window & didn't click 'post'.

I keep systems of all supported releases of Lubuntu on actual hardware, and when a release goes EOL, I never have need of the next release (I'll already have it), but do an unclean install of the newer development release and thus change the release in a way that causes my manually installed packages (esp. music player I use) auto-reinstalled, plus my data files remain so I have music etc. to play on re-install.

During the development cycle that install will get re-installed at least weekly, and even now that 22.04 or jammy is a released product, I don't upgrade packages for that install, instead re-install using the current daily (~weekly) which upgrades my packages AND performs a QA-test install on the unreleased 22.04.3 ISO we have.

It's what I often use, and would have used when 20.10 reached EOL & I didn't want 21.04 (already having at least one install of that release) thus moved that install to 22.10 or another LTS (whatever release I felt I needed another install of).

What I use is called the install using existing partition and I've attempted to document (for QA-testers) here - https://discourse.lubuntu.me/t/testi...testcases/2743

I've also written about it many times on different sites (askubuntu etc, possibly here too)

------ My unsent reply follows

If you're using a Desktop system, you can use the repair installation option to achieve an upgrade via re-install where you're doing the repair with a different release.

The expected release-upgrade path that was supported and thus QA-tested, was to the next release being Ubuntu 21.04, however that intended & tested path ended when Ubuntu 21.04 reached EOL 9 months after its release, thus making your job harder.

You can try what is provided on links already provided (by Bashing-om), otherwise you can backup, download & write a later release to thumb-drive, then install that but do not format your drives; just mark them for re-use exactly as they're used now. The lack of format & re-use of partitions triggers the repair installation option, which notes what packages you have installed, erases system directories (this will be a problem with many server apps as they often store configs in system directories, but isn't a problem for desktop apps), installs apps from media, then if internet is available, downloads and installs the manually installed packages you'd added to your system (if available for the new release in Ubuntu repositories) before asking to reboot.

Note: The repair feature I'm talking about is only QA-tested using Ubuntu repository software (no 3rd party), though from personal experience some 3rd party will auto-reinstall, but others will not, depending on how & who packaged it, but this is somewhat predictable but won't be if you're a newbie or don't have much experience with Ubuntu software vs 3rd party (ie. did the packager intend you to upgrade? or clean re-install; its easier for packagers to ignore upgrades so where it came from is important as what I'm describing here is a unclean (repair) re-install)

Backup first, and if using a Server install I'd likely disregard this option (I only use it for desktop systems; and find it easier for flavors over Ubuntu Desktop as flavors always have 'universe' enabled needed to re-install the packages from universe)