There is one more day ahead for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS final release. Tomorrow, April 21, 2016, you can download and install Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. In the meantime, Let us see how to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
For your information, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is supported until 2019. So, it's completely not necessary to upgrade your Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. If you want to use new updated packages, then do upgrade. Otherwise, just stick with Ubuntu 14.04. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS users can get the updates till 2019.
The method of upgrade between LTS releases are quite same as normal Ubuntu releases, except a small change in the Software updater.
Let us get started now.
Table of Contents
First things first
Make sure twice you have backup your important data before starting the upgrade process.
Then, update your Ubuntu 14.04 LTS system using command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
After updating Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, reboot it to apply the updates.
sudo reboot
Now, open up the Software & updates. To do so, type Software & updates in the unity search bar.
In the Software & updates, make sure you have selected "For long-term support versions" from the "notify me of new Ubuntu version" drop down box.
Click Close. This will update the source lists.
Starting Ubuntu 16.04 LTS desktop upgrade
Open up your Terminal, and type:
sudo update-manager -d
You will see a message something like below.
“The software on this computer is up to date.
However, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is available now (you have 14.04)”.
After few seconds, you will be greeted with Ubuntu Xenial Xerus release notes screen.
Click Upgrade.
The distribution upgrade will start to setup new software channels for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Finally, click "Start upgrade".
Now, sit back. It is going to take some time depending upon the speed of your Internet connection.
Click "Remove" to delete the unused packages.
Finally, click "Restart now" to finish the upgrade.
Enter your Ubuntu username's password to log in.
Congratulations! Here is the desktop of newly upgraded Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system.
Let us check the Ubuntu version.
To do so, go to System settings > Details from Unity dash.
That's it! Ubuntu upgrade process is pretty and straight forward. Ubuntu developers made the upgrade process so easy, even to some new users.
Starting Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server upgrade
Just like as Ubuntu desktop, first we need to update our Ubuntu server with command:
Then, update your Ubuntu 14.04 LTS system using command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
After updating Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, reboot it once to apply the updates.
sudo reboot
I always recommend to use screen tool when attempting to upgrade a remote server via SSH. This will keep running the upgrade the process in case your SSH session is lost for some reason.
To install the screen tool, Enter:
sudo apt-get install screen
Once it's installed, start the screen session with command:
screen
If your SSH connection is broken when upgrading, you can re-attach to the upgrade session easily with command:
screen -Dr
Install the update-manager-core package if it is not installed already:
sudo apt-get install update-manager-core
Then, ddit the file /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades,
sudo nano /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades
and set Prompt=lts as shown below.
Save and close the file.
Now, start the upgrade process with command:
sudo do-release-upgrade -d
Press "Y" to continue.
Press Enter:
Press "Y" without quotes to confirm the upgrade process. It will take some time.
During upgrade process, you'll be asked to confirm to restart some services during package upgrades without asking. Just select Yes, and press ENTER to continue.
Finally, type Y to remove the obsolete packages and then again type "Y" to complete the upgrade process and reboot the system.
That's it. We just upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
I personally recommend all new and Intermediate users not to do upgrade Ubuntu desktop or server in the production environment. Just leave it to professionals. Of course it is easy, but if you lack of enough knowledge in Linux, don't that, at least in production environments.
Hope this helps. Please share it on your social networks and let others to know how to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 from Ubuntu 14.04.
Cheers!