Upgrading Ubuntu

I recently discovered that my Linode box was running a fairly old version of Ubuntu. Because it is a remote box that I SSH into, there is no graphical user interface. Upgrading to a newer release can be accomplished with the following command line utility:

$ do-release-upgrade

It includes a series of prompts regarding choices about the upgrade and a lot of waiting.

Adding the -d flag will upgrade to the latest development release.

Ubuntu Distribution Upgrade

Upgrading Ubuntu from one LTS version to the next is a fairly simple process in principal.

Warning

Please make sure to test this on a non-critical system or take backups prior to upgrading your system!

Update system packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade 

Install Ubuntu update tool

sudo apt install update-manager-core

Run system upgrade

sudo do-release-upgrade

Reboot system

sudo reboot 

You can now verify the upgrades and rollback if any issues are encountered.