How to update between versions of ubuntu

[jony127]

Hello,

How can you upgrade between versions of ubuntu? Can you update by downloading the new iso or is it done through the internet?

Thank you.

[Simon]

From Terminal;

do-release-upgrade

That is basically it.

[jony127]

Thank you.

To run this update do you have to change the repositories before or not?

And do version updates usually go well or often cause problems?

[Simon]

To the best of my knowledge, all you do is run the command at the prompt. It will ask you for your root password to continue. Then you allow it to upgrade to the most recent distribution (16.10) soon to be 17.04. Now should you want something else, I would recommend you make backups and get the ISO of the release you desire. I am pretty much a stick in the mud. I leave my OS alone, if it is working to my satisfaction. On my Sony laptop I keep 14.04 LTS running on it. My extremely old desktop is dual boot 12.04/14.04 LTS. My new Dell laptop came with Windows 10, but I installed 16.04 on it. Finally all the computers, at the clinic where I work, are the latest and greatest, version of Debian with a Gnome desktop environment.

But I don't "use" those, my staff uses those.

[Snowhog]

Thank you.

To run this update do you have to change the repositories before or not?

And do version updates usually go well or often cause problems?

This command is run from a konsole. It creates a backup of all existing official sources ".list" files, then changes the version name in the sources.list file. Any non-standard, third-party repositories are simply commented so that they will not be used during the release upgrade process. Those can, afterwards, be edited, uncommented, and have the version name changed to the current version you will have just updated to.

As to issues doing this, well, that depends entirely on which release you were running before, and how many non-standard packages you had installed. For some, the process is painless. For others, not so much. It can, and is, different for each user case.

[jlittle]

To run this update do you have to change the repositories before or not?

The script makes the changes.
One circumstance where you'd make a change is if you're on an LTS release (f. ex. 16.04) and want to update to a "normal" non-LTS release. It's a drop down box in "software sources".

John Little

[jony127]

Thank you.

If I use backports to keep plasma updated, upgrades between kubuntu version would give problems?

And the lts versions come out every year or every two?

[Snowhog]

Every two years: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS

"upgrades...would give problems?"

That cannot be answered objectively; there are simply to many variables that can affect upgrades. In my experience, here, on my installations, upgrades have been 99.99 percent problem free. But that's me. Others would argue otherwise.

[jony127]

Thank you. Recommend the use of backports to keep plasma updated or better not?

One last thing, I read that maybe kubuntu stopped releasing versions every 6 months is that true? It would be a shame because most deb distros with kde are lts and they take a long time to update.

[Snowhog]

"I" always active Backports. According to Ubuntu Wiki, the six-month release schedule is still in effect. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

[jony127]

Thank you, one last doubt. If I have activated backports and I will update the version of the distro should I disable those repos before?

[Snowhog]

Not necessary.