Upgrading Ubuntu with do-release-upgrade
There comes a time (a couple of times a year, actually) when you may want to upgrade your Ubuntu distro (read here for instructions on confirming your version of Linux: Find Out Linux Version)
Once that’s done, you can use do-release-upgrade for a hassle free upgrade.
IMPORTANT: are you can see, I’ve used a really old Ubuntu server with 8.10, hence your procedure for upgrading more recent Ubuntu versions may be slightly different. For example, later upgrades will warn you if you’re doing a release upgrade over ssh.
What do-release-upgrade is and when you should use it
do-release-script is a Python script which automates the process of updating multiple packages. It relies upon Ubuntu’s core package management functionality.
Apart from downloading and installing updated versions of packages found on your system, this command attempts to take care of all the necessary Ubuntu-release related file changes.
Step 1: Run do-release-upgrade
Once you type the do-release-upgrade command name and press Enter, you should see how vital information about packages currently installed is being collected:
# do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new ubuntu release Done
Upgrade tool signature Done
Upgrade tool Done
downloading
extracting ‘jaunty.tar.gz’
authenticate ‘jaunty.tar.gz’ against ‘jaunty.tar.gz.gpg’
Reading cache
Checking package manager
Reading package lists: Done
Reading state information: Done
Updating repository information
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release.gpg
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates Release.gpg
Done http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security Release.gpg
Done http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-backports Release.gpg
Done http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security Release
…
Checking package manager
Reading package lists: Done
jaunty-security/multiverse
Packages: 98 2
Reading state information: Done
Reading state information: Done
Reading state information: Done
Calculating the changes
2. Confirming what upgrading will do
This is your last change to change your mind. All the necessary information about your current Ubuntu release is collected, and now you’re presented with the exact upgrade details: how many packages will be removed, how many new ones will be installed, how many will be upgraded. You also are given details about the required amount of data to be downloaded should you decide to proceed with the upgrade;
Do you want to start the upgrade?
1 package is going to be removed. 23 new packages are going to be installed. 420 packages are going to be upgraded.
You have to download a total of 248M. This download will take about 7 minutes with your connection.
Fetching and installing the upgrade can take several hours. Once the download has finished, the process cannot be cancelled.
Continue [yN] Details [d]
Ready? Press y for yes!
3. Downloading all the packages
Just like with apt-get, you will now see the progress of downloading all the updated packages for your Ubuntu OS. At the bottom of the screen you will see the overall completeness of the download (22% in my example), the current download speed (598kB/s in my case) and the ETA:
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libbz2-1.0 1.0.5-1ubuntu1.1
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main libdb4.7 4.7.25-6ubuntu1
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main libncursesw5 5.7+20090207-1ubuntu1
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libssl-dev 0.9.8g-15ubuntu3.6
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main libssl0.9.8 0.9.8g-15ubuntu3.6
Done http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main python2.6 2.6.2-0ubuntu1
[23%] 598kB/s 5min17s
4. Upgrade
Once package are downloaded, they will get installed once by one, with package-specific questions asked for software like postfix or apache.
5. Reboot
To finalize the distro upgrade, you will need to do a reboot. Once completed, you should have a shine next release available.
