Upgrade from 14.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS

Clearly time for a big upgrade, but my question is can it be done direct (ie is there a way), or is a better option to cold install from scratch.

And if an upgrade path then what are peoples views on the risk, what is lost (cookies, links etc)

My gut feel is a from-scratch, but upgrade scripts have come a long way so worth a look

Thanks

3 Answers

You can do the upgrade from LTS to LTS Version, I have done it many times on productive servers.

14.04 -> 16.04

sudo apt update && apt upgrade
sudo apt install update-manager-core
sudo do-release-upgrade
reboot
sudo apt update && apt upgrade
sudo apt autoremove

16.04 -> 18.04

sudo apt update && apt upgrade
sudo do-release-upgrade
reboot
sudo apt update && apt upgrade
sudo apt autoremove

18.04 -> 20.04

sudo apt update && apt upgrade
sudo do-release-upgrade
reboot
sudo apt update && apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove

Only thing what you must know that configuration will not change to netplan and systemd-resolver for dns. You have after the upgrade /etc/network/interface and /etc/resolv.conf configuration.

There is no good way to upgrade directly.

There are too many changes. It is very unlikely for an upgrade to be successful.

A new install is the right choice

Sorry, but I totally disagree.

I made the upgrade from 14.04 to 20.04 without any problems right now.

OK, it took three steps, from 14 to 16, from 16, to 18 and from 18 to 20, but everything worked fine. (Except some hommade problems like forgetting to plug in the power adapter and goint to bed)

If anyone is making the upgrade step by step, it will work and your configuration is rescued. Just start the command

do-release-upgrade --proposed

That will do.