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Online Upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 at Command Line

Posted: May 18, 2011 / in: Howtos / No comments

ubuntu-upgradeThis article provides details on upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04 (code name “Natty Narwhal”) at command line. Desktop installations of Ubuntu provide tools with graphical user interfaces to perform this job. If you are running server systems without having a graphical desktop installed, you have to perform system upgrades via command line.

General upgrade information

An upgrade is the process of going from an earlier version of Ubuntu to a newer one. Skipping versions is not advised as it may cause damage to your system.

If you are using an earlier version, and want to ‘skip’ a version, the safest way is to backup your data and do a fresh installation, or to progressively upgrade to each successive version.

The following table contains a list of supported upgrade paths:

source version target version
10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)
10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
9.10 (Karmic Koala) 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
8.04 (Hardy Heron) 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
8.04 (Hardy Heron) 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) 8.04 (Hardy Heron)
6.06 (Dapper Drake) 8.04 (Hardy Heron)
5.10 (Breezy Badger) 6.06 (Dapper Drake)

Requirements

  • You can only upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 from Ubuntu 10.10.
  • Be sure that you have all updates applied to Ubuntu 10.10 before you upgrade.
  • Read the release notes for Ubuntu 11.04.
  • Perform a backup of your system! At least all data files, database contents, custom applications, application configurations and custom system configurations should be included. If there are a lot of additional applications installed via apt_get or aptitude, you should consider to dump a list of all software packages installed in your system.

Perform the Upgrade

What is your Unbuntu version?

Use the following command to find out what version of Ubuntu you are runing:

12345678
 
# print release number of your Ubuntu installation# this example shows the output from the 10.10 Release$ lsb_release -aNo LSB modules are available.Distributor ID: UbuntuDescription:    Ubuntu 10.10Release:        10.10Codename:       maverick

Define your upgrade path

The file /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades contains a setting that tells the upgrade manager which upgrade path to use. Normally you should not be required to change this file. But if you are sure, that upgrades are available and the upgrade manager tells you that they are not, you should get back to this file.

This file defines whether the update manager should consider LTS (Long Time Support releases) versions only or all upgrade path’s available.

123456789
 
# default behavior for the release upgrader# [DEFAULT]# default prompting behavior, valid options:#  never  - never prompt for a new distribution version#  normal - prompt if a new version of the distribution is available#  lts    - prompt only if a LTS version of the distribution is availablePrompt=normal

Start the Upgrade Process

Excecute the following commands to perform the upgrade:

12345678910111213
 
# Install update-manager-core sudo apt-get install update-manager-core # update your installation of Ubuntu 10.10sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get upgrade # Launch the upgrade toolsudo do-release-upgrade # Follow the on-screen instructions. ...

Do it the hard way

If Ubuntu is complaining that there are problems, it refuses the system upgrade and if you are not able to resolve the issues then you may try one of the following options:

  1. upgrade your system with apt-get
  2. reinstall the system with your desired version of Ubuntu
  3. reinstall the base system and retry to upgrade
  4. there are a number of additional options depending on the reason for the upgrade failure …

If you did decide to choose the first option then perform the following steps. Before performing the upgrade make sure to update your sources list of apt repositories (read about it below):

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#  update your installation of Ubuntu 10.10sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get upgrade # replace the file /etc/apt/sources.list with the attached contents# at the end of the article # perform the upgradesudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Apt ressources

The following configuration file contains contents for upgrading to and working with Ubuntu 11.04. Please replace the contents of the file /etc/apt/sources.list with the configurations as follows.

If you have got problems with insufficient permissions try to add sudo to your command (see above). The following configuration file contains some urls of servers in Germany.

 

deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty main restricted
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty main restricted
 
## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates main restricted
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates main restricted
 
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty universe
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty universe
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates universe
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates universe
 
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu 
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to 
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in 
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty multiverse
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty multiverse
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates multiverse
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates multiverse
 
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-backports main restricted universe multiverse
 
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu lucid partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu lucid partner
 
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security multiverse

 

 

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