Upgrading 20.04 Lubuntu

Support and Help
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Ubuntu Version: 20.04

Desktop Environment (if applicable): LUbuntu

Problem Description: Upgrading to 24.04
I have a 20.04 system that has been running well for a long time. It was clean install done after a release-upgrade from 18.04 really didn’t work at all well. I really hated having to do that as even months later I was finding stuff that I had setup/configured under 18.04 that needed to be done over on 20.04.

So I am worrying about upgrading to 24.04.

Is a release-upgrade likely to work from 20.04. If the odds are good should I release-upgrade to 22.04 and then to 24.04, or can I upgrade directly to 24.04 from 20.04.

PS I really wish you had kept the old forums with multiple sections/categories - just lumping everything under “Support and Help” seems counter productive. However I get that perhaps support for vBulletin was a problem.

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According to Ubuntu’s official documentation you would need to first upgrade to 22.04 and from there to 24.04.
https://documentation.ubuntu.com/server/how-to/software/upgrade-your-release/

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Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse :slight_smile:

I beg to differ with you, respectfully, about “lumping.”

Once you spend some time here, sorting and filtering categories by tags is an easy way to narrow down searches.

The advanced filters for search are quite powerful and very useful is the fact that you can bookmark your search criteria and return to them when you want.

For example:
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/search?q=%23support-and-help%20tags%3Ainstall-and-upgrade%2Clubuntu

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Lubuntu 20.04 reached end of life in April 2023
I suggest :-

  • Backup your personal data
  • Download Lubuntu 24.04
  • Test in a live session
  • Install if you find it suitable for your needs
5

Well yes, that’s why I’m looking at upgrading.

D.

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Rather than trying a tortuous “in situ” upgrade from a 20.04 EOL installed system. it would be easier, quicker and more instructive to download and explore the current Lubuntu 24.04 LTS iso.

In your position, a clean LTS installation followed by restoring your data would, undoubtedly, be a worthwhile exercise.

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I’ll provide my 2c, which may contain something useful.

I usually opt for a normal release-upgrade after reading the release notes and ensuring no issues where discovered in QA that relate to packages I was using, or hardware I have, then ensuring my backups are updated & if I destroyed my system I’d be able to re-create it somewhat easily.

On many of my systems, I often lack disk space, thus can’t achieve the release-upgrade without lots of deletions, so I’m often implementing my ‘backup’ strategy anyway…

Should I have problems with the release-upgrade OR just lacked disk space, or even lacked time (as re-install is so fast!) I just non-destructively re-install the release I want to move to, as this will fix package issues and gets to the end result so quickly, further doesn’t need to disk space that is required by a release-upgrade.

I talk about it here, where you’ll find a link to another description found on Lubuntu’s discourse (it was used as a testcase for Lubuntu from 19.04 thru 24.04 though is no longer used)

In the link I provided, I didn’t cover 3rd party packages, as experiences there will depend on how the 3rd party packager worked, did they consider the release-upgrade process (if so it’ll work) OR they ignored it (you can experience problems), so assessing this is more complex & rather specific to what & from where (ie. third party source). I personally use little third party, and just assume I may need to fix those myself afterwards.

That method isn’t an option if using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Desktop as it forces format of the / partition due to a bug discovered in QA where forcing format is the current fix, but you mention Lubuntu which is one of the flavors using the calamares installer thus it is an option.

A release-upgrade from 20.04 will only get you to 22.04, after which you can re-assess the situation for the next jump which will get to you 24.04.

The best place for details on issues is of course the release notes, so have you looked? That will of course include Ubuntu’s and Lubuntu’s (we only provided an announcement for 22.04.5 but did provide 22.04.4 release notes but Ubuntu’s release notes are most critical for release-upgrades), then you can look at the upgrade instructions, but do note the release notes contain the most useful detail on issues.

The point release status is also useful; esp. in the earlier days (as 22.04.1 dealt with release-upgrade issues), as well as point release changes (Jammy Jellyfish Point-Release Changes) but we’re so far from 20.04->22.04 that you’ll probably only gain detail when you get to the 22.04->24.04 upgrade.

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And you may discover that your 24.04, regardless of method, will also wipe away some customizations and configurations. Depends what you configured and how you configured it.

Suggestion: Keep notes on your customizations, so you can easily restore your preferences from a clean install. Or back up those customizations along with your data.

Be prepared. New releases are not intended to be catastrophic.

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For a different perspective, I have happily “jumped over” releases in the past, going from A to C, skipping B. While this isn’t recommended, it’s still possible, but very much untested and uncharted waters. So if it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.

The vast majority of upgrades that break, can be fixed. The problem comes when the user is not skilled in the dark arts of apt and dpkg massaging, and lack sufficient time and experience to solve upgrade issues. There’s also the problem that if it’s your primary computer, going without it while the upgrade needs fixing is frustrating, and might make searching or conversing with support people online very difficult.

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Agreed with tea-for-one. If you have to upgrade through several immediate versions you should do a clean install instead. Your customized settings not only may not work, it might cause troubles in the new version. I keep notes on important customized settings and usually some no longer apply in newer version of the oS, and new ones may be needed.

Broken configurations may led to hard to diagnose problems down the road.

There is something ironic about “upgrade”. Upgrade prefers a pristine system. But the reason why some people prefer “upgrade” over clean install is exactly because they want to keep all their customization, yet upgrade is more likely to break if you have too many customization and third party apps etc.

It is a lot faster and safer to just back up your data and do a fresh install.

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