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upgrade 20.04 to 21.04. Direct upgrade or from scratch?

us flag

I have ubuntu 20.04 and I'm considering upgrading... I remember a few years ago that I tried on another machine, and it just didn't work, I had to reinstall from 0. Then on my next machine I had to use windows and just last year I came back to ubuntu.

Now, it's been a few years since then... it's still an issue or it it safe to upgrade directly?

Thanks

user535733 avatar
cn flag
There is no tested, supported upgrade path directly from 20.04 to 21.04. Use the 21.04 installer's option to overwrite (not format-and-reinstall). Of course, Ubuntu 21.10 will be released *next week*.
Nmath avatar
ng flag
Considering there is no longer a supported upgrade path from 20.04 to 21.04, I'd suggest a clean installation.
crip659 avatar
pl flag
21.04 and 21.10 are only supported for 9 months. 20.04 is supported for five years. Just something to think about.
kurokirasama avatar
us flag
thanks a lot for your comments!
guiverc avatar
cn flag
In theory yes it is safe (automatic testing occurs on all upgrade *supported* upgrade paths but major focus is made on 20.04 to 20.10 (ie next release) & will occur on 20.04 to 22.04.1 (in the future). Yes a minor test is one LTS (eg. 20.04 to 21.04) but that will receive less testing as it's outside the intended paths ... so yes it's possible & should work; but problems are more likely than 20.04->20.10 ot 20.04->22.04.
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
Direct upgrade is possible. But you should know that you will loose LTS support of 5 (really 4) years of support. I'll recommend to stay on LTS.
guiverc avatar
cn flag
Assuming you're talking about a desktop install, a faster approach, and my backup if I have issues with *release-upgrade* (*my goto if I'm time-limited too*) is to *upgrade via re-install* which is just a install without format. Your installed packages are noted; system directories erased; system installed & if internet is there the additional packages you had installed are added back (if available for new release in Ubuntu repositories). No user file is touched unless you formatted - the lack of format triggers this install.
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