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Upgrade 20.10 to 21.04 - hangs on ramdisk

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Rick James

I Upgrade 20.10 to 21.04 from a running system. The upgrade seemed to go OK. It complained about PHP's config file -- This was reasonable since I had made some changes. Etc.

Finally, it rebooted, but never came back to life. Various attempts to boot include:

F2 Enter Setup: Big menu; everything looked OK. Then

         GNU GRUB version 2.04
*Ubuntu
 Advanced options for Ubuntu
 UEFI firmware settings

The UEFI option just leads back to the logo screen. Either of the first two options leads to several pairs of these (with diff numbers for xx and yy):

Ubuntu, with Linux 5.xx.0.yy-generic
Ubuntu, with Linux 5.xx.0.yy-generic (recovery mode)

"e" leads to a config file headed with

setparams "advanced option for Ubuntu"

From there I can get to a "grub >" prompt. (But I have no idea what to do then.)

Any of the Ubuntu lines leads to a screen like

Loading linux 5.11.0-41-generic ...
Loadng initial ramdisk ...

Then it sits there for many minutes (until I give up). (I'm used to the entire boot taking a minute or so.)

Based on numerous forum tips, I built a Live USB ISO. Then discovered nothing "wrong":

  • I used fsck to check each filesystem -- no changes needed
  • All files seemed to be intact.

The filesystems (none are even close to full):

nvme0n1p1 - /boot/EFI    285MB EFI partition  (EFI system)
nvme0n1p2 - /boot   2.3G   (Linux filesystem)
nvme0n1p3 - /   1.8T    (rootmou partition)

F10 Enter boot menu:

(multiple ethernet options)
OS on hard drive (Samsung...2TB)
ubuntu (Samsung...2TB)

I picked only the last one; (I don't think there is another "OS on hard drive".)

Any suggestions of what to try next?

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Zeiss Ikon avatar
cn flag
Zeiss Ikon
Given 21.04 loses support this month, you should probably consider fresh installing 21.10 instead.
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
Does this answer your question? [How to install software or upgrade from an old unsupported release?](https://askubuntu.com/questions/91815/how-to-install-software-or-upgrade-from-an-old-unsupported-release)
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
In addition to the comment from @Zeiss, Ubuntu 20.10 is already past EOL and that means that there is no longer a supported upgrade path. Standard releases come out every 6 months and are supported for 9 months. If you can not or will not keep up with the release cadence and upgrade every 6-9 months, perhaps you should install a LTS release-- they come out every 2 years and are supported for 5 years. Remember that in order for the upgrade to be supported, that you must upgrade *before* the EOL date.
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um flag
Rick James
@Nmath - Thanks. I have been using Ubuntu for 2 years, but am still trying to understand the release cycle. I wonder if there is a Ubuntu page that lists what you said (and other info). I seem to be burned by not understanding the cycles.
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
For Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop (including all [flavours](https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours)), there are only two types of releases: Standard Releases and LTS (Long Term Support) release. Standard releases come out every 6 months and are supported for 9 months from the release date. LTS releases come out every 2 years and are supported for 5 years for Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server and 3 years for other flavours. See: https://askubuntu.com/q/16366 | also https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases | and https://ubuntu.com/blog/what-is-an-ubuntu-lts-release
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
Personally, I always use LTS releases because they are less experimental. Standard releases include newer versions of software at the expense that sometimes there might be bugs. Also, having to upgrade releases every 6-9 months is not something I particularly enjoy doing. Standard releases also can support brand new hardware, since they are released more often. But even when you are using a LTS release, if for some reason you need support for newer hardware, you can switch from the GA kernel to the HWE kernel which is a newer kernel version for LTS releases for exactly that purpose.
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um flag
Rick James
@Nmath - Since my system is unusable, should I go for an old 20.04 LTS, 21.10? I don't want to wait for 22.04 LTS. And do it from a USB-Live? I hope to not have to reformat the disk. I don't think I need to move any partitions around, simply "install" the replacement Ubuntu in "/"?
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
If it were me I'd go with 20.04. There's an "Erase Disk and Install..." guided option but if you are comfortable with manually partitioning, you can use your existing partition scheme. If your current system is broken though, I'd suggest the Erase Disk option and start with a clean slate. In either case, make sure that all of your important data is backed up somewhere else. Installing operating systems and making changes to partition tables can/will cause data loss depending on the target drives and partitions.
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