2 Ways to Upgrade Ubuntu 18.04/19.04 To Ubuntu 19.10 (GUI & Terminal)

Ubuntu 19.10, codenamed Eoan Ermine, will be released on October 17, 2019. This tutorial is going to you 2 ways to upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 19.04 to 19.10. The first method uses the graphical update manger and the second method uses command line. Usually you use the graphical update manager to upgrade Ubuntu desktop and use command line to upgrade Ubuntu server, but the command-line method works for desktops too.

Ubuntu 18.04 is a long term support (LTS) release, which will be supported for 10 years. Ubuntu 19.10 is a non-LTS release, which means it will be supported for 9 months only, until July 2020. If you prefer stability over bleeding edge, then stick with Ubuntu 18.04, but if you are the other way around, you can follow this tutorial to upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 to 19.10.

Ubuntu 19.04 will reach end of life in January 2020, so I recommend 19.04 users upgrade to Ubuntu 19.10 ASAP.

Ubuntu 19.10 New Features

• The proprietary Nvidia driver is included in the ISO image.
• The OS installer now supports ZFS file system.
• Faster boot speed thanks to the LZ4 compression.
• Linux Kernel 5.3
• GNOME 3.34

Note:  Before doing the upgrade, you can use the systemback program to create a bootable ISO image from your current OS. If the upgrade fails, you can easily restore your OS with the bootable ISO. Everything on your OS including software and files will be intact.  If you are using a laptop, please connect your power source.

Upgrade Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04 to Ubuntu 19.10 with the Graphical Update Manager

First of all, open software updater (aka update manager) from your application menu. It will update software package information. If there’s updates available, click the Install Now button and enter your password to install updates.

If a new version of Linux kernel is installed, then the update manager will tell you to restart your computer. Click Restart Now.

Then open Software & Updates from your application menu.

Select the Updates tab. At the bottom of window, change notification settings from For long-term support version to For any new version. You will be asked to enter your password for the change to take effect.

Close the Software & Updates window. Then open up a terminal window and issue the following command.

update-manager

If you are using Ubuntu 19.04, you will be notified that software is up-to-date and Ubuntu 19.10 is now available. Click the Upgrade button.

If you are using Ubuntu 18.04, you will be notified that software is up-to-date and Ubuntu 19.04 is now available. Click the Upgrade button. (You need to upgrade to Ubuntu 19.04 first, then upgrade to Ubuntu 19.10).

Hint: If you prefer to upgrade 18.04 directly to 19.10, read this article: upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 to Ubuntu 19.10 directly from command line.

Next, enter your password. The release notes window appears. Click Upgrade.

The distribution upgrade window will open up. If you are notified that some third-party sources are disabled, accept it. You can re-enable them after the upgrade is finished.

In a few moments, you will be asked if you want to start the upgrade. Click the Start Upgrade button.

Wait for the upgrade process to finish. The update manager may ask you if you want to restart services during packages upgrade without asking. Tick it on and click Next button.

After new versions of packages are installed, the update manager may ask you if you want to remove obsolete packages. I always select Remove.

Obsolete packages are software packages whose name can’t be found in the software repository of the new Ubuntu release. The cause of obsolete packages are the following:

• The upstream developer stop maintaining this package and there are no other person willing to take over. So the Ubuntu package maintainer decides to drop this package from the Ubuntu repository.
• The package become a orphan package, which means there’s no other package that depends on it and there is very few users of this package. So the Ubuntu package maintainer decides to drop this package from the Ubuntu repository.
• The package has a new name in the software repository of the new Ubuntu release.

After obsolete packages is removed from your system. Restart your computer and check your Ubuntu version with the following command.

lsb_release -a

Output:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 19.10
Release:	19.10
Codename:	eoan

Upgrade Ubuntu 18.04/19.04 to Ubuntu 19.10 Using Command Line

You can use command line to upgrade Ubuntu desktop or a headless server. If you use SSH to log into your Ubuntu server, it’s a good idea to keep your OpenSSH session alive by adding the following line in /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on your server.

ClientAliveInterval 60

Save and close the file. Then restart SSH daemon.

sudo systemctl restart ssh

To upgrade to Ubuntu 19.10, run the following command to upgrade existing software. (Please note that if a new kernel is installed while running the following command, you need to reboot system in order to continue the upgrade process.)

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

Then make sure you have update-manager-core package installed.

sudo apt install update-manager-core

Next, edit a configuration file using nano or your preferred command line text editor.

sudo nano /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

At the bottom of this file, change the value of Prompt from lts to normal.

Prompt=normal

To save a file in Nano text editor, press Ctrl+O, then press Enter to confirm. To exit, press Ctrl+X.

Next, run the following command to begin the upgrade process.

do-release-upgrade

If you are using Ubuntu 19.04, then follow the on-screen instruction to upgrade to Ubuntu 19.10.

If you are using Ubuntu 18.04, then follow the on-screen instruction to upgrade to Ubuntu 19.04 first. After that, follow the same steps to upgrade to Ubuntu 19.10.

Hint: If you prefer to upgrade 18.04 directly to 19.10, read this article: upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 to Ubuntu 19.10 directly from command line.

Once the upgrade is finished, reboot your Ubuntu desktop or server. To check your Ubuntu version, run:

lsb_release -a

Output:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 19.10
Release:	19.10
Codename:	eoan

Should You Use the -d Option?

The update-manager and do-release-upgrade command come with a -d option, which will cause the system to upgrade to a development release.

Currently, Ubuntu 19.10 is still considered a development release in Ubuntu release cadence, because development of Ubuntu 20.04 isn’t started yet. It will happen one week after the release of Ubuntu 19.10 and we can use the -d option before that happens. When Ubuntu 20.04 enters development, you should not use the -d option.

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial helped you upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 or Ubuntu 19.04 to Ubuntu 19.10 As always, if you found this post useful, then subscribe to our free newsletter to get new tips and tricks 🙂