How to Upgrade Ubuntu 22.10 to Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster

Ubuntu 23.04 code-named "Lunar lobster" has been released, This receives 5 years of security updates and support (until April 2027).

For those who want to upgrade their existing Ubuntu system to the latest, we shall see how this is done in this article.

Prerequisites

  • root access to the Ubuntu 22.10 system.
  • Stable internet connection.

Since you are upgrading to a new Ubuntu release, ensure to backup all your data first so that in case of any issues during the upgrade, your data is not lost.

We will update our existing Ubuntu 21.10 installation with the latest available packages for it with the following commands,

cat /etc/lsb-release

Output:

root@vps:~# cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=22.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=kinetic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 22.10"

Upgrade Ubuntu 21.10

First, we have to update our existing Ubuntu 21.10 installation with the latest available packages for it with the following commands

apt-get install ubuntu-release-upgrader-core

Output:

root@vps:~# apt-get install ubuntu-release-upgrader-core
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
ubuntu-release-upgrader-core is already the newest version (1:22.10.8).
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  amd64-microcode eatmydata libdbus-glib-1-2 libeatmydata1 libevdev2
  libupower-glib3 python-babel-localedata python3-babel python3-certifi
  python3-jinja2 python3-json-pointer python3-jsonpatch python3-jsonschema
  python3-markupsafe python3-pyrsistent python3-requests python3-tz
  python3-urllib3 thermald upower

Next, we need to set Prompt=normal in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades to check the release.

nano /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

And edit the line to,

Prompt=normal

Save and exit the file.

Next, we will start with upgrading to the new version.

This command checks for a new release, updating sources.

do-release-upgrade

NOTE: While running the command it'll prompt for several permissions.

Output:

root@vps:~# do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Your Ubuntu release is not supported anymore.
For upgrade information, please visit:
http://www.ubuntu.com/releaseendoflife
= Welcome to Ubuntu 23.04 'Lunar Lobster' =
The Ubuntu team is proud to announce Ubuntu 23.04 'Lunar Lobster'.
To see what's new in this release, visit:
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LunarLobster/ReleaseNotes
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast
and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent
applications installed by default, and almost any other software you
can imagine available through the network.

We hope you enjoy Ubuntu.

Select OK and continue.

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After a restart, log in and check the current Ubuntu version on your server by running the following command.

lsb_release -a

Output:

root@vps:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 23.04
Release:        23.04
Codename:       lunar

This concludes the article for upgrading the Ubuntu to the latest available version, 23.04.