How to Upgrade Ubuntu 20.04 to Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

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Ubuntu 22.04 LTS code-named "Jammy Jellyfish" release is just around the corner, 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 20.04 system.
• Stable internet connection.

We will update our existing Ubuntu 20.04 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=20.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS"

Upgrade Ubuntu 20.04

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First, we update our existing Ubuntu 20.04 installation with the latest available packages for it with the following commands

apt update
apt upgrade

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

This command checks for a new development release and rewrites your system’s apt list to point to jammy development branches.

do-release-upgrade

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

At the time of creating this article, Ubuntu 22.04 was still in development version so we used the -d option to force the upgrade. By the time you're upgrading, you need not use the development option.

Output:

root@vps:~# do-release-upgrade -d
Checking for a new Ubuntu release

= Welcome to the Ubuntu 'Jammy Jellyfish' development release =

''This release is still in development.''

Thanks for your interest in this development release of Ubuntu.
The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the
absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to
offer. This development release brings you a taste of the newest features
for the next version of Ubuntu.

== Testing ==

Please help to test this development snapshot and report problems back to the
developers.  For more information about testing Ubuntu, please read:

  http://www.ubuntu.com/testing

== Reporting Bugs ==

This development release of Ubuntu contains bugs. If you want to help
out with bugs, the Bug Squad is always looking for help. Please read the
following information about reporting bugs:

  http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

Then report bugs using apport in Ubuntu.  For example:

  ubuntu-bug linux

will open a bug report in Launchpad regarding the Linux package. 
Your comments, bug reports, patches, and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve
future releases.

Next, you will be prompted to reboot the server.

reboot

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

Press y to confirm the upgrade.

Select Yes and continue.

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 Jammy Jellyfish (development branch)
Release:        22.04
Codename:       jammy

This concludes the article for upgrading the Ubuntu to the latest available version, 22.04.