Upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 without reinstalling

If you are still using Ubuntu 17.xx or Ubuntu 16.04 and want to upgrade to the new version of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, let me tell you that they can do it without having to reinstall the system on their computers.

Since Ubuntu 16.04 is still supported until April 2021, while Ubuntu 17.10 is only supported until July 2018, with the update to this new version we will have support until 2023.

To make a correct update to the most current version, all you need is a good internet connection and nothing more.

This update process is really simple, the only problem that it could detect is the time it takes since it depends on your internet connection to download all the files to perform the update.

Una recommendation that I usually give is that, although this update process does not compromise your data, it is always good back up our files for any question. With a backup copy of your $ HOME folder and important configuration files, browser settings and what you consider important.

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04?

We have two methods To upgrade our system in a simple way, for those who prefer to do things with a graphical interface, we can do it as follows.

Before we start with the update methods it is extremely necessary that we make some adjustments in our team, for this we must go to "Software and Updates" which we will search from our applications menu.

And in the window that was opened, we must place us in the Updates tab, among the options it shows us in "Notify me of a new version of Ubuntu" here let's select the option which gives us like «Any new version" or also "long support versions".

We are only closing this sale and we can continue with the update.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 with the update manager

To carry out the update with the help of a wizard it is necessary that we have it installed, it generally comes by default, but in any case to be sure we simply must install it, it can be supported by the Ubuntu or Synaptic software center, they should only look for it as.

update-manager

Or if you prefer, you can do it from the terminal by executing the following command:

sudo apt install update-manager-core

Now before performing the update it is advisable to run these commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Now if you have installed the latest packages, just run the update manager with the following command:

sudo update-manager -d

This will open the Software Updater and lIt will notify the availability of Ubuntu 18.04, we will click on the "update" button.

After a few seconds, a Ubuntu Bionic Beaver release notes screen will open.

Here we must click on Update one more time to continue the update process. The distribution upgrade process will begin configuring new software channels for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Finally, click on "Start update" and the process of downloading and updating the system will begin, you just have to wait for it to finish if it asks you to restart the system.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS from terminal

Now this is the update process, we only have to type some commands and wait for all the files required for the update to be downloaded.

So to get started with our update to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS we must open a terminal and execute the package update commands:

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

It may take a while. If you ask them to restart they do it. Finished this now yes let's run the command to update to the new version, the command is this:

sudo do-release-upgrade

If when executing this command it shows the following legend:

Checking for a new Ubuntu release
No new release found.

We can add the following parameter to update the system:

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

They just have to wait for the process to finish and restart their computers at the end.