How to Upgrade Ubuntu to the Latest Version of it ?

In this post, we give the process and steps required to be done to upgrade your Ubuntu to latest version, so you can use all the latest features, bug fixes etc.

Note: The distribution upgrades comes with the risk of your system not booting if something goes wrong with the internet in between and Ubuntu not able to download complete upgrade packages, so make sure internet is available and your PC/Laptop doesn’t reboot in between without upgrade is successful.

Update Ubuntu package list

 $ sudo apt-get update

update is used to resynchronize the package index files from their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the location(s) specified in /etc/apt/sources.list. For example, when using a Debian archive, this command retrieves and scans the Packages.gz files, so that information about new and updated packages is available. An update should always be performed before an upgrade or dist-upgrade. Please be aware that the overall progress meter will be incorrect as the size of the package files cannot be known in advance.

Upgrade all installed packages in current Ubuntu distribution

 $ sudo apt-get upgrade

upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in /etc/apt/sources.list. Packages currently installed with new versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances are currently installed packages removed, or packages not already installed retrieved and installed. New versions of currently installed packages that cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package will be left at their current version. An update must be performed first so that apt-get knows that new versions of packages are available.

Upgrading all software’s in current Ubuntu distribution (smart way)

 $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

dist-upgrade in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of packages; apt-get has a “smart” conflict resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of less important ones if
necessary. The dist-upgrade command may therefore remove some packages. The /etc/apt/sources.list file contains a list of locations from which to retrieve desired package files. See also apt_preferences(5) for a mechanism for overriding the general settings for individual packages.