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I've been trying to upgrade my version of Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04. I've run all the steps from updating and upgrading both apt and apt-get, changing the settings in update manager and all of the steps described in this link. Yet I keep getting the error:

Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

Is there something special about trying to upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04 that's causing this error? Do I maybe need to update to 19.04 first?

EDIT: I just noticed something that might be important. When I run sudo apt-get update I get the following notice at the end of the output:

The following packages have been kept back:
  colord gimagereader python-sane sane simple-scan
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.

Might that be causing the issue?

ModalBro
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    The update from 18.04LTS to 20.04LTS won't happen until 20.04.1 is released. In the mean time, do sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. – heynnema Apr 26 '20 at 19:56
  • Will this get me to 19.04, (after running do-release-upgrade)? – ModalBro Apr 26 '20 at 21:24
  • I don't think so. Just wait until 20.04.1 is released. – heynnema Apr 26 '20 at 21:51
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    To deal with packages being kept back try sudo apt install -f to fix errors. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Apr 27 '20 at 00:30
  • @karel unfortunately not, when I try do-release-upgrade, I get the following error: Checking for a new Ubuntu release Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading. – ModalBro Apr 27 '20 at 02:07
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    The issue regarding kept back packages is one I recently ran into myself and reported in the Ubuntu bug tracker at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/1874927. It'd be helpful if you were to report a bug about ubuntu-release-upgrader using 'ubuntu-bug ubuntu-release-upgrader' so that I can have a look at your log files and try and sort out why those packages are kept back. Thanks! – Brian Murray May 07 '20 at 18:23
  • You can see the list of packages that can still be upgraded by sudo apt list --upgradable Then if the list looks good, upgrade by sudo apt dist-upgrade -y – zdave Dec 11 '21 at 23:12

12 Answers12

35

I was also experiencing the same issue. However, when I ran the usual upgrade commands (sudo apt upgrade, sudo apt full-upgrade, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade), they were all reporting that there are no packages to upgrade and no held packages:

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

In the end, I copied the file /usr/bin/do-release-upgrade to my home and modified it as follows:

for pkg in upgradable:
    if 'Phased-Update-Percentage' in pkg.candidate.record:
        # P-U-P does not exist if it is fully phased
        continue
    else:
        install_count += 1
        print(pkg)   # <--- ADD THIS LINE
        # one upgradeable package is enough to stop the dist-upgrade
        # break      # <--- COMMENT THIS LINE OUT to get all packages

This change will print the names of all packages that need to be upgraded.

When I ran sudo ~/do-release-upgrade, a package from an external repository was printed that had an update available, but the newer version depended on a library that was not available, which caused the package to not upgrade.

Still not sure why it wasn't reported as not upgraded by apt upgrade.

Edit: The following code snippet can be run in the Python console to list all upgradeable packages - thanks @jferard!

import apt

cache = apt.Cache()
cache.open()
print([pkg for pkg in cache if pkg.is_upgradable])
piit79
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24

sequence from 18.04 to 20.04

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
sudo do-release-upgrade -d -f DistUpgradeViewGtk3

Follow onscreen instruction. Good luck!

SlyTom
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    Still unable to install updated version – Amit Dwivedi Oct 23 '20 at 05:31
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    This didn't work for me either. – Brian Piercy Nov 10 '20 at 20:35
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    This didn't work for me as it relates to a specific package that is not being upgraded. See my answer below for a generic solution. – piit79 Dec 17 '20 at 09:16
  • I came here via https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-on-wsl-2-is-generally-available. The "Good luck!" is so Linux-indicative. Thanks, the list works (minus the -f ... on my side) –  Mar 10 '21 at 22:54
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    I think it was the sudo apt dist-upgrade part that resolved it for me, what does that actually do that apt update, apt upgrade, apt autoremove does not cover? – Jarl Mar 17 '21 at 07:29
  • To me sudo apt dist-upgrade and sudo apt autoremove, followed by reboot fixed the issue. – marw Jan 14 '23 at 13:48
7

The problem is your repo is not updated, so you need to remove these five repos: colord gimagereader python-sane sane simple-scan

Do sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:<ppa to remove> or edit /etc/apt/sources.list to remove all of these repos.

Then you can run update-manager

Daniel Borsato
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6

just removed wine through sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove winehq-stable and it worked for me after reusing sudo do-release-upgrade

Abdulaziz Al Jumaia
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5

First in your terminal:

sudo apt dist-upgrade

Then you will get

The following packages have been kept back:

mongodb-org mongodb-org-mongos mongodb-org-server mongodb-org-shell mongodb-org-tools


0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.

All you have to do is to use

sudo apt install < Packages Names >

The result will be like:

sudo apt install mongodb-org mongodb-org-mongos mongodb-org-server mongodb-org-tools

Finally, go with:

sudo do-release-upgrade
Mohamed Adel
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2

Real example with solution (sorry for russian output examples, will translate it as soon as I can):

$ sudo do-release-upgrade -d
...
Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

$ sudo apt install
Чтение списков пакетов… Готово
Построение дерева зависимостей

Чтение информации о состоянии… Готово
Обновлено 0 пакетов, установлено 0 новых пакетов, для удаления отмечено 0 пакетов, и 2 пакетов не обновлено. 
// ... 2 packages are not updated


$ apt list --upgradable
Вывод списка… Готово # list output... Done
wine-stable-amd64/bionic 6.0.0~bionic-1 amd64 [может быть обновлён с: 4.0.1~bionic]
wine-stable-i386/bionic 6.0.0~bionic-1 i386 [может быть обновлён с: 4.0.1~bionic]

The last command showed me what packages are not updated. In my case I removed the packages (it was trash after experiments), then I ran sudo do-release-upgrade -d again. There was no problem, update started.

Данила Икрянников
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1

You have to update your current version with the latest patches / updates. Run:

  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt upgrade

Then force the upgrade to 20.04 by running:

  • sudo update-manager -d

Until first point release of 20.04 ... 20.04.1 ... upgrade will not be presented automatically. Until then the -d option is needed.

As @heynnema writes below -d means "development version". Right now there are no development version for next ubuntu (20.10). Since upgrading from 18.04 or 19,10 to 20.10, you should get a warning about that. If this happens, let go of -d and try without it.

Soren A
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  • Doesn't -d get the development version? – heynnema Apr 26 '20 at 21:51
  • @heynnema, at least for now there are no 20.10 development version, so -d do no harm. – Soren A Apr 26 '20 at 23:58
  • The OP states that he went through the standard steps. The issue is most likely the presence of third-party package repositories. Simply unchecking their boxes in the update-manager (and then letting it update its caches) will probably be enough. I just did this myself. – Arnaud Meuret Jul 27 '20 at 03:51
1

As posted here

Just remove all the content of /var/lib/apt/lists directory:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

then follow here:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Reboot the Ubuntu Linux system by tying the following command:

sudo reboot

Install the Ubuntu update tool, run:

sudo apt install update-manager-core

Start the upgrade procedure, run:

sudo do-release-upgrade

Reboot the box, run:

sudo reboot

and I found this helpful, from here or here, to remove those pesky 'ERROR' messages during updates

sudo apt-get remove graphicsmagick

where graphicsmagick is the package/software no longer supported etc

rdfleay
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1

I had this issue on a Digital Ocean droplet recently, but apt update and apt *upgrade returned 404s when attempting to download things. Running sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* and then re-running sudo do-release-upgrade again got me going.

Leaving this here for anyone else that gets stuck.

Rich
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0

Go to Ubuntu Software Update and check any pending updates. Update them and you're done. Some updates do not execute using sudo apt-get update.

Ravexina
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patty1997
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0

You have to do sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade first.

Thomas Aichinger
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Lucas Masaba
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-1

First upgrade the packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

You will see a message similar to this:

The following packages have been kept back:
  mongodb-org-mongos mongodb-org-server mongodb-org-shell mongodb-org-tools
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded

Install the kept back packages manually.

sudo apt install package_name(s)

In my case it was:

sudo apt install mongodb-org-shell mongodb-org-tools

After this run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade again to ensure that everything is working fine.

karel
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ahmedkandil
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    If you wonder why you got a negative points - 1) you did not answer the original problem 2) you have an uncomplete command 3) you have a typo in the commandline 4) you advice to install a database tools, which hardly helps with upgrade to new LTS version. But dont be dissapointed, read better the question and pay more attention next time. – jaromrax Aug 04 '20 at 11:54