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How do I upgrade to the unreleased version of Ubuntu for testing?

Jorge Castro
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dasen
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    In my opinion you should re-install if you want to use a beta. And it is a lot quicker than upgrading (plus you can still keep your old files). – Rinzwind Mar 20 '14 at 09:00
  • @datanela please, this question is a generic "how I can upgrade" don't use version specific tags for non-hardware related questions! – Braiam Mar 20 '14 at 23:24
  • From LTS to LTS it's always possible to upgrade, but only after there's a point release, I don't recommend you to upgrade to beta yet. – Braiam Mar 20 '14 at 23:25
  • @LuísdeSousa that is not what he's asking, he's asking if he can upgrade from a LTS to LTS. – Braiam Mar 20 '14 at 23:26
  • ^^ this is the right way – Jorge Castro Mar 20 '14 at 23:27

5 Answers5

87

The truly command line way is (e.g. if you don't have a gui):

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

where -d means update to a development version

do-release-upgrade [options]

DESCRIPTION

   Upgrade  the  operating system to the latest release from the command-line.
   This is the preferred command if the machine has no graphic environment
   or if the machine is to be upgraded over a remote connection.

OPTIONS

   -h, --help
          show help message and exit

   -d, --devel-release
          Check if upgrading to the latest devel release is possible
Sylvain Pineau
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jarondl
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    This works for me (Kubuntu) while update-manager does not (not present). – sje397 May 02 '11 at 00:00
  • Checking for a new Ubuntu release Get:1 Upgrade tool signature [198 B]
    Get:2 Upgrade tool [1,148 kB]
    Fetched 1,148 kB in 6s (58.3 kB/s)
    authenticate 'trusty.tar.gz' against 'trusty.tar.gz.gpg' extracting 'trusty.tar.gz' Can not run the upgrade This usually is caused by a system where /tmp is mounted noexec. Please remount without noexec and run the upgrade again.     – Adithya Chakilam May 03 '14 at 05:20
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    Editing /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades to prompt=normal will let you get non-LTS releases that should be more stable than the latest devel release. – syvex Feb 17 '16 at 21:36
  • This solution does not work for me, it tells me that there is no new release. –  Sep 03 '16 at 19:12
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    As syvex mentions, edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and change prompt=lts to prompt=normal otherwise the dev release will not be offered. This should be added to the answer... – Cas Dec 20 '16 at 17:03
  • @Cas I was on ubuntu 18.10 beta, now fully upgraded but still showing development version ? So when I run the command, it gives me Upgrades to the development release are only available from the latest supported release Some is package is responsible telling whether it is beta or released version.which one ? lsb-release is fully upgraded. – Khurshid Alam Nov 03 '18 at 11:05
58

Press Alt + F2 and type update-manager -d. On the top of the window you will see an info of the new Ubuntu+1 "release".

enter image description here

However, upgrading to a development release is not recommended, as it is a unstable release.

See this question for tips when you have problems: There's an issue with an Alpha/Beta Release of Ubuntu, what should I do?

Community
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Praweł
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    This won't work if you don't have the software-sources correctly configured. – Lucio Aug 09 '13 at 05:00
  • This solution does not work for me. It just tells me that there is no new release to upgrade to. –  Sep 03 '16 at 19:17
29

There are two ways to upgrade:

  • Upgrade using update-manager
  • Upgrade using alternate cd

However note it is not recommended to upgrade it to Ubuntu+1, since it is not stable.

Upgrade using update-manager:

Press Alt+F2 and then type update-manager -d. When update manager appears then click on upgrade.

alt text

Upgrade using alternate cd:

You can also upgrade using the alternate cd. After downloading the latest build then press Alt+F2 and enter gksu /cdrom/cdromupgrade.

Because it is a development release, you will almost certainly have problems. See: There's an issue with an Alpha Release of Ubuntu, what should I do?

Community
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karthick87
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19

From 11.04 onwards,when you boot the LiveCD and start installing there will be an option to upgrade.

It will automatically detect installed Apps and install the updated version of your Apps.

live CD : Allocate drive space

Source

Lincity
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6

you can always download the upcoming Ubuntu release ISO file at

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

The link is perpetual ... its always pointing to the follow-on release

After you download the ISO file then burn onto a USB using unetbootin at https://unetbootin.github.io/ and boot off this USB stick (or burn ISO onto a DVD)

instructions on how to burn ISO file onto USB memory stick : 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gezakovacs/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unetbootin

plug in your USB memory stick - formatted for FAT

sudo unetbootin  #  then choose ISO and pick local ISO file

now pick Diskimage (not Distribution) and pull up the ISO file you just downloaded

To boot up from this USB stick may require you to hit ESC key on a reboot to get into your BIOS settings to have it boot from the USB instead of normal SSD/harddrive

Once booted launch the Upgrade application which gives you options like install new OS along side existing OS

Alternatively to perform an upgrade in place issue these after you backup critical documents

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt install update-manager-core;

then make this edit

vi /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

Prompt=normal     # to allow upgrade to next available
# Prompt=lts      # <-- to go from current LTS to next one ... say 16.04 to 18.04 

sudo do-release-upgrade -d
Scott Stensland
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