How upgrade Ubuntu 20.10 after its EOL?

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 20.10 groovy for my Desktop. Unfortunately its end of life has exceed.

According to EOLUpgrade guide sources.list is becomes:

deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ groovy main restricted universe multiverse 
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ groovy-updates main restricted universe multiverse 
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ groovy-security main restricted universe multiverse

I got this log after running apt update:

~ sudo apt-get update                   
[sudo] password for farhad: 
Hit:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/atareao/atareao/ubuntu groovy InRelease                                                                                                           
Hit:2 ***                                                                                           
Ign:3 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy InRelease                                                               
Hit:4 ***                                                        
Ign:5 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-updates InRelease                                                 
Hit:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net/atareao/atareao/ubuntu focal InRelease
Ign:7 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-security InRelease                          
Hit:8 ***                                
Err:9 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy Release                                     
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.91.124 80]
Hit:10 http://ppa.launchpad.net/audio-recorder/ppa/ubuntu groovy InRelease
Err:11 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-updates Release      
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.91.124 80]
Err:12 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-security Release     
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.91.124 80]
Hit:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu groovy InRelease
Hit:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/beta/ubuntu groovy InRelease
Hit:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/ppa/ubuntu groovy InRelease
Hit:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/ppa/ubuntu focal InRelease
Reading package lists... Done                      '
E: The repository 'http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: The repository 'http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-updates Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: The repository 'http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-security Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

It seems something is wrong in http://old-releases.ubuntu.com.

What should I do to upgrade my Ubuntu 20.10 now?

P.S: *** repositories were third-party and were truncated here.

Is there a reason you can not just do a fresh install of a current version? — David, Sep 01 '21 at 06:28
@David I have a lot of Apps and SDKs. With fresh install all of them would be delete and download again. — beigirad, Sep 01 '21 at 06:31
I personally would likely upgrade via re-install. You haven't said if desktop or server is involved; as a re-install (no format) only erases system directories after your manually-installed-packages were noted; being no desktop config file should be touched (they are stored in $HOME which isn't touched unless you format; only some server apps store conf files in system directories), and manually installed packages (listed before erase of system directories) get re-installed as the final step for this type of install. It's not tested with 3rd party apps though — guiverc, Sep 01 '21 at 06:34

score 35 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 08 '22 at 12:57

This can be done without reinstalling or modding your sources.list. I was able to upgrade from 20.10 -> 21.04 -> 21.10.

If running sudo do-release-upgrade fails like so

Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

then you will need to remove apt's cache (broken links) before sudo apt upgrade will succeed.

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

Nevertheless the sudo do-release-upgrade command will still fail since it doesn't have a direct path to 21.10 anymore

An upgrade from 'groovy' to 'impish' is not supported with this tool.

so you can use this workaround and upgrade to 21.04 first.

wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hirsute-updates/main/dist-upgrader-all/current/hirsute.tar.gz
mkdir upgrader
tar -xaf hirsute.tar.gz -C upgrader
cd upgrader
sudo ./hirsute

Reboot into 21.04 and apt update should be working like normal but you might as well upgrade to 21.10 to stay ahead of this problem.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo do-release-upgrade

This is a good reason to stick with LTS once 22.04 is released in April.

These steps worked for me. Thank you! – carlosrberto Feb 20 '22 at 21:02 — carlosrberto, Feb 20 '22 at 21:02
Thanks, it should be the accepted answer! – Mohammad Javad Feb 24 '22 at 01:10 — Mohammad Javad, Feb 24 '22 at 01:10
YOU ARE AWESOME SIR – Michael Paccione Apr 06 '22 at 00:22 — Michael Paccione, Apr 06 '22 at 00:22

N0rbert · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-01T06:46:13.927

17

By some reason http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/ does not list groovy (20.10), while really it is EOL since July 22, 2021.

So you have to change old-releases back to archive in the sources.list:

sudo sed -i "s/old-releases/archive/g" /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Running EOL version is dangerous and non-productive, so it is recommended to upgrade 20.10 (EOL) to 21.04 (actual, hirsute) by rebooting machine and running standard procedure like

sudo do-release-upgrade

or

update-manager -c

edited Sep 01 '21 at 06:46

answered Sep 01 '21 at 06:34

N0rbert

99,918

4

As 2022, the inverse works perfect: archive -> old-releases. Tk @N0rbert! – Tinmarino Feb 18 '22 at 21:08
And is you're like me, you need to remove the country prefix, so it's just old-releases, not us.old-releases. – bamnet Jul 07 '22 at 23:54

Dr-Bracket · Answer 3 · 2023-02-17T18:54:53.623

2023 Update: Now that 20.10 is EOL, you do need to modify your sources.list. Fortunately this is very easy.

Add these 3 lines to /etc/apt/sources.list with your favorite terminal editor (i.e. sudo nano):

deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ groovy main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ groovy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ groovy-security main restricted universe multiverse

Now, Run these commands you can continue with the update process. Note - I'm just copying these steps from hackengineer's post on this same page, since that worked great for me.

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

wget http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hirsute-updates/main/dist-upgrader-all/current/hirsute.tar.gz
mkdir upgrader
tar -xaf hirsute.tar.gz -C upgrader
cd upgrader
sudo ./hirsute

Reboot

sudo do-release-upgrade

This worked for me, thanks! – John Roper Feb 02 '23 at 02:04 — John Roper, Feb 02 '23 at 02:04
Upgraded from 20.10 to 22.04 successfully! – fguillen Feb 17 '23 at 10:35 — fguillen, Feb 17 '23 at 10:35

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 29 '22 at 08:22

2

Tried to apt update and upgrade EOL Groovy based unit.
Hints from N0rbert are good, however groovy is neither in http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/ nor in http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/. Tried also us.archive and local <countrycode>.archive .. groovy is gone.

Therefore apt update fails with errors as in original post.
And do-release-upgrade just keeps telling me to run do-release-upgrade as "Your Ubuntu release is not supported anymore."
Unexpected "Vicious circle" in update loop and 'issue' on mature OS like Ubuntu.

sudo sed -i "s/groovy/focal/g" /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.sources
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Above commands got me back to 20.04 Focal Fossa. Supported OS.
Now waiting for 22.04.?? Jammy Jellyfish based LTS.

answered Jan 29 '22 at 08:22

Tom Silver

31

4

Nope! Running the commands mentioned (1) will not downgrade your system to focal. (2) All the packages are still of Groovy release. (3) Your system will not throw any error while updating. (4) Your system won't get any upgrade! (5) You cannot upgrade to Jammy by using do-release-upgrade after running the above commands. (6) It will mess your repositories up! (7) Yout system is now a mess. (8) Reinstall. (9) Rest In Peace. – Error404 Jan 29 '22 at 08:30
1

That won't do much harm, given the mess the system already is (being a Groovy-based system and normal update paths being blocked). Ubuntu has become like Windows. Things just break, and instead of trying to find the root cause, it's better use of time to just restart from scratch. – huoneusto Jan 29 '22 at 12:10

Dariusz S · Answer 5 · 2022-12-14T19:01:36.207

0

Just add source https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/ubuntu-old-releases/ubuntu/ (or other like this) in every category in /etc/apt/sources.list and also left originals as is. Make full update and upgrade. In next step use normal upgrade procedure.

I did it today on RPI and everithing works perfect.

edited Dec 14 '22 at 19:01

answered Dec 14 '22 at 18:57

Dariusz S

1

How upgrade Ubuntu 20.10 after its EOL?

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