How to upgrade Ubuntu to 20.10 and kernel to 5.10
Sergey Sypalo Sypalo.com
2019-05-14
In this article, I will show you how to upgrade Ubuntu to 20.10 (latest) or 20.04 (LTS). As a bonus, we will also update the kernel to the latest mainline 5.11-rc3 or stable 5.10.6 or 5.9.16 (EOL), which contains following improvements:
- WireGuard Support
- New processor cooling driver
- USB4 support
- Amazon Echo Support
- Improved hardware support
- VirtualBox Folder Sharing
- F2FS data compression using LZO/LZ4
And here is a short list of what's new in Ubuntu 20.04:
- Best and fastest GNOME 3.36 desktop with dark theme support
- Improved support for 4K monitors and zoom
- New themes and visual settings
- Quick install, fast boot
- Global do not disturb
- Best Thunderbolt Support
- Best support for nVidia graphics cards
To perform Ubuntu upgrade to 20.10/20.04 you will need 2 hours to follow these steps:
Preparation
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Update packages listsudo apt-get update
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Upgrade packagessudo apt-get upgrade
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Install update-manager-core packagesudo apt-get install update-manager-core
Upgrade Ubuntu
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Upgrade distrosudo apt-get dist-upgrade
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Upgrade Ubuntu to the latest LTS release
It's recommended to upgrade your Ubuntu to the latest LTS (long term supported) release to avoid any issues with packages upgrade jumping on too new release compared to currently installed one.
Personally I've tested upgrade from 18.04 to 20.10 with little issues, but if you have 16.x or lower release please run the next command, otherwise if you are already on 18.04 or 20.04 and experienced Linux user you might skip this step and jump straight to 20.10 Groovy Gorilla releasesudo do-release-upgrade -
Change default branch from lts to normalsudo sed -i 's/lts/normal/g' /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades
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Change default distro from your current
18.04 - bionic
18.10 - cosmic
19.04 - disco
19.10 - eoan
20.04 - focal
20.10 - groovy
21.04 - hirsute (dev branch)
in the example below, we are upgrading from Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) to 20.10 (groovy)sudo sed -i 's/bionic/groovy/g' /etc/apt/sources.list -
Update packages listsudo apt-get update
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Upgrade packagessudo apt-get upgrade
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Run full upgradesudo apt-get dist-upgrade
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If any error re-runsudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -
Run cleanupsudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get clean -
Reboot the systemsudo shutdown -r now
Upgrade kernel
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Change current directory to /tmpcd /tmp
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Download the latest mainline kernel from 5.11.x branch
wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.11-rc3/amd64/linux-headers-5.11.0-051100rc3_5.11.0-051100rc3.202101102331_all.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.11-rc3/amd64/linux-headers-5.11.0-051100rc3-generic_5.11.0-051100rc3.202101102331_amd64.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.11-rc3/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.11.0-051100rc3-generic_5.11.0-051100rc3.202101102331_amd64.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.11-rc3/amd64/linux-modules-5.11.0-051100rc3-generic_5.11.0-051100rc3.202101102331_amd64.deb
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Download the latest stable kernel from 5.10.x branch
wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10.6/amd64/linux-headers-5.10.6-051006_5.10.6-051006.202101091334_all.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10.6/amd64/linux-headers-5.10.6-051006-generic_5.10.6-051006.202101091334_amd64.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10.6/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.10.6-051006-generic_5.10.6-051006.202101091334_amd64.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10.6/amd64/linux-modules-5.10.6-051006-generic_5.10.6-051006.202101091334_amd64.deb
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or older, announced EOL, from 5.9.x branch
wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9.16/amd64/linux-headers-5.9.16-050916_5.9.16-050916.202012211331_all.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9.16/amd64/linux-headers-5.9.16-050916-generic_5.9.16-050916.202012211331_amd64.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9.16/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.9.16-050916-generic_5.9.16-050916.202012211331_amd64.deb wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9.16/amd64/linux-modules-5.9.16-050916-generic_5.9.16-050916.202012211331_amd64.deb
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Install new kernelsudo dpkg -i *.deb
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Reboot the systemsudo shutdown -r now
Finishing up
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Update packages listsudo apt-get update
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Upgrade packagessudo apt-get upgrade
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Reboot the system if neededsudo shutdown -r now
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Check the OS distrolsb_release -a
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Check kernel versionuname -r
That's it, now you should be running on the latest best-looking Ubuntu 20.10 and most secure Linux Kernel.