Upgrading from Ubuntu 12.10 to 14.04 LTS

Question

Can (and how does) one upgrade from Ubuntu 12.10 (now EOL) to 14.04 LTS?

I've found contradictory info about this online, some suggesting an intermediate upgrade to 13.10, while others suggest a direct upgrade to 14.04.

What would be the best procedure?

I would suggest trying superuser instead of stackoverflow for these sorts of questions. — Adam Houldsworth, Apr 25 '14 at 06:57
@PeterHorvath Even better, there are so many of these sites these days that I forget what's out there. — Adam Houldsworth, Apr 25 '14 at 07:38
@AdamHouldsworth I think a much better solution were a migration as a holding. If you can help to do that, please do that... — peterh, Apr 25 '14 at 08:31

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

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According to a top question on Ask Ubuntu, Ubuntu only supports upgrading from one version to the next version, or from one LTS version to the next LTS version.

Because 12.10 isn't an LTS (long term support) version, the only way you can upgrade is 12.10 -> 13.04 -> 13.10 -> 14.04 LTS. Therefore, you need two intermediate versions.

However, with a little bit of Linux experience, any way of upgrading/downgrading between different dpkg-based systems is possible and can be done relative easily. Even an Ubuntu to Debian conversion or suchlike isn't really hard with some well directed apt-get install commands, but these are untested.

The paths supported by Ubuntu are better only because they are well tested. This is because it is of significant importance that an upgrade must be able to happen seamlessly and without any pain even for inexperienced users.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

Community

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answered Apr 25 '14 at 06:58

peterh

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Peter, thank you. The issue with the progressive upgrades is that 13.04 is now EOL, and I gather that would impede the upgrade process. Correct? – user2331291 Apr 25 '14 at 07:16
@user2331291 No. EOL only means that there are no more bugfixes/upgrade for that. But you can still install newer and newer packages from them, and this is what you do on an upgrade (install any package which can be upgraded from the package repository of the new release). – peterh Apr 25 '14 at 07:20
@user2331291 If you are satisfied with an answer, you can accept and upvote that :-) – peterh Apr 25 '14 at 07:41
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I had this exact issue, and found the solution here http://askubuntu.com/a/91821/107952 – Jeff Sheffield Oct 27 '14 at 21:05

Upgrading from Ubuntu 12.10 to 14.04 LTS

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