Upgrade from Ubuntu 11.10 to 14.04 [duplicate]

Question

I'm still running Ubuntu 11.10. Can I upgrade to 14.04 directly from 11.10, or is there a certain upgrade-path one needs to follow? Also, is 14.04 stable enough, or is it better to stick to an earlier version for now?

Answer 1

Hi & Welcome to AskUbuntu,

Looking at your current version (which is 11.10), you cannot easily upgrade your system to the latest 14.04 directly at once. Refer to Upgrade Notes listed under Ubuntu wiki which explains everything about the process.

Well, before you do anything relating to update/upgrade, make sure you've backed-up important stuffs & your update manager core is up-to-date.

• If you're trying to achieve this using the internet, then you will need to upgrade to 12.04 (LTS) release & then upgrade it to the latest 14.04 (LTS) release.
• If you want to achieve this with a latest iSO downloades, then simply back-up your necessary DATA(s) and then do a fresh installwhich would indeed save more time. It saves you from arising issues that you will have to face after upgrading since its from an older version to the latest version.

So to summarize, your best bet over the internet is from 11.10 -> 12.04 (LTS) -> 14.04 (LTS) or to simply download a fresh copy of 14.04 (LTS) & get it installed. There are plenty of Q & A's discussing similar issues. Though the question are older and explains about older version, I'd still suggest you to go through "Can I skip over releases when upgrading?" & "How do I upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu?" for more understanding on upgrading.

LTS stands for Long-Term Support. The term itself explains you the stability of the system. And Ubuntu will keep on releasing necessary patches, updates frequently to make the system more stable that you don't need to worry about.

Hope it helps!