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A lot of advice has been flying around today about upgrading from beta to 12.04 stable, and most people are simply saying they are the same, however; In my experience it appears that they are not the same:

This is run from my "beta" build of 12.04. 

$apt-get upgrade:
The following packages have been kept back:

 linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic


$ uname -a
Linux ****** 3.2.0-23-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 20:39:51 UTC 2012 x86_64  x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-headers-3.2.0-24 linux-headers-3.2.0-24-generic
  linux-image-3.2.0-24-generic
The following packages will be upgraded:
linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
3 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 50.5 MB of archives.
After this operation, 216 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

Are we sure it's the same? It really appears as though release has a new build of kernel (-24-) that beta can't install without upgrading

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1  
This is normal behaviour. Kernels are always held back and only installed with a dist-upgrade. When you run it, your install will be identical to a fresh one (except for packages you manually installed etc.) – jippie Apr 26 '12 at 20:12
Well, the question is whether this kernel upgrade is on the iso or not. apt-get didn't find this earlier today after the iso had been released. So it might be an upgrade that didn't make it in time. – Chan-Ho Suh Apr 26 '12 at 20:27
I was really just bringing this up for other people - many have been informed that simply running apt-get upgrade is sufficient, which it's not – Numpty Apr 26 '12 at 20:31
If you could join chat (click chat on the top of the page) and let me know where you're seeing this misinformation I'd like to correct it, thanks! – Jorge Castro Apr 26 '12 at 20:45

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

dist-upgrade is not an upgrade as you think it is. It handles the removal and addition of packages which apt-get upgrade doesn't. So if you run a sudo apt-get dist-upgrade on your 12.04 beta installation, all packages will be updated to the final 12.04 state. This is no different than running the updates once the final has been released.

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I'm aware of what dist-upgrade does, what I was saying is that it is in fact required to receive further kernel updates versus what people have been suggesting on the boards (re: apt-get upgrade = 12.04 release) – Numpty Apr 26 '12 at 20:29
1  
Please edit/fix where it says that apt-get upgrade = 12.04 release, that is incorrect, or flag the answer so other people can fix it. – Jorge Castro Apr 26 '12 at 20:42
Most of the threads are closed at this point unfortunately – Numpty Apr 26 '12 at 20:44
We can still fix them even if they're closed, ping me on chat and I'd be happy to remove them. – Jorge Castro Apr 26 '12 at 20:45
FYI, that kernel update is not on the ISO. I recall the last one was maybe a week or more ago. – Chan-Ho Suh Apr 26 '12 at 21:09
up vote 1 down vote

Once 12.04 is out the update manager will pop up complaining that a new version of Ubuntu was released and asking if you want to update

enter image description here

If you press that button it will be the same as typing apt-get dist-upgrade. A normal apt-get upgrade will not make system changes necessary to upgrade all the packages to its final release since it does not make system changes and does not remove packages on its own.

When people say that beta 2 is so close to the final release they mean the truth, the packages are so mature at the moment that not much will change. But you are still stuck in a beta. You need to either press that button or use apt-get dist-upgrade to move the packages to stable and failing to do so will prevent further important upgrades from being installed.

After you have done so, you will be running that stable system just as if you installed it right now and you will continue to receive the updates available for the final release.

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My understanding was that you would not get the notice from update-manager if you were already running 12.04. I assumed that would be the case because the updates to make your beta line up with the final release of 12.04 would be applied via normal update processing. No? – irrational John Apr 26 '12 at 20:21
1  
No, apt-get upgrade never installs packages that are system changes, ie: to move from alpha to beta 1 you need to do a dist-upgrade, from beta 1 to beta 2 you need to make a dist-upgrade. Some changes are so big that a normal upgrade wont do. I am not sure about the notice from the update manager, but I am sure that to get the kernel to stable and all the rest of the necessary system packages you need to do a dist-upgrade, else only current installed packages will be updated, nothing else. – Bruno Pereira♦ Apr 26 '12 at 20:27
Yes, I agree that apt-get upgrade does not install some updates such as new kernels. However, in your answer you appeared to be referring to update-manager since you included the image. My experience with update-manager has been that it is equivalent to apt-get dist-upgrade. I actually just used update-manager a few minutes ago to install the 3.2.0-24 kernel. – irrational John Apr 26 '12 at 20:36
Well, if there is necessary updates to the system then upgrade manager will complain that there are packages are that being kept back and that a partial upgrade is necessary, it will then make sure that the packages are upgraded as a dist-upgrade would and so on. Nothing wrong there, I agree with you that and apt-get upgrade is not enough. You need to force it with a dist-upgrade`if the update manager did not upgrade the packages by it self and there is no new release button available use dist-upgrade from the terminal. – Bruno Pereira♦ Apr 26 '12 at 20:43

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