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I am following the blog How to upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS today but it seems I cannot:
hemal@hubuntu:~$ lsb_release -r
Release: 18.04
hemal@hubuntu:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade -d
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Upgrades to the development release are only
available from the latest supported release.
Software Updater prompts me if I want to upgrade to 19.10. Do I need to do that to upgrade to 20.4?
According to the release notes for 20.04, to upgrade from 18.04 one would need to type
update-manager -c -d
This gives the message saying that the system is up-to-date and at the same time gives you the option to upgrade to 20.04.
For further details check out the release notes on Upgrading from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or 19.10 - FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes - Ubuntu Wiki.
To directly answer your question, I would go to 19.10 then 20.04. There may be the direct path enabled now that some time has past but I am not sure.
I found this that may be helpful.. I tried "The Debian Way" to get my Ubuntu 19.04 to 19.10 so I could then upgrade to 20.04 following the upgrade path: https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-to-20-04-lts-focal-fossa
In my case I hadn't used this laptop in a while and it got out of date beyond how I can normally upgrade it.
First I replaced archive.ubuntu.com and security.ubuntu.com with old-releases.ubuntu.com then was able to get up updated as much as I could with software updater where the next issue begins.
sudo sed -i 's/archive/old-releases/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i 's/security/old-releases/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
Software Updater wants to go direct to 20.04 but the distribution updater won't actually do it. You have to be at 19.10 THEN upgrade to 20.04, but this late in the game thats not a straight-forward thing from what I have found.
I then replaced disco with eoan in the /etc/apt/sources.list file and put back archive.ubuntu.com and in the URLs.
sudo sed -i 's/disco/eoan/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i 's/old-releases/archive/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
(for other Linux builds you will need to use those build names. ALWAYS follow a supported upgrade path) I then ran
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
then reboot
Once back online open Terminal again and:
cat /etc/os-release
to verify it upgraded. This showed me it was successful.
This got me to 19.10 and now I am upgrading to 20.04 through the Software Updater running the Distribution Upgrade package. I hope this helps someone else.
I saw this question that was sort of unanswered but closed as a duplicate that was EXACTLY my issue but couldn't answer him because his question was closed.. Cannot upgrade from disco 19.04 to focal 20.04 after end of life using do-release-upgrade method
18.04 LTS users who wish to remain on the very safe LTS path needed to wait for the first point release 20.04.1 (so that they get 20.04 with all the bug fixes that inevitably follow a new release) - which was delayed until about 6th Aug 2020. They then need to wait a further time (usu. a few days) until it is decided to make 20.04.1 available to users of 18.04. Before that time the following happens rather than getting on with the upgrade:
sudo do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
There is no development version of an LTS available.
To upgrade to the latest non-LTS development release
set Prompt=normal in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.
I think it is best then to just wait (either for a graphical prompt, or via the above command line) rather than force an upgrade by any other means if (like me) you want to be almost certain that your system remains stable.
20.04.xxis released.sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get full-upgradethen again follow the ubuntu blog. I think it should work. I have recently updated from 18.04.3 to 20.04 LTS.