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I suspect if I have a computer running an outdated version of Ubuntu, I need to download and install a new OS. I probably cannot just boot the old system and run software update. SW update can't update the kernel, etc. Am I right?

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    What version are you running now?
    – chaskes
    Mar 1, 2017 at 16:48

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Actually, it can.

When you run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade, it will install all updates for your version of Ubuntu, which include both software packages and kernel updates. So, for example, if you have Ubuntu 14.04, you may update your kernel to the latest 3.x version (get minor updates). But not to the 4.x (major update) version (though, actually there are methods to do that too).

If you want to get the newest updates, you may try to upgrade your Ubuntu version by typing: sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. But be careful with that.


If you have an Ubuntu version earlier than 12.04 LTS, you won't be able to get updates at all, except that you may actually do a release upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu. For example, if you have 10.04, you may update to 12.04, then to 14.04 and finally to 16.04. One major dist upgrade at a time.

Thanks to Zeiss for pointing this out in a comment.

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  • If you want both, and are using a standard desktop, you can run update-manager.
    – TRiG
    Mar 1, 2017 at 16:54
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    On the other hand, if the outdated version is EOL (like, say, 12.04, or even 10.04), all support has been discontinued and you will get no updates at all. You will get errors about repositories not found, of course, which ought to be a clue. To be clear, this answer is correct for versions still supported (at present, that's 14.04, 16.04, and 16.10 only), but other versions have no support, even for security updates.
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Mar 1, 2017 at 16:55

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