How to Upgrade from Ubuntu 24.04 to 26.04

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS officially dropped on April 23, 2026. The transition to 26.04 means benefiting from two full years of improvements, including everything added across three previous interim releases: Ubuntu 24.10, 25.04, and 25.10.

The changes go beyond the usual UI touches, such as new icons and apps. They include new software tools such as Rust-powered tools, support for advanced display features, APT improvements, and local AI development via NVIDIA’s CUDA and AMD’s ROCm, all available in the official repositories. Check out our article for more information about the latest features.

#Prerequisites

Here is what you need to follow along:

• An instance of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. You can quickly deploy a VPS on Cherry Servers with just a few clicks.

• An existing sudo user

• An SSH connection to the instance (For cloud/VPS servers or headless instances)

A backup of all your critical files. You can take advantage of the built-in rsync command or third-party tools like Back in Time, a graphical front-end for rsync, or Pika Backup for personal files.

#Upgrading from Ubuntu 24.04 to Ubuntu 26.04

Whether you're a seasoned Linux user or a relative newcomer, this guide walks you through everything you need to know to upgrade safely to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

#Step 1: Fully update your system

The first step is to ensure the current Ubuntu 24.04 LTS installation is fully updated before starting the release upgrade. Open a terminal and run the following command to update the package index.

sudo apt update

At the end of the output, you might see the number of packages with pending upgrades.

86 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them

To view them, run the command below as per the suggestion in the output.

apt list --upgradable

To upgrade the packages to their current versions, run:

sudo apt upgrade -y

At this point, the system should have no pending package updates. Remember to reboot your system to complete the upgrade.

sudo reboot

#Step 2: Back up PPAs and third-party repositories

Third-party repositories and Personal Package Archives (PPAs) are notorious for Ubuntu upgrade failures. They cause issues by creating dependency conflicts and lacking compatible versions for the new Ubuntu release. In addition, outdated GPG keys and expired SSL certificates in external repositories can cause the upgrade to crash.

With that in mind, it's recommended to back up or clean up the repositories and PPAs to ensure the upgrade goes smoothly.

In Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and beyond, default package repositories are defined in the ubuntu.sources file in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory instead of the /etc/apt/sources.list file. You can preview the file by running:

cat  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources

Third-party repositories are stored in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory. This is where you’ll typically find repositories for packages like Docker, Google Chrome, NodeSource, MongoDB, and Launchpad PPAs.

You can view the repositories by listing the contents of this directory.

ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

In my case, I have repositories for Docker, MongoDB, and NodeSource. Take note of the default ubuntu.sources file, which is also present in the directory as earlier stated.

Outputdocker.sources  mongodb-org-8.0.list  nodesource.sources  ubuntu.sources

If you’re unsure whether you’ll need a repo later, consider disabling instead of deleting it. To do so, simply rename it. For example, you can rename the above repositories as follows.

sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources.bak
sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-8.0.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-8.0.list.bak
sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesources.sources /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesources.sources.bak

In addition, ensure your system does not have any broken or missing package dependencies by running the command:

sudo apt --fix-broken install 

If any broken or missing dependencies are detected, the command will resolve them. Once everything is resolved, this is the output that will be displayed.

OutputReading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

#Step 3: Check for any held packages

Also, check for held packages. These are packages that have been "locked" to prevent upgrades, removals, or changes. While useful sometimes, they can block dependency resolution and cause upgrade failures, especially during a major Ubuntu upgrade.

To view held packages, run the following:

sudo apt-mark showhold

If no packages are held back from an upgrade, no output will be displayed. If there are held packages, they will be displayed. The output shown indicates that MongoDB and Elasticsearch have been held from the upgrade.

Outputelasticsearch
mongodb-org

To "unlock" or "unhold" them, run the command:

sudo apt-mark unhold elasticsearch mongodb-org

OutputCanceled hold on elasticsearch.
Canceled hold on mongodb-org.

You can then confirm if there are no held packages by once again running the command:

sudo apt-mark showhold

If none have been held back, no output will be displayed on the terminal.

Before upgrading, your system should ideally have:

• All software updates installed

• No held packages

• Official repositories working correctly

• No broken packages

Once the requirements have been met, you can safely proceed with the upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04.

#Step 4: Start the upgrade

To begin the upgrade, set the Prompt directive to lts in the /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades file. You can achieve this by running the sedcommand as shown.

sudo sed -i 's/Prompt=.*/Prompt=lts/' /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

Once done, start the upgrade by running the command:

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

The system will begin checking repositories and preparing the upgrade. Since the prompt directive was set to LTS, the upgrade will detect Ubuntu 26.04 as the latest LTS.

Because you have an active SSH session, you will receive a warning that your session may be interrupted and that it might be difficult to resume from where you left off. Fortunately, the upgrader opens up another SSH session on port 1022 as a contingency plan.

Just press 'Y' and ENTER.

The upgrade tool will thereafter calculate packages to be removed, installed, and upgraded. It will also give you a breakdown of the total download size of the packages and an estimate of the time taken.

Here’s a snippet of the output.

4 packages are going to be removed. 115 new packages are going to be
installed. 637 packages are going to be upgraded.

You have to download a total of 1308 M. This download will take about
4 minutes with a 40Mbit connection and about 34 minutes with a 5Mbit
connection.

To accept and continue, type 'Y' and hit ENTER.

The installer will commence the upgrade. New package lists and archives will be fetched from the updated repositories, and your system architecture will swap older core libraries and apps with newer, upgraded versions.

Depending on your internet connection and the installed packages on your system, the upgrade process may take anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour.

Towards the end, you will be required to remove obsolete packages.

Searching for obsolete software
Reading state information... Done

Remove obsolete packages?

65 packages are going to be removed.

Be sure to type 'Y' and hit ENTER.

Finally, you will be prompted to restart your system. Simply type 'Y' to reboot.

#Step 5: Accessing the newly upgraded system

Once the reboot completes, you will be able to log back in to your system; this time, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

To confirm the successful migration, run the following command:

lsb_release -a

OutputNo LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Release:        26.04
Codename:       resolute

You can also view the /etc/os-release file for more information.

cat  /etc/os-release

OutputPRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 26.04 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="26.04"
VERSION="26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon)"
VERSION_CODENAME=resolute
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=resolute
LOGO=ubuntu-logo

Verify the Kernel using the command:

uname  -r

Output7.0.0-15-generic

#Step 6: Post-installation tasks

Once you have successfully upgraded to Ubuntu 26.04, and everything looks okay, verify you have an active internet connection by pinging Google’s or Cloudflare’s DNS.

ping 8.8.8.8 -c 4 

You should get a positive ping reply, confirming internet access.

Output64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=111 time=9.800 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=111 time=8.440 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=111 time=10774 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=111 time=8.089 ms

Next, re-enable the third-party repositories and PPAs you backed up in Step 2. To do so, simply rename the files in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory back to their original file names:

sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources.bak /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources
sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-8.0.list.bak /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-8.0.list
sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesources.sources.bak /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesources.sources

Additionally, consider refreshing the package index. You can achieve this by running.

 sudo apt update

Along the same line, upgrade the system to ensure all packages are up to date.

 sudo apt upgrade -y

Here’s a sample excerpt of the output.

OutputUpgrading:
  libgnutls30t64  rsync

Summary:
  Upgrading: 2, Installing: 0, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
2 standard LTS security updates
  Download size: 1476 kB
  Space needed: 11.3 kB / 37.1 GB available

In addition, update all snap packages. To view available snap updates without installing them, run the command:

sudo snap refresh --list

If all snaps are up to date, the following information will be displayed:

All snaps up to date.

Otherwise, update all snaps by running:

sudo snap refresh

There may be some residual dependencies and files that are no longer needed by the system. Consider decluttering your system using the following command:

 sudo apt autoremove

The command identifies and cleans up orphaned dependency packages and associated files, freeing up disk space. Also consider running:

 sudo apt autoclean

Your hard drive is now clean and free from all packages not needed by the system. From here, you can install all the necessary apps and packages needed for your productivity and workflows.

#Conclusion

Upgrading to 26.04 isn't as daunting as it might seem; a little preparation goes a long way. Follow the steps in this guide, and you should be up and running on the latest release with minimal hassle. Once you're there, you'll enjoy everything it offers: new features, a snappier experience, and tighter security. If you encounter an issue along the way, the Ubuntu community forums and official docs will come in handy.