#title Upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04
Ubuntu 11.04 is the version of the Ubuntu operating system released on 2011-04-28. The common name given to this release is "Natty Narwhal".
Before You Start
- You can directly upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 ("Natty Narwhal") from Ubuntu 10.10 ("Maverick Meerkat") only.
- Be sure that you have all updates applied to your current version of Ubuntu before you upgrade.
Before upgrading it is recommended that you read the release notes for Ubuntu 11.04, which document caveats and workarounds for known issues in this version.
If you have a version of Ubuntu other than 10.10, please see UpgradeNotes for information on how to upgrade.
Upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04
Network Upgrade for Ubuntu Desktops (Recommended)
You can easily upgrade over the network with the following procedure.
Open the Update Manager application from the System → Administration menu.
In Update Manager, click the Settings... button, and enter your password to start the Software Sources application.
Select the sub menu Updates from the Software Sources application.
Check the "Release upgrade - Show new distribution releases" drop down to make sure "Normal releases" is selected, and change it if otherwise.
- Close the Software Sources application and return to Update Manager.
In Update Manager, click the Check button to check for new updates.
If there are any updates to install, use the Install Updates button to install them, and press Check again after that is complete.
- A message will appear informing you of the availability of the new release.
Click Upgrade.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
Network Upgrade for Kubuntu Desktops (Recommended)
Direct upgrades to Kubuntu 11.04 are supported from Kubuntu 10.10 only.
Upgrade Kubuntu 10.10 to 11.04
Network Upgrade for Ubuntu Servers (Recommended)
Install update-manager-core if it is not already installed:
sudo apt-get install update-manager-core
edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal
Launch the upgrade tool:
sudo do-release-upgrade
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
Upgrading Using the Alternate CD/DVD
Use this method if the system being upgraded is not connected to the Internet.
Download the alternate installation CD from http://releases.ubuntu.com/natty/
Burn the ISO to a CD and insert it into the CD-ROM drive of the computer to be upgraded.
If the ISO file is on the computer to be upgraded, you could avoid wasting a CD by mounting the ISO as a drive with a command like:
sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom sudo mount -o loop ~/Desktop/ubuntu-11.04-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom
- A dialog will be displayed offering you the opportunity to upgrade using that CD.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
If the upgrade dialog is not displayed for any reason, you may also run the following command using Alt+F2:
gksu "sh /media/cdrom/cdromupgrade"
Or in Kubuntu run the following command using Alt+F2:
kdesudo "sh /media/cdrom/cdromupgrade"
Upgrading from a Torrent
If you're familiar with torrents and have an ISP that doesn't limit them, you can download the upgrade much more quickly. You'll also be sharing your bandwidth with other Ubuntu users and helping to reduce the load on the servers, which is especially beneficial on release days when the server overload causes problems.
Just visit http://releases.ubuntu.com/11.04/, and download the appropriate torrent file for the alternate installation CD, found in the list towards the bottom of the page. (It will have a filename like ubuntu-11.04-alternate-i386.iso.torrent.) Load it into your BitTorrent client, and after it is done downloading the ISO, follow the alternate CD upgrade instructions.
Detailed instructions in a blog post and in a forum thread.
See Also
UpgradeNotes for all supported versions of Ubuntu
Troubleshooting
See the release notes.