Upgrading Ubuntu to latest version (26.04)
Posted under » Ubuntu on 14 May 2026
If you want your ubuntu giving the latest php or MySQL, then you should upgrade. Other than that, things are generally better in the updated version especially if you are upgrading the desktop version of ubuntu. The UI/UX is much better. Please note this can be risky and you should make a full backup before attempting.
I had experience upgrading Ubuntu before but this is my experience upgrading from 24.04 Numbat to 26.04 LTS Raccoon. As usual we begin as SUDO with
$ apt-get update $ apt-get upgrade
You can upgrade to LTS or just a newer non LTS version
vim /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades
If your server is in front of you then you do not have to worry about being disconnected via ssh. If you are connected via ssh, then you do not need to turn on firewall if it is off in the first place. You cannot do upgrade just using ssh port and you may need to open up incoming port 1022 if it is blocked. This is the default port set by the upgrade procedure as a fallback if the default SSH port dies during upgrades, just in case.
Let's begin the upgrade using the command line.
$ do-release-upgrade
Hit yes yes yes until you come to the point where it ask if you want ot delete obsolete packages after 15 minutes or so. This will be the end of it. It will say 'System upgrade is complete. Restart required'.
At this point, I said no. We need to ensure that my SSH is active so when I reboot I can still log in.
If you press reboot and you are able to login then you haz success.
The good thing about upgrading is that you don't have to install LAMP again but you have to reconfigure it because your old config will not work.
The first issue is that it is still loading the old php8.3 config and thus Apache won't start.
To fix this,
$ rm /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php8.3.load $ rm /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php8.3.conf
Then you replace it with
$ a2enmod php8.5
The older method will still work
$ ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/php8.5.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ $ ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/php8.5.conf /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/
Restart Apache and it should work. However, you will have issues if you host on your home directory.
Your old MySQL password will still work but you need to enable mysql_native_password.
If your vim paste is not working do this.
Ubuntu 26.04 supports Python 3.14. So you need to adapt your old applications like Django and Jupyter by recreating your venv.
