Ubuntu 26.04 LTS upgrade now open for Ubuntu 25.10 users

If you’ve been itching to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS from Ubuntu 25.10, good news: the upgrade path is now open (as of 14 May, 2026).

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS released over a month ago, with GNOME 50, Linux 7.0 and new default apps installed. Snap app and web searching features were also added to the GNOME Shell Overview, and you can now enable Ubuntu Pro via the Security Center.

Other changes in the ‘Resolute Raccoon’ include a fresh set of folder icons, visual password feedback for sudo commands and fuss-free access to NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm for developer, as both now live in the archives, a mere apt install away.

All in all, plenty of reasons to entice you to make the jump (assuming the fact Ubuntu 25.10 only receives ongoing support until July 2027 isn’t motivating you already).

While it has been possible to force upgrade from the command line prior to now (using the do-release-upgrade -d command), it offers no guarantees or assurances that you’ll have a working desktop at the end of it.

But now that the upgrade gate is officially open, you can at least complain if you get lost on your way to the other side.

Indeed, the whole reason it’s taken almost a month for official upgrades for the new releases to go live was a handful of edge-case bugs that were uninstalling key packages on certain setups, leaving some systems with issues.

If you’re in no major rush, it’s never a bad move hold off upgrading for a few days should any further issues come to light now that the masses (with their setup complexities in tow) can upgrade.

How to upgrade from 25.10?

You can wait for your Ubuntu system to notify you that a new version of Ubuntu is available, or you can open Update Manager and run an update check. If all updates are installed, it will mention that 26.04 LTS is available and give you the option to upgrade.

Back up critical files, configs and settings before you begin. Ensure you’ve installed all pending updates and that you have enough free disk space for the upgrade to complete. You’ll need to be connected to the internet to upgrade, obviously.

From there it’s honestly common sense. Click, okay, yes, sure, upgrade, thank you.

Click the prompts and follow the steps as presented. Depending on your setup, a few fear-inducing and oddly-sized warning dialogs may appear (one about ‘foreign packages’ often confuses people). Read them carefully and continue.

PPAs and third-party APT repos are disabled during upgrades so you need to manually re-enable them on the other side. New installs of 26.04 no longer include the Software & Updates tool to manage PPAs, but this tool is not removed for direct upgrades.

Ubuntu 26.04 recommends a minimum of 6GB RAM for smooth running, whereas 25.10 only asked for 4GB – something to keep in mind. The distro itself hasn’t fattened up, so it’s more of an honesty bump given the apps people install on Ubuntu are more demanding.