How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) was released on April 23, 2026. It ships with Linux kernel 7.0, GNOME 50, Python 3.14, PHP 8.5, Java 25, TPM-backed full-disk encryption, post-quantum cryptography support in OpenSSL, and a Wayland-only GNOME session. As an LTS release, it receives standard security updates for five years, with expanded coverage available through Ubuntu Pro.

This guide shows how to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS from the command line, on both desktop and server installations. Ubuntu 25.10 reached end of life on July 9, 2026, and should be upgraded to 26.04 now. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS systems have been offered the upgrade since September 29, 2026, a few weeks after the Ubuntu 26.04.1 point release.

If you prefer a clean setup or do not have an existing Ubuntu installation, follow our guide on how to install Ubuntu 26.04 instead.

Prerequisites #

You need to be logged in as root or a user with sudo privileges to perform the upgrade.

You can upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 directly from Ubuntu 25.10 or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Older releases cannot jump straight to 26.04. From Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS first. From Ubuntu 25.04, upgrade to Ubuntu 25.10 first, then follow this guide. If you are still running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, our guide on how to upgrade to Ubuntu 22.04 covers the first step in the LTS upgrade chain.

Make sure you have a working internet connection before starting.

Back Up Your Data #

Before starting a major version upgrade, make sure you have a complete backup of your data. If you are running Ubuntu on a virtual machine, take a full system snapshot so you can restore quickly if anything goes wrong.

Update Currently Installed Packages #

Before starting the release upgrade, bring your existing system fully up to date.

Check whether any packages are marked as held back, as they can interfere with the upgrade:

sudo apt-mark showhold

An empty output means there are no held packages. If packages are listed, review why each one is held. When a package no longer needs to remain held, unhold it with:

sudo apt-mark unhold package_name

Refresh the package index and install all available updates, including phased updates:

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade -o APT::Get::Always-Include-Phased-Updates=true

Remove automatically installed dependencies that are no longer needed:

sudo apt --purge autoremove

Upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS #

You can upgrade from the command line using do-release-upgrade, which works for both desktop and server installations.

do-release-upgrade is provided by the ubuntu-release-upgrader-core package, which is installed by default on most Ubuntu systems. If the command is not present, install the package first:

sudo apt install ubuntu-release-upgrader-core

grep ^Prompt /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

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

If you are upgrading over SSH, make sure GNU Screen is installed so the upgrade can continue if the connection drops:

sudo apt install screen

do-release-upgrade may start an additional SSH daemon on port 1022 so you can reconnect if the main session drops. If you use a firewall, you may need to open that port temporarily:

sudo ufw allow 1022/tcp

To begin the release upgrade, run:

sudo do-release-upgrade

On Ubuntu 25.10 and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS the new release is offered right away, as long as the system is fully updated. On Ubuntu 25.10, the tool also prints a notice that your release is not supported anymore. This is expected after end of life.

The tool will disable third-party repositories, update the apt sources to point to the Ubuntu 26.04 repositories, and begin downloading the required packages.

You will be prompted several times during the process. When asked whether services should be automatically restarted, type y. A configuration-file prompt means that the installed file differs from the package maintainer’s version. Type d to inspect the differences, then keep the current file if you need its customizations or install the maintainer’s version only after confirming that the local changes are no longer needed.

With GNU Screen installed, the command-line upgrade runs inside a Screen session and continues if the SSH connection drops. Reconnect over SSH and manually reattach to the session using the commands in the troubleshooting section below.

The process may take some time depending on the number of packages, your hardware, and your internet speed.

Once the new packages are installed, the tool will ask whether to remove obsolete software. Type d to review the list first, or y to proceed with removal.

When the upgrade finishes, you will be prompted to restart the system. Type y to reboot and complete the upgrade.

Upgrading from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS #

Canonical does not open the LTS to LTS upgrade path on release day. Ubuntu 26.04.1 was released on August 27, 2026. Canonical held the 24.04 upgrade back for a few more weeks to backport fixes for rust-coreutils regressions, then enabled it on September 29, 2026.

To check whether the new release is offered without starting the upgrade, run do-release-upgrade with the -c option:

do-release-upgrade -c

Checking for a new Ubuntu release
New release '26.04.1 LTS' available.
Run 'do-release-upgrade' to upgrade to it.

The tool offers 26.04.1 LTS, the latest point release. Run sudo do-release-upgrade and follow the steps from the previous section.

You no longer need the -d flag. It forced the upgrade before the LTS path opened and was meant for test systems only.

Verify the Upgrade #

If you opened port 1022 in UFW before upgrading over SSH, reconnect through the regular SSH port and remove the temporary firewall rule:

sudo ufw delete allow 1022/tcp

Then check the Ubuntu version :

lsb_release -a

Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
Release:	26.04
Codename:	resolute

You can also confirm the kernel version:

uname -r

The output should show a 7.0.x kernel.

Troubleshooting #

do-release-upgrade reports “Prompt is set to never so upgrading is not possible”
Release upgrades are turned off in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades. Set the value to lts and run the upgrade again:

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

“Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading”
do-release-upgrade stops with this message when the current release has pending updates. Install them with sudo apt update and sudo apt dist-upgrade, then run the upgrade again. If the tool says “You have not rebooted after updating a package which requires a reboot”, restart the machine first.

Third-party repository errors during apt update
The upgrade tool disables third-party repositories automatically. If you see errors before running do-release-upgrade, disable the affected sources under /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and re-enable them one by one after the upgrade completes.

Ubuntu 25.10 repositories return 404 errors
If apt update returns 404 errors for the official Ubuntu 25.10 repositories, the packages may have moved to the old-releases archive . In /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources, change the Ubuntu archive and security repository URIs to http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/. If your installation uses /etc/apt/sources.list instead, change the Ubuntu repository URLs there. Keep the suite names questing, questing-updates, and questing-security unchanged. Run sudo apt update and install the remaining updates before retrying sudo do-release-upgrade.

“Packages have been kept back”
Run sudo apt-mark showhold to check for explicitly held packages and review them individually. If there are no holds, install phased updates with sudo apt dist-upgrade -o APT::Get::Always-Include-Phased-Updates=true. Do not proceed with do-release-upgrade until the current release is fully updated.

SSH connection drops mid-upgrade
Reconnect over SSH. If the regular SSH port is unavailable and the upgrader started its backup daemon, connect on port 1022 with ssh -p 1022 user@server. List the Screen sessions on the server:

sudo screen -ls

Find the session whose name contains ubuntu-release-upgrade-screen-window, then reattach to it, replacing SESSION_NAME with its full name from the list:

sudo screen -d -r SESSION_NAME

The -d option detaches the previous connection if Screen still considers it attached, and -r resumes the session. Continue answering any remaining upgrade prompts.

A service or container does not work after the reboot
If something that worked before the upgrade fails afterward, check its status and logs first. Run systemctl status service_name and journalctl -xe for services, and review your container runtime logs and configuration for Docker or containerd workloads. Third-party packages and older configurations sometimes need updates after a major release upgrade.

GNOME desktop shows only Wayland sessions
Ubuntu 26.04 drops the X11 GNOME session. If you relied on an X11 desktop session, applications that do not support Wayland natively will run through XWayland automatically. For most applications this is transparent, but some older tools may behave differently.

Conclusion #

Your system is now running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Resolute Raccoon. Re-enable any third-party repositories you disabled before the upgrade and verify that your critical services are running. For a full list of known issues and changes, see the official Ubuntu 26.04 release notes .

About the authors

Dejan Panovski

Dejan Panovski is the founder of Linuxize, an RHCSA-certified Linux system administrator and DevOps engineer based in Skopje, Macedonia. Author of 1000+ Linux tutorials with 20+ years of experience turning complex Linux tasks into clear, reliable guides.

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