How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 21.04 from Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy to Hirsute)

Here are the steps on how to upgrade your Ubuntu 21.04 from Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla to Hirsute Hippo).

Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo released this week on April 22, 2021. If you are running the prior short-term release – Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla, then these are steps you need to follow to upgrade your system. And even if it is not released yet, you can still upgrade using the following steps.

Ubuntu 21.04 is a short-term release. Hence the recommended upgrade path is from Ubuntu 20.10 release. If you are in the current Ubuntu 20.04 LTS which is a long-term support version, then it is not recommended to upgrade to Ubuntu 21.04. As always you have the option to do a fresh Ubuntu install.

Before you upgrade your system, make sure to check out the bugs that are introduced right after release and current bugs. And take a careful upgrade decision of your system.

With that said, if you still want to experience the latest Ubuntu flavor and technology, go ahead and upgrade. The steps are very simple to Upgrade to o Ubuntu 21.04 from Ubuntu 20.10.

Table of Contents

Upgrade to Ubuntu 21.04 from Ubuntu 20.10

Before you upgrade

Before you upgrade, make sure you do the following. This is super important.

Take backups of your /home/downloads and other personal files to USB/cloud storage or any separate partition, in case the upgrade fails.
Verify the additional PPAs which you may add over time and note them down. They may not be compatible after the upgrade and might requires troubleshooting. Although the manually added PPAs would be disabled by the upgrade process.
Keep a LIVE USB stick handy.

Upgrade steps

Before April 22, 2021

If you are reading this guide before April 22, 2021 – then follow the below steps.

Open a terminal and run below to make your system up to date.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Then run the following command.

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

Then follow the on-screen instructions and wait for the upgrade to complete.

After completion, reboot your system.

After April 22, 2021

Open Software & Update. Go to the Updates tab. Select ‘Notify me of a new Ubuntu version’ and change it to ‘For any new version’. This will tell the package manager to look for the Ubuntu 21.04 release details.

Open a terminal and run below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Alternatively, you can open the Software Updater as well. Install all the pending packages.

Once both the commands are complete, open the ‘Software Updates’. And you will see a prompt to Upgrade to Ubuntu 21.04.

Now click on the Upgrade button and follow the on-screen instructions. The upgrade process takes time, so be patient and wait until it finishes. Make sure you have stable internet connectivity for the entire upgrade process.

If you are not seeing the above prompt, do a manual reboot of your system.
Alternatively, you can also run the below command to force the upgrade process.