Last week, the first point release of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS was made available, with upgrades from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to the new version officially supported.
However, these upgrades were problematic for some users, whether on Ubuntu server or desktop versions.
In response, Canonical has temporarily halted upgrades to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS as its developers address the issues.
Recently, the ‘noble’ release was removed from the meta-release-lts file (which Ubuntu systems use to check for new releases), stopping users from upgrading to Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS through official channels.
Folks attempting to upgrade, but suddenly finding they couldn’t, were left wondering why.
In reply, Canonical explains that it halted upgrades “due to a critical bug in ubuntu-release-upgrader in the way it’s using the apt solver” (though other recurring issues have been reported on Launchpad and mentioned on social media in the past week).
Of course, issues ought to be expected in any major OS upgrade, especially for LTS-to-LTS transitions, as upgrading an extensive foundational stack that’s 2 years old is far from trivial. Even the most attentive testing prior to release won’t uncover every edge-case calamity in time.
Plus, this isn’t the first time Noble upgrades have caused issues. When Ubuntu 24.04 LTS was released in April, users on Ubuntu 23.10 were able to upgrade, but later advised not to due to critical bugs (unrelated to this one).
Developers are currently addressing the problem that leads to failures in LT-to-LTS upgrades for certain users, and until the necessary repairs are implemented, these upgrades will be on hold.
Once resolved and confirmed stable, upgrades from Ubuntu 22.04 to 24.04 LTS will be reactivated.
However, even after these upgrades are available again, it is advisable for users planning to update to have recovery resources readily available, such as a bootable Ubuntu installer on a USB drive, as a precaution.
Thanks Scott