Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) was released just a few days ago. So you might want to jump to it from 22.04 LTS or 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur)—the excitement is big! But let me be direct and a bit intense here: JUST DON’T! I’ll explain why below.
For your information, traditionally, Canonical provides an official upgrade path for Ubuntu’s LTS versions soon after their first point release. For the 24.04 LTS, this update is planned for August 15th (24.04.1). But that’s not the problem in this case.
In previous Ubuntu LTSes, long before the release of the first point version, upgrades always ran smoothly; however, until now. Two newly discovered bugs in the Noble Numbat release, one related to the Thunderbird snap and another in the libglib transitional package, result in a completely broken and non-functional system if you try the upgrade. So, please, don’t do it!
Right after Ubuntu 24.04 was released, we tried different upgrade approaches to provide you with the best tested and working guide on the topic. However, all attempts ended ingloriously, so that’s why we still haven’t published something like “How to upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.”
Unfortunately, you might encounter someone recommending the magical sudo do-release-upgrade -d command for a “seamless” upgrade. However, promoting this without warning of the risks and consequences is irresponsible and puts your system and valuable data in danger.
If you follow such advice, clearly showing that those recommending it have not bothered even to test the procedure, be aware that it will lead to a faulty upgrade process and a completely non-functional system. Feel warned.
Yes, there are some “dirty” tricks to get around the problem, such as manually removing some legacy and obsolete packages, reconnecting to a framebuffer tty to be able to continue the procedure after you get the startling black screen, etc., but that’s something we would never suggest among our guides as a recommended approach.
So, if you try to upgrade and end up with a broken system, there is only one solution now. Prepare a bootable flash drive with the distribution of your choice. Boot from it and mount the partitions of your broken Ubuntu system. Transfer your important information and files to the flash drive, then install a fresh copy of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
The good news is that Ubuntu is aware of the issue and has prepared fixes. Once these are out, we’ll test the whole procedure again. We’ll share the “How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS” guide only after we’re happy with the end result.
Lastly, the issue primarily impacts the desktop version of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. However, we advise against updating your server instances now, especially if they are critical to your operations.
