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.
As a long-time Ubuntu user, I am unhappy with such carelessness on the part of Canonical. Making the version upgrade option available without a clear indication that the new version is beta and, worse, presents known problems. I wasn't aware of these issues and since the update was available, I ran it. Broke my entire system. Hell trying to reactivate it. An entire world of mine installed on my desktop. Seriously considering migrating to Debian Desktop. I need stability. This degree of irresponsibility on the part of Canonical is unacceptable.
Worst version yet, no support for video card, sdreader kaput, and other odds and ends- big fail
I'm new to Linux and installed Ubuntu 24.04 and my laptop is F***ed. I couldn't install anything and now having trouble getting Windows back wish I knew those before
My upgrade already fails on the first “Release Notes” dialog. The window is completely corrupted and unreadable.
Ubuntu really royally f*d up this. How is it even possible for a large corporation to make these rudimentary fatal mistakes? No more Ubuntu for me here. Going to Mint or Debian.
I just a home user accepted the gui upgrade and now have a useless lenovo t42 laptop, it just haves 2-4 mins afetr logging in. After HOURS of searching the web found a few persons having simular issues so i tried them one had made system work but im not happy system functions now no working or broken. Had to turn off ALL hypervisior settings in the lenovo bios, mnd you everythink workd fix on prior 23.x version for months without ANY issues, and why i ditched windows because the slowness and incompatibility with my aging laptop. the second issues is endless loop od simple.openvpn erroring ins syslog, so I ended up disable it something todo with snap very irritating. Your warned, and I howpe then get a pathch or fix out so the setting can be reenabled in bios, and the snap simple-openvpn reenabled.
I wish i hadnt read this while trouble shooting my upgrade. Basically its made my resolution 4:3 600×400 (on a 4k screen) so i cant even trouble shoot it, as half the windows are cut off, especially at the bottom, where u press ok. Opening display settings wont let me change, and using xrandr – -size 3840×2160, says size not available. Good times
Crashed twice toa non functional system from plain 23.10. canonical should put a warning on their front page and add a warning when using -d. Released on time but not ready…
Haha didn’t see this post before, and just updated without issues yesterday. I saw an update about thunderbird in the end and I rebooted every time after I did updates
OK. You may have saved us a panic attack but here is where we are at the moment. First, I test ancient equipment… My Windows machine is a 2005 Dell Studio: 16GB, 750GB SSD. I have been running Linux on whatever other machines I can lay my hands on: FEDORA ca.1997 (after dropping OS2) and moved to Ubuntu ca.2004. I’m currently running Ubuntu 23.10 on a MacBook Pro: 16GB, 750GB SSD (my production go-to laptop) and just replaced OS Monterey with Ubuntu 24.04 on a MacBook Pro: 8GB, 250GB SSD (used as a print server). The replacement of the Apple OS went smoothly but I did it twice just to play with it 😀. -Ubuntu 24.04 is easily three times faster than Apple Monterey (17 sec boot time)! It also takes a lot less space and serves well as a print server – it noticed my HP 4100 without configuration for printing and scanning. Had I tried the install on my 23.10 machine, it looks like I would be currently installing from a backup rather than writing this note. Thanks for the heads up. Upgrading the production laptop will wait until Canonical has a good solid month under their belt with 24.04.
Spiral Linux Bookworm 12 KDE (a pre-customized Debian Stable Distribution) is the way.
Switching to Pop_OS! is actually the plan going forward, as soon as a stable release of COSMIC is available. I absolutely agree with your assessment that dealing with the Snap-ification of applications on Ubuntu is becoming too much of a hassle, and it will only get worse. To each their own, but I will NEVER use Snap packaging and Canonical, in recent moves, is forcing the issue. I don’t respond well to force…
I switched to NixOS in June last year. I am not going back to Ubuntu…..
So, looks like both these issues are related to Snap packaging. Good thing I have them completely disabled, otherwise the upgrade might have hosed my systems. Yet another reason to avoid Snaps (as if we needed one).