Download Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ISO File. Please make sure you have the latest version of Ubuntu 18.04. Starting The Installation. If you're just booting up, select 'Install Ubuntu.' You should see the default Ubuntu 18.04 Apache web page: This page indicates that Apache is working correctly. It also includes some basic information about important Apache files and directory locations. Step 4 — Managing the Apache Process. Now that you have your web server up and running, let's go over some basic management commands.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) was officially released on April 23. This is the latest Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) release, with security patches and updates available until 2025. If you are currently using an older version of Ubuntu, you may be interested in upgrading.
In this tutorial, we will show how to safely upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), the previous LTS, to the current one. We will explain several methods by which you can achieve this, including some advanced tips and tricks that can help you further customise your upgrade process.
There are several things you need to take into account before you go forward with the upgrade:
- The upgrade process can be done using the Ubuntu update manager or on the command line. The Ubuntu update manager will start showing a prompt for an upgrade to 20.04 once the first dot release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (i.e. 20.04.1) is released. The typical timeframe for this is around three months after the official release.
Once this functionality is enabled, you will see a prompt like this one:
You can still do an upgrade right now, though. However, the process at the moment involves some use of the command line, and therefore requires some level of technical knowledge and confidence. If you are not sure about any of the steps or methods outlined below, you might want to wait for the dot release.
- If you do want to proceed with the upgrade, you can launch the graphical guided wizard from the command line, or complete the entire process using the latter. In this tutorial, we will demonstrate both options.
- Please make sure to back up your data. Upgrades are normally safe, but there is always a chance something may go wrong. It is crucial that you have your personal files safely copied to a backup location, so you can restore them if there are any problems or complications. There are several ways you can do this:
- Ubuntu has its own backup tool, which you can turn on.
- You can also manually copy important files to a different device (second hard disk, USB drive, another computer on the network, etc). You can copy the files manually or use a data backup/replication tool. Good examples for simple, friendly tools of this nature are Timeshift and Grsync. On the command-line, you can use tar or rsync.
- You can also create a full system image of your Ubuntu installation with a dedicated system imaging software like CloneZilla.
- If you want to double-check everything works well on your hardware, you can download the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS ISO image, copy it to a USB drive using a live media creation tool like Ubootnetin, and then start your computer in an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS live session.
- Please make sure your computer has sufficient free disk space. By default, for the best experience, you should have 25 GB of free space for a new installation of Ubuntu. With version upgrades, you can get by with less free disk space, but the process could take longer.
- The upgrade process can take some time. You should not interrupt or cancel the process, as it may leave the system in an unstable state. If you are using a battery-powered device, like a laptop, it is advisable to use the charger.
As we mentioned earlier, the Ubuntu update manager will start showing upgrade notifications to users roughly three months after the official release. However, it is possible to upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 LTS without having to wait.
This entails running a command in a terminal window, which will then launch the graphical guided wizard.
If you are not comfortable with this path, it is best to continue running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS until the availability of the upgrade offer through the update manager. The sequence of actions below requires some familiarity with the command-line usage, so it's best suited for people like developers, administrators or more skilled techies.
The command to start is do-release-upgrade, executed with specific options.
To better understand what we are going to do, you can check what options are available in the do-release-update tool by running the command with the -h flag:
Specifically, the important options are: Ubuntu 19 04 minimal.
- -d – this allows us to upgrade to 20.04; normally, this option is used by early testers to try development versions of Ubuntu ahead of their official release. We will use it to start the upgrade. While the labels say 'development', don't worry – we will in fact be upgrading to the stable, official release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
- -f – this option will launch a graphical guided wizard. Without it, the do-release-upgrade tool will run in the command-line. The process is otherwise identical.
Another useful option is –allow-third-party. We will talk about it a bit more in the section titled ‘Advanced options & third-party software'. If your Ubuntu setup includes applications from sources other than the standard Ubuntu repository archives, you may want to include this option to preserve and carry over your third-party applications.
Therefore, to start the upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS using a GUI tool, the full command we need is then:
This will launch the upgrade process using a Gtk3-based GUI.
The wizard will ask you several questions, and run through several steps:
You may be asked one or two questions during the upgrade, specifically if you want to retain existing settings for certain system files (like timezone configuration). If you are not sure, you can safely proceed with the default answer.
After a while, the upgrade should complete, and you should see yourself logged into the 20.04 desktop!
Advanced options & third-party software
For most users, the flow described above will be sufficient. However, you can further customise it, which is particularly useful for those using third-party software that is installed from software channels outside the standard Ubuntu archives. For instance, if you've installed the Google Chrome, Skype or VirtualBox software manually, the updates for these applications are provided through separate repositories.
By default, non-Ubuntu software channels will be disabled during the upgrade. You will need to manually enable them after the upgrade is completely. Alternatively, you can instruct the upgrade tool to allow these additional packages.
This can be done by running do-release-upgrade with the –allow-third-party flag, as mentioned earlier.
Alternative options to upgrade
You can start the graphical guided wizard upgrade process in several other ways.
On the command line, you can run update-manager -c to initiate the upgrade. Like the do-release-update tool, you can run the above with the optional -d flag to get the 'development' release ahead of the 20.04.1 availability.
On the command line, you can also run /usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk.
In general, you can control what Ubuntu release upgrades are available, regardless of which tool you use and run. This can be done by editing the following configuration file:
Here, you can check the line Prompt=XXXX, whereby:
- never – no upgrades will be offered.
- normal – supported release that immediately succeeds the currently running release will be offered.
- lts – LTS releases will be offered.
The upgrade process on the command-line is very similar to what we have already done. The only difference is no GUI will be launched and you will be asked Y/N questions in the terminal window.
Once complete, you will be logged into the 20.04 desktop:
In this guide, we laid out several methods for upgrading from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS. These include both visual tools, i.e. graphical wizards, and command-line utilities, which are often best suited for more skilled users. The Ubuntu update manager will start prompting users in about three months, but if you want to upgrade your system now, we also outlined the steps you will need to get underway.
If you are still undecided about the upgrade, and would like to learn more, you may want to sign up for a webinar highlighting the new features and technologies available in Ubuntu 20.04.
We hope you will find this tutorial valuable and useful, and we hope you enjoy your new desktop experience.
Ubuntu desktop
Learn how the Ubuntu desktop operating system powers millions of PCs and laptops around the world.
You may use your Ubuntu installation as a workstation, as a server, or as a testing platform, but when it comes to upgrading the OS, the inner sysadmin in you would scream in protest. Paying due respect to that voice, let's install Ubuntu 18.04 inside VirtualBox. This way you can see whether or not it is for you.
Step 1: Creating a VM
The VirtualBox manager (its GUI) is something you are probably familiar with. If not, then let's go through the steps of creating a new Virtual Machine.
The newer VirtualBox UI has changed a few things, but the basic flow is still the same. Click on the New icon to create a new machine. We will be using Expert Mode (see below) instead of guided mode because it is a lot quicker.
Just by entering a reasonable name like ‘Ubuntu' it automatically sets the Type to Linux and Version to Ubuntu 64-bit. If that doesn't work, you should use the drop-down menu to select those exact options anyways.
Next comes the turn of allocating RAM. The more memory you can afford to allocate, the better. We will be settling for 2048MB in this example. Finally, you need to create a virtual disk. Select the 'Create a virtual hard disk now' option and click on Create to continue. We will be setting the disk type to VDI and the size to be 40GB.
And that's it! Your VM is ready for Ubuntu 18.04 installation.
Step 2: Installing Ubuntu 18.04
Installation media set up
You can get the official LTS release of Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop here this is a 64-bit OS, so make sure that you are not running it on a really archaic hardware (even if its in a VM). The installation media is 1.8GB in size, so it may take you a while to get your copy downloaded.
Once you have your .iso file you can proceed with the installation.
Select the newly created VM and click Start.
The VM console window will pop up along with an additional window asking you to specific what start-up disk you wish to use (Since the virtual hard disk is not yet bootable).
Click on the folder icon and from your file explorer select the Ubuntu 18.04 iso file which you downloaded earlier. Once that is done and you can start the system we are now in business!
Language and Keyboard Preferences
The Ubuntu 18.04 LTS has made the process of installation much quicker and simpler than its previous LTS release but at the same time it is still familiar and friendly to long-term users.
Click on the Install Ubuntu option, after making sure that your prefered language is selected. After that you will be asked for the information regarding your keyboard layout and we are going to stick to the default option here. If you happened to have a more esoteric layout like Dvorak, please make sure that that is selected. Linux dvd ripper.
You can also select 'Detect Keyboard Layout' option, if you are having troubles. Although, it is pretty safe to go with the defaults as shown above. Xls ka full form.
Ubuntu 18 32-bit Download
Minimal Install Option and Third Party Software
Now we see our first new feature that is the minimal installation option.
This is especially useful, if you want to run Ubuntu primarily as a workstation, or as a developer's rig. Also when creating a VM (like in our case) it makes sense to use the minimal installation option, since you might want to use the host system for games, media playback, office suite and other utilities. Minimal install gives you a web browser and a handful of other utilities and that's it.
If you can, try also to select the options for downloading updates and installing third-party softwares as shown in the screenshot above.'
Disk Layout and Installation Type
Now comes the most controversial part of any Linux installation — The disk layout. If it were your main rig, you would have to consider a lot of variables, like whether or not you are going to dual-boot, what partitions you would need and will you go for LVM or not.
This entails running a command in a terminal window, which will then launch the graphical guided wizard.
If you are not comfortable with this path, it is best to continue running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS until the availability of the upgrade offer through the update manager. The sequence of actions below requires some familiarity with the command-line usage, so it's best suited for people like developers, administrators or more skilled techies.
The command to start is do-release-upgrade, executed with specific options.
To better understand what we are going to do, you can check what options are available in the do-release-update tool by running the command with the -h flag:
Specifically, the important options are: Ubuntu 19 04 minimal.
- -d – this allows us to upgrade to 20.04; normally, this option is used by early testers to try development versions of Ubuntu ahead of their official release. We will use it to start the upgrade. While the labels say 'development', don't worry – we will in fact be upgrading to the stable, official release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
- -f – this option will launch a graphical guided wizard. Without it, the do-release-upgrade tool will run in the command-line. The process is otherwise identical.
Another useful option is –allow-third-party. We will talk about it a bit more in the section titled ‘Advanced options & third-party software'. If your Ubuntu setup includes applications from sources other than the standard Ubuntu repository archives, you may want to include this option to preserve and carry over your third-party applications.
Therefore, to start the upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS using a GUI tool, the full command we need is then:
This will launch the upgrade process using a Gtk3-based GUI.
The wizard will ask you several questions, and run through several steps:
You may be asked one or two questions during the upgrade, specifically if you want to retain existing settings for certain system files (like timezone configuration). If you are not sure, you can safely proceed with the default answer.
After a while, the upgrade should complete, and you should see yourself logged into the 20.04 desktop!
Advanced options & third-party software
For most users, the flow described above will be sufficient. However, you can further customise it, which is particularly useful for those using third-party software that is installed from software channels outside the standard Ubuntu archives. For instance, if you've installed the Google Chrome, Skype or VirtualBox software manually, the updates for these applications are provided through separate repositories.
By default, non-Ubuntu software channels will be disabled during the upgrade. You will need to manually enable them after the upgrade is completely. Alternatively, you can instruct the upgrade tool to allow these additional packages.
This can be done by running do-release-upgrade with the –allow-third-party flag, as mentioned earlier.
Alternative options to upgrade
You can start the graphical guided wizard upgrade process in several other ways.
On the command line, you can run update-manager -c to initiate the upgrade. Like the do-release-update tool, you can run the above with the optional -d flag to get the 'development' release ahead of the 20.04.1 availability.
On the command line, you can also run /usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk.
In general, you can control what Ubuntu release upgrades are available, regardless of which tool you use and run. This can be done by editing the following configuration file:
Here, you can check the line Prompt=XXXX, whereby:
- never – no upgrades will be offered.
- normal – supported release that immediately succeeds the currently running release will be offered.
- lts – LTS releases will be offered.
The upgrade process on the command-line is very similar to what we have already done. The only difference is no GUI will be launched and you will be asked Y/N questions in the terminal window.
Once complete, you will be logged into the 20.04 desktop:
In this guide, we laid out several methods for upgrading from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS. These include both visual tools, i.e. graphical wizards, and command-line utilities, which are often best suited for more skilled users. The Ubuntu update manager will start prompting users in about three months, but if you want to upgrade your system now, we also outlined the steps you will need to get underway.
If you are still undecided about the upgrade, and would like to learn more, you may want to sign up for a webinar highlighting the new features and technologies available in Ubuntu 20.04.
We hope you will find this tutorial valuable and useful, and we hope you enjoy your new desktop experience.
Ubuntu desktop
Learn how the Ubuntu desktop operating system powers millions of PCs and laptops around the world.
You may use your Ubuntu installation as a workstation, as a server, or as a testing platform, but when it comes to upgrading the OS, the inner sysadmin in you would scream in protest. Paying due respect to that voice, let's install Ubuntu 18.04 inside VirtualBox. This way you can see whether or not it is for you.
Step 1: Creating a VM
The VirtualBox manager (its GUI) is something you are probably familiar with. If not, then let's go through the steps of creating a new Virtual Machine.
The newer VirtualBox UI has changed a few things, but the basic flow is still the same. Click on the New icon to create a new machine. We will be using Expert Mode (see below) instead of guided mode because it is a lot quicker.
Just by entering a reasonable name like ‘Ubuntu' it automatically sets the Type to Linux and Version to Ubuntu 64-bit. If that doesn't work, you should use the drop-down menu to select those exact options anyways.
Next comes the turn of allocating RAM. The more memory you can afford to allocate, the better. We will be settling for 2048MB in this example. Finally, you need to create a virtual disk. Select the 'Create a virtual hard disk now' option and click on Create to continue. We will be setting the disk type to VDI and the size to be 40GB.
And that's it! Your VM is ready for Ubuntu 18.04 installation.
Step 2: Installing Ubuntu 18.04
Installation media set up
You can get the official LTS release of Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop here this is a 64-bit OS, so make sure that you are not running it on a really archaic hardware (even if its in a VM). The installation media is 1.8GB in size, so it may take you a while to get your copy downloaded.
Once you have your .iso file you can proceed with the installation.
Select the newly created VM and click Start.
The VM console window will pop up along with an additional window asking you to specific what start-up disk you wish to use (Since the virtual hard disk is not yet bootable).
Click on the folder icon and from your file explorer select the Ubuntu 18.04 iso file which you downloaded earlier. Once that is done and you can start the system we are now in business!
Language and Keyboard Preferences
The Ubuntu 18.04 LTS has made the process of installation much quicker and simpler than its previous LTS release but at the same time it is still familiar and friendly to long-term users.
Click on the Install Ubuntu option, after making sure that your prefered language is selected. After that you will be asked for the information regarding your keyboard layout and we are going to stick to the default option here. If you happened to have a more esoteric layout like Dvorak, please make sure that that is selected. Linux dvd ripper.
You can also select 'Detect Keyboard Layout' option, if you are having troubles. Although, it is pretty safe to go with the defaults as shown above. Xls ka full form.
Ubuntu 18 32-bit Download
Minimal Install Option and Third Party Software
Now we see our first new feature that is the minimal installation option.
This is especially useful, if you want to run Ubuntu primarily as a workstation, or as a developer's rig. Also when creating a VM (like in our case) it makes sense to use the minimal installation option, since you might want to use the host system for games, media playback, office suite and other utilities. Minimal install gives you a web browser and a handful of other utilities and that's it.
If you can, try also to select the options for downloading updates and installing third-party softwares as shown in the screenshot above.'
Disk Layout and Installation Type
Now comes the most controversial part of any Linux installation — The disk layout. If it were your main rig, you would have to consider a lot of variables, like whether or not you are going to dual-boot, what partitions you would need and will you go for LVM or not.
Since, we are using a VM and we have one quite disposable Virtual Disk to experiment with, we can simply select 'Erase Disk and Install Ubuntu' option, as shown below:
It will give you a warning sign, saying that permanent changes will be made on the hard disk, click Continue to continue.
Setting Up User Profile
Select your timezone, by simply clicking on the world map indicating roughly where you live.
Enter your desired username, computer's name and password,
And now we simply wait, as Ubuntu configures rest of the things for us. Once the installation finishes it will prompt you to restart the system. You can do that or just close the window and then shutdown the system and move on to step 3.
(Optional) Step 3: Managing Installation Media
VirtualBox automatically detaches the installation media (the .iso file) from your VM once the installation is complete. However, if you wish to do so manually, or reinsert installation media to make changes, you can do so by selecting the VM in VirtualBox GUI, selecting the Settings options and then navigating to Storage settings.
Ubuntu 18.4 32-bit
Here, you select the empty slot under the IDE controller and then click on the CD icon on the right hand column to select your .iso file and the next time you boot you will be in the installation media again.
It is equally easy to remove the attached iso by clicking on the same CD icon and selecting 'Remove Disk from Virtual Machine'.
What's new?
Ubuntu 18.4 Iso
So what's new with this LTS release of Ubuntu? To enumerate a few major changes:
Ubuntu 18 32 Bit Iso
- After having issues with Wayland, they have switched back to XOrg
- Python 3.6 is now available
- Gnome is the default desktop environment
- Linux Kernel 4.15
- LXD 3.0.0
Tell us what you thoughts are regarding the latest LTS release and stay tuned for more tutorials, guides and news on the latest and greatest open source technologies.
