I have several Ubuntu X86-64 LTS machines that I maintain. All were 22.04 current. I migrated one to 24.04 (actually, 24.04.1 after the upgrade release was made available), and Software Updater displayed that the upgrade was available. On the second machine that in terms of OS and sysadmin is identical (different end-user applications, none systems), despite having an up-to-date 22.04, the upgrade to 24.04 was not offered. I had to use a terminal CLI to invoke the manual commands and the machine is downloading the full files (in a terminal, not GUI, window). Environment is stock 22.04 (to stock 24.04) under MATE as the end-user GUI -- but not MATE Ubuntu Linux. All of the settings in Software Updater were the same, including notification of the availability to upgrade to the next LTS release. But, that upgrade was never offered on the second machine. Any idea why?
1 Answers
For ordinary updates through apt (or equivalent GUI systems like KDE's Discover), Ubuntu now has a Phased Update policy. Updates to important packages are gradually released to larger and larger numbers of systems in the hope that any remaining bugs are caught before they affect too many users (AskUbuntu explanation).
It's possible that the phased update policy is also being applied to full distro upgrades (e.g. 22.04 to 24.04), since the same logic applies, and it would be consistent without your observations. I have read claims to that effect from unreliable sources (e.g. Reddit).
However, I could not find any official statement from Canonical confirming this is their policy. And none of the packages listed on the SRU Phased Update List have any mention of 24.04 Noble Numbat in their changelogs, nor in the changelogs of the packages that were updated on the day that I was first offered the upgrade, so if there is a phased update process, it doesn't appear that the offer of an upgrade is made through the normal updates. So there is no reliable evidence for the existence of a phased updates policy for upgrades.
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