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Recently a friend asked me if I could help him with his Ubuntu as he faced some weird problems. Looking up his version made me realize he fell a bit out of time a few years ago: He had Ubuntu 13.04

A few updated-commands later I was bombed by "Ign" and "404" errors and had quite a hard time finding useful information how to move that old software into modern times. In most forums it was suggested to just ditch it and just install a fresh Ubuntu. (The problem was solved after the Live-USB suggested to do the whole upgrade)

What should I have done in that situation and why is it so difficult to bring such old systems up to date?

Edit: No, I am not interested in how to upgrade the old Ubuntu. I just want to know why a simple update/upgrade/dist-upgrade command doesn't work any more (If moving to the archive servers it just remains as it is, but a reasonable update is not happening). Why is also do-release-upgrade not doing any useful job?

Qohelet
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1 Answers1

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Why are out-dated Ubuntus so difficult to upgradeecaude

Because old releases are no longer supported. The software gets moved from the repositories to an archive system.

What should I have done in that situation

Easiest method: Re-install and restore a backup for your personal data.

and why is it so difficult to bring such old systems up to date?

Preparation is key here.

It takes my old machine 29 minutes to get re-installed. I have a separate partition for my data and / and /home/ are safe to remove for me so all I need to do during install is mount my data partition.

But it is also better to upgrade a system when it is that time of the year. Stick to LTS systems if you maintain systems for other users since that means upgrading less often than in 6 months.

Rinzwind
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