Can't upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 because of "Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading" error

Question

I've been trying to upgrade my version of Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04. I've run all the steps from updating and upgrading both apt and apt-get, changing the settings in update manager and all of the steps described in this link. Yet I keep getting the error:

Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

Is there something special about trying to upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04 that's causing this error? Do I maybe need to update to 19.04 first?

EDIT: I just noticed something that might be important. When I run sudo apt-get update I get the following notice at the end of the output:

The following packages have been kept back:
  colord gimagereader python-sane sane simple-scan
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.

Might that be causing the issue?

Solution 1

sequence from 18.04 to 20.04

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
sudo do-release-upgrade -d -f DistUpgradeViewGtk3

Follow onscreen instruction. Good luck!

Solution 2

I was also experiencing the same issue. However, when I ran the usual upgrade commands (sudo apt upgrade, sudo apt full-upgrade, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade), they were all reporting that there are no packages to upgrade and no held packages:

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

In the end, I copied the file /usr/bin/do-release-upgrade to my home and modified it as follows:

for pkg in upgradable:
    if 'Phased-Update-Percentage' in pkg.candidate.record:
        # P-U-P does not exist if it is fully phased
        continue
    else:
        install_count += 1
        print(pkg)   # <--- ADD THIS LINE
        # one upgradeable package is enough to stop the dist-upgrade
        # break      # <--- COMMENT THIS LINE OUT to get all packages

This change will print the names of all packages that need to be upgraded.

When I ran sudo ~/do-release-upgrade, a package from an external repository was printed that had an update available, but the newer version depended on a library that was not available, which caused the package to not upgrade.

Still not sure why it wasn't reported as not upgraded by apt upgrade.

Edit: The following code snippet can be run in the Python console to list all upgradeable packages - thanks @jferard!

import apt

cache = apt.Cache()
cache.open()
print([pkg for pkg in cache if pkg.is_upgradable])

Solution 3

The problem is your repo is not updated, so you need to remove these five repos: colord gimagereader python-sane sane simple-scan

Do sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:<ppa to remove> or edit /etc/apt/sources.list to remove all of these repos.

Then you can run update-manager

Solution 4

just removed wine through sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove winehq-stable and it worked for me after reusing sudo do-release-upgrade

Solution 5

First in your terminal:

sudo apt dist-upgrade

Then you will get

The following packages have been kept back:

  mongodb-org mongodb-org-mongos mongodb-org-server mongodb-org-shell mongodb-org-tools

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.

All you have to do is to use

sudo apt install < Packages Names >

The result will be like:

sudo apt install mongodb-org mongodb-org-mongos mongodb-org-server mongodb-org-tools

Finally, go with:

sudo do-release-upgrade

View more solutions

Comments

[Boris Hamanov]

Doesn't -d get the development version?

[Soren A]

@heynnema, at least for now there are no 20.10 development version, so -d do no harm.

[Arnaud Meuret]

The OP states that he went through the standard steps. The issue is most likely the presence of third-party package repositories. Simply unchecking their boxes in the update-manager (and then letting it update its caches) will probably be enough. I just did this myself.

[jaromrax]

If you wonder why you got a negative points - 1) you did not answer the original problem 2) you have an uncomplete command 3) you have a typo in the commandline 4) you advice to install a database tools, which hardly helps with upgrade to new LTS version. But dont be dissapointed, read better the question and pay more attention next time.

[amit_game]

Still unable to install updated version

[Brian Piercy]

This didn't work for me either.

[danza]

Great, this looks like the best answer to me, as the other answer just relate to the specific environment where some users removed their stale packages. Kudos

[Khada Kuraki]

This did it for me, had to remove wine packages, cheers!

[Chakradar Raju]

This got it working for me, this should be accepted answer. Thank you :)

[piit79]

This didn't work for me as it relates to a specific package that is not being upgraded. See my answer below for a generic solution.

[Данила Икрянников]

You can also try sudo apt full-upgrade

[jferard]

Worked for me. You can also type in a Python3 REPL : ` >>> import apt <return> >>> cache = apt.Cache() <return> >>> cache.open() <return> >>> [pkg for pkg in cache if pkg.is_upgradable] ` to list the packages that need an upgrade.

[Dr Jyy]

I came here via ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-on-wsl-2-is-generally-available. The "Good luck!" is so Linux-indicative. Thanks, the list works (minus the -f ... on my side)

[Jarl]

I think it was the sudo apt dist-upgrade part that resolved it for me, what does that actually do that apt update, apt upgrade, apt autoremove does not cover?

[rubynorails]

This should be the accepted answer.

[Dmitriy Pavlukhin]

This worked, I had non-upgradable 'i3status' package

[Estatistics]

This did for me. I removed nvidia drivers 390 - they were not upgradable - I thing i will change to nuuveau drivers (open soruce).

[cem]

That worked for me.