Upgrade Ubuntu Gutsy to Hardy (Alpha 4)

First off, the easiest way to go about checking out Hardy is by downloading a live cd image and doing a fresh install on a separate partition. This avoids spoiling your Gutsy installation. You can do that by going here:

But if living on the edge is more your style, you can upgrade your current Gutsy release to Hardy Alpha 4 by doing the following things. Before you do so, you should know that Hardy Alpha 4 is by no means stable, and should only be done on a system that you want to play around with. That being said, here’s how it’s done!

EDITING THE REPOSITORIES

Open up your terminal of choice. First off, backup your current repository list. Type:

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup

Now, open up the original sources.list file:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

In Gedit, click Search >> Replace.

Replacing

Fill in the fields as above, replacing the word Gutsy with Hardy. Click Replace All, and save the file.

UPDATING REPOSITORIES WITH APT-GET

Now type:

sudo apt-get update

This will update the repositories. You may notice the Ubuntu update manager icon telling you there are several hundred updates available. Ignore it, as we’re going to update things using the terminal instead.

FINALLY: UPGRADE TO HARDY

Here’s the big step. If you’re having second thoughts, you can still back out now! Otherwise, type:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Everything is downloaded and installed. This could take a while. Go watch something on TV.
When it’s finished, you’ll need to reboot the system. Type:

shutdown -r now

And you’re finished! Hopefully it all went smoothly. It is an alpha release, but I personally haven’t experienced any major problems.

Alternative Method

There is another method which is a little easier, but also less customisable, and will only work so long as Hardy is listed as “developmental” (which means upon Hardy’s release, this method of upgrading will not work). Nevertheless, here’s how it’s done. Simply type in a terminal:

sudo update-manager -d

Release 8.04 (Hardy) will be detected and can be upgraded to by clicking the “Upgrade” button.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

This entry was posted on February 4, 2008 at 7:49 am and is filed under Linux, Ubuntu with tags , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

15 Responses to “Upgrade Ubuntu Gutsy to Hardy (Alpha 4)”

  1. Tom Says:
    February 15, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    Correction: sudo shutdown -r now

    “sudo reboot” should work equally :)

  2. yasumoto Says:
    February 15, 2008 at 9:28 pm

    Thanks for the post! I’m finally making the switch, and this helped out a lot :)

  3. James Thayer Says:
    February 18, 2008 at 8:17 pm

    Just wondering, will I loose everything on my hard drive if I upgrade?
    Sorry if it’s a stupid question, but I’m new to Linux.

  4. Rishi Says:
    February 20, 2008 at 12:30 am

    Hey James, no, you won’t. One of the “new” features of Hardy is to even preserve the contents of your “Home” directory during the upgrade, as long as you don’t do a clean install, you should retain all your personal files.

  5. Boab Says:
    February 20, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    if you dont know that then you really shouldnt be trying an alpha release.stick with 7.10.

  6. jay Says:
    March 8, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    start a terminal, and run “sudo update-manager -d” will work a lot easier
    ( http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/hardy/alpha2 )

  7. lovikutsu Says:
    March 16, 2008 at 11:12 pm

    May be In search & replace wont be best option if people are using local country repositories? Do all local country repositories will mirror also pre-release stuff?

  8. Baligh Says:
    March 18, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    I test it, but there is some problems, and can’t explain what ?
    nautilus can not be opened any more segmentation fault error
    other application can not be executed from ordinary user, we must execute it wit prompt command using root privilege !!!!

    but it’s coooooooool

  9. asherbini Says:
    March 25, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    I’ve just upgraded, I too had a problem with nautilus once I rebooted but it’s better now. The odd thing is it removed xmms and Avant window navigator and I don’t know why. Other than that, it’s fine so far. The International clock is very nice :)

  10. asherbini Says:
    March 25, 2008 at 7:23 pm

    Ohm and here’s how I did it. I did Alt+F2, ran the command ‘update-manager –devel-release’ and it told me there is a new release, so I clicked on upgrade.

  11. Jayanth Says:
    April 3, 2008 at 10:41 am

    I faced a severe problem.. During my update the power went off and so its done a partial update and everything seems to be messed up! :(

  12. io Says:
    May 17, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    I’m trying this way now because last time i did the upgrade, it failed :( Let’s see what happens now!

  13. Outwear Says:
    June 19, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation :) Anyway … nice blog to visit.

    cheers, Outwear!!!!

  14. Liza Says:
    April 22, 2009 at 6:46 am

    If you want to read a reader’s feedback :) , I rate this post for four from five. Detailed info, but I have to go to that damn msn to find the missed bits. Thanks, anyway!

  15. horsefd Says:
    April 22, 2009 at 7:37 am

    Presumably you’re upgrading from Intrepid to Jaunty now (since this post was written just over a year ago). I’m fairly sure it should all work still, but keep in mind that when editing sources.list change the word “intrepid” to “jaunty” instead of what’s written in the post.

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