How to do an offline upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 using CD

With the release of Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) you may be wondering how to upgrade your previous version of ubuntu . If you have a good internet connection you can go for the network upgrade and if you don’t have a direct access to the internet I have the solution. But here’s my condition : manage to download 700MB of upgrade data using workplace internet connection.

Before the upgrade:

• Have at least 800MB space available in your Ubuntu file system.
• Please note that you CANNOT  jump versions when doing an upgrade. You can’t upgrade directly from a version below 10.04.(For versions below 10.04, say 8.04, the upgrade should be done incrementally this way: 8.04 to 8.10, 8.10 to 9.04, 9.04 to 9.10, 9.10 to 10.04, 10.04 to 10.10).If you have a similar condition, it’s better to just get the latest CD and install from scratch.

Let’s get started:

Step 1: Get the CD

Get the ALTERNATE installation CD here. See that you got the ALTERNATE version (most likely – “ubuntu-10.10-alternate-i386.iso”) and not the desktop version.

Step 2: Burn the CD

If you run out of cd’s you can very well mount the iso file. First copy the image to your desktop. Then go to terminal and type:

sudo mount -o loop /home/user name/Desktop/ubuntu-10.10-alternate-i386.iso /cdrom

NOTE: Replace the “user name” in the command with your original user name

If your downloaded file name is different, replace “ubuntu-10.10-alternate-i386.iso” with your file name in the above command.

Tip: If you run into low space error, bring up a terminal and run the following commands to clean junk files from previous upgrade or updates:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get remove

Step 3: Upgrading

You will see a pop-up window that says: “A distribution volume with software packages has been detected”.
If upgrade dialog doesn’t pop-up, type this on the Terminal to open the upgrade window:

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"
 OR
kdesudo "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"(for kubuntu users)

Follow the instructions on the screen. Upgrade will still take some time.

Step 4: The “Test Ride”

Now you are ready to go with your new ubuntu 10.10

In case you experience difficulties in upgrading your ubuntu please let me know.