Ubuntu Announced the 25.04 to 25.10 Upgrade Channel

After 3 weeks of the release date, Ubuntu finally opened the channel for upgrading from Ubuntu 25.04 to Ubuntu 25.10.

Ubuntu 25.10, code-name Questing Quokka, is the latest version that was released on October 9th. It features 9 month support until July 2026, Linux Kernel 6.17, GNOME Desktop 49, new Rust-based core utilities, new Ptyxis terminal emulator, and Loupe image viewer.

It as well removed the classic Xorg session and dropped “Startup Applications” tool. See Ubuntu 25.10 release note for more details.

Just one day ago, Ubuntu finally announced the upgrade channel for 25.04, while Ubuntu 24.04 may also upgrade to 25.04, then to 25.10.

We’re happy to announce that the upgrades to Ubuntu 25.10 (Questing Quokka) are now live!

This cycle also marks the arrival of amd64v3 as an architecture variant — shiny, fast, and ready for testing. If you haven’t already, I’d encourage reading the Discourse post for the full story:

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/introducing-architecture-variants-amd64v3-now-available-in-ubuntu-25-10/71312

Happy upgrading, and may your Quokka quest be bug-free!

Before getting started

Ubuntu 25.04 support will end in January 2026. If you decide to upgrade to Ubuntu 25.10, then it’s better to do following steps before getting started:

Backup, backup, backup! Backup your important data before upgrading to 25.10, as the process might fail due to unknown bugs or potential interruption.
Backup the data of Xorg only applications, as 25.10 dropped Gnome on Xorg, unless you use other desktop environments (e.g., XFCE4, MATE) or switch to XUbuntu, Ubuntu MATE, etc flavors.
(optional) Uninstall unused apps, which can speed up the upgrade process by downloading less packages.
For laptops, connect to power supply in case of running out of battery.

Upgrade from 25.04 to 25.10

Ubuntu 25.04 now should automatically pop-up a dialog saying that Ubuntu 25.10 upgrade is available, with buttons to accept or refuse.

If you miss that dialog, then do following steps to manually start the upgrading process.

1. First launch Software & Updates, under “Updates” tab, make sure you set notify for any new Ubuntu version.

For Ubuntu server, edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades instead and set Prompt=normal

2. Next, launch Software Updater and install all the available updates. And, restart your computer if it asks.

For server with GUI, run the command below instead:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

3. Finally, either launch Software Updater again and click the “Upgrade” button.

Or, run the command below to start the upgrade process from terminal:

do-release-upgrade

then follow the wizard or terminal output to upgrade your Ubuntu.

NOTE: Don’t go far away from your computer. It will ask few questions during the upgrade process, e.g., whether to keep obsolete packages or not. And, when everything’s done well, it will ask you restart computer to complete.