Upgrade Ubuntu 25.04 to 25.10 Now: Expert Guide

Ubuntu 25.04 is EOL as of Jan 2026. Follow our expert-led guide to safely upgrade to Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka. Secure your system now

Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" reached End of Life (EOL) on January 15, 2026. Non-LTS releases only receive 9 months of support; failure to upgrade now exposes your system to unpatched kernel vulnerabilities and software regressions.

The Critical Move: Transitioning to 25.10

Ubuntu 25.10 "Questing Quokka" is not just a version bump it is a mandatory security migration for anyone on the 25.04 track. As an engineer who has managed hundreds of Linux deployments, I’ve seen "temporary" delays in upgrading lead to catastrophic root exploits once the security patches stop.

Key Insights:

• Linux Kernel 6.17: 25.10 introduces significantly better hardware scheduling and power management over 25.04's 6.14.
• Rust-Based Core: This release transitions sudo and coreutils to Rust, providing memory-safety protections at the system level.
• Wayland Dominance: GNOME 49 now defaults to a Wayland-only session, improving display latency but requiring a check on legacy X11 apps.

Step-by-Step Terminal Upgrade Path

While the GUI "Software Updater" works, the command line provides better visibility into dependency resolution.

1. Synchronize and Clean: sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y Key Insight: Use full-upgrade instead of upgrade to ensure the package manager handles changing dependencies before the release jump.
2. Initialize the Release Upgrade: sudo do-release-upgrade
3. Resolve "No New Release Found": If the prompt doesn't appear, ensure your release settings are set to "normal" (not "LTS") in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.

Advanced Troubleshooting:

• Broken NVIDIA Drivers: 25.10's kernel 6.17 may conflict with older proprietary blobs. If you see a black screen post-reboot, boot into Recovery Mode and purge/reinstall the nvidia-driver-5xx series.
• Rust-Sudo Conflicts: If you use complex sudoers configurations, verify them post-upgrade; the new sudo-rs implementation is stricter regarding syntax errors.

Editorial Note: This guide has been technically verified by Gnaneshwar Gaddam, an Electrical Engineer with 15 years of tech experience.