Ubuntu 21.10 officially released! Here’s what’s new and how to upgrade from the previous Ubuntu 21.04.
Ubuntu 21.10, codenamed “Impish Indri”, is the new short-term release with 9 months support. It features Linux Kernel 5.13 with new hardware support. And it ships GNOME Desktop 40 with a redesigned activities overview screen. Workspaces are now arranged horizontally. Three-finger touchpad gestures are supported out-of-the-box to toggle overview and switch workspaces.
For Ubuntu Server 21.10, it integrates OpenStack Xena, QEMU 6.0, PHP8, libvirt 7.6, Kubernetes, and Ceph with advanced life-cycle management tools.
Other changes include:
- Wayland session available while using the Nvidia proprietary driver.
- PulseAudio 15 introduces support for Bluetooth LDAC and AptX codecs.
- Better audio quality with HFP Bluetooth profiles.
- Toolchain update: gcc 11.2.0, glibc 2.34, LLVM, golang 1.17.x.
- See more changes here.
Download / Upgrade to Ubuntu 21.10:
For those want to do a fresh install, download Ubuntu 21.10 from the official website.
How to Upgrade From Ubuntu 21.04 Desktop to Ubuntu 21.10:
Before getting started, it’s always recommended to backup important data and switch to open-source driver via “Additional Drivers” utility. Also, disable third-party PPAs via “Software & Updates -> Other Software”. And it’s better to purge Ubuntu PPAs that contains updated graphics & multi-media libraries, e.g, FFmpeg, Mesa.
1.) First, search for and open “Software Updater” utility and install all available updates. And restart your computer if required.
2.) Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, and run command to launch the Software Updater with checking system upgrade:
update-manager -c
It will open up ‘Software Updater’ and indicate that Ubuntu 21.10 is available for upgrade. Don’t see the prompt? Try opening “Software & Updates” and select notify me for any version under ‘Updates’ tab.
3.) After clicking on “Upgrade” button, it will bring up the ‘Impish Indri Release Note’ dialog.
4.) Click “Upgrade” again and it opens the “Distribution Upgrade” wizard indicates the process.
5.) After ‘Preparing to upgrade’ and ‘Setting new software channels’, it will ask for confirm again for upgrading the system.
Now, it starts downloading the new packages and installing the updates! And, it will ask for confirm to clean up obsolete packages. After all, restart computer when it indicates restart to complete upgrade.
How to Upgrade From Ubuntu 21.04 Server to Ubuntu 21.10:
To upgrade Ubuntu Server, firstly connect to command console, and install the update-manager-core package via command:
sudo apt install update-manager-core
Make sure the Prompt line in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades is set to normal via command:
cat /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades |grep Prompt
If the value if not normal, you need to edit the file and change it.
Finally, start the upgrade tool and follow onscreen instructions via command:
sudo do-release-upgrade