Can I smoothly upgrade from one LTS to next LTS release?
Solution 1:
You can upgrade smoothly through LTS releases whether it's Server or Desktop. It doesn't matter what you use, you just need to use these commands:
For Desktop Version:
sudo do-release-upgrade
For Server Version:
sudo apt-get install update-manager-core
sudo do-release-upgrade
NOTE: Please always make sure you test the target LTS you're being prompted to upgrade to in a LiveCD on the machine you're using to make sure everything works properly before going in for the real upgrade itself.
Solution 2:
Yes, you can upgrade from one Ubuntu LTS version to the next one, skipping the non-LTS releases in-between. It's intended to work that way and it gets tested.
Solution 3:
I trusted other answers and proceeded to the upgrade from an up-to-date 14.04 to 16.04 using do-release-upgrade. Now I am facing a kernel panic.
Here are other relevant questions (not mine), most unanswered :
- Problem with installing 16.04. Tried upgrading from 14.04
- Upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04 LTS causes black screen on boot
- Upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04 failed at startup
- Upgrading Xubuntu from 14.04 to 16.04.1 hangs at kernel panic
- Dell XPS 13 DE won't restart after failed update to Ubuntu 16.04 from 14.04
- Ubuntu 16.04 will not boot after update from 14.04
- I can't boot after upgrading to 16.04 (from 14.04)
- https://askubuntu.com/q/830298/136964
- Unable to login to Ubuntu after upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04
- etc. — there seems to be dozens of such opened issues on AskUbuntu, see the "related" tab on each of these links…
Therefore the actual answer to the question "can I smoothly upgrade from one LTS to next LTS release", in particular when applied to 14.04->16.04 upgrade as suggested in the OP, is clearly not "yes" — and most if not all answers are wrong in this regard.
At best, you might smoothly upgrade.