Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS apt problems - how to upgrade f/w?

[Bo Berglund]

On Tue, 26 Nov 2024 08:30:09 +0100, Bo Berglund <bo.berglund at gmail.com> wrote:

>I am running an Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS server which is headless and only accessed
>via putty SSH.
>Today I was going to update the system and received this message on the login:
>
>*** Kernel upgrade required. Kernel 5.4.0-89.100-generic Livepatch coverage has
>ended ***


Update post to the misnamed thread about kernel upgrade:
--------------------------------------------------------

I bit the bullet and got a monitor and keyboard attached to the server and then
rebooted it to see the grub menu.

It was not easy to understand where the server was located and I managed to
start the wrong Ubuntu entry.

This was for the Desktop version not used since 3+ years...
But it did not boot into anything else than a light violet blank screen...

I realized that it was the Desktop Ubuntu when I tried PuTTY to connect to it
and got a security warning!

So I canceled and tried the saved shortcut for the UbuntuDesktop instead (using
the same IP address).
And that worked without problems so I was on the Desktop system on a command
prompt.

So now I decided to update that and see what would happen:

apt update found 600+ updates to apply!
So I did this in order to get the system current:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove

When that was all done I also made a grub update.

After the following reboot I had to select the Ubuntu Server, which was now on
the advanced boot menu.
And it succeeded booting!

Logged on to the server successfully.

So next I repeated the update procedure above but on the server.
I also removed the old kernels that had screwed up the process before.
Possible since it had now booted to a different newer kernel.

A reboot and login via SSH now showed the welcome message including the prompt
to run a do-release-upgrade and no warnings anymore.
So it looks like it is ready for the new release.

Final question (I hope):
------------------------
Before running the do-release-upgrade I want to back up the system.
I have partitioned it such:
- System root is on a 30GB partition with only 11 GB used
- Subversion is on a 79 GB partition with 36 GB used
- home is on a 259 GB partition with 220 GB used

So I want to back up the data in the root partition to an external USB connected
drive.

What is the command to use?

Essentially I want to copy the entire *content* of the partition to a new
partition on the attached drive.
Or else copy the entire partition over.


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden