Ubuntu 8.10 named Intrepid Ibex has been released by Canonical on October 30, 2008. To upgrade from a previous version of Ubuntu to the latest namely version 8.10, you need not download and burn an ISO image of the distribution. You can do it right from within Ubuntu in just 8 steps.

The following steps explain how to upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) to Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).

While logged into the GNOME desktop of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, do the following :

Press the key combination [ Alt + F2 ] to open the ‘Run command’ dialog box and type in the following command : “update-manager -d” without the quotes.

1. Update manager dialog will open and tell you: New distribution release 8.10 is available. Click on the Upgrade button as shown in the following image.

Click on the Upgrade Button

2. Release notes dialog will open. Again click on the Upgrade button.

Read the release notes for Ubuntu 8.10

3.  Distribution Upgrade Dialog opens and lists the steps Ubuntu will execute to upgrade to a newer version.

Distribution upgrade dialog box lists the steps Ubuntu will execute.

4. A message pops up saying that third party sources will be disabled for the duration of the upgrade. Click ‘Close’.

Read the message and click Close button.

5. If you use an Nvidia graphics card and have installed  Nvidia drivers then you will encounter a warning message as shown below. Click ‘Yes’.

Special effects will be disabled.

6. Another dialog box pops up providing the details of the number of packages that will be uninstalled, installed and upgraded. The total size of the download and the duration it will take.  Click “Start Upgrade” button.

Lists some statistics of the packages

7. Installation in progress.

Installation of additional packages in progress

8. Cleaning up and restarting the computer is the final step.

Congratulations, now you have a sparkling new version of Ubuntu namely 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.