[ikk157]

I hear that some people are still using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on their VPS. This is to inform them , in case they dont already know it, about Ubuntu Advantage - ESM ( extended security maintenance ).

this is extended support for 14.04 lts that provides security updates essential to keep your system secure and stable.

You can use this service provided by Ubuntu on upto 3 machines for free in case it is personal use. (known community members their can use on upto 50 machines for free for personal use ).

What to do - steps

go to https://ubuntu.com/advantage 

login ( if you already have a ubuntu one account. it is free ) or register and then login. Now you will see a command with token like 'ua attach token'

you run that with sudo or on root account and your system will be configured automagically.

now check with 'ua status'

now update using apt-get as you normally do and profit !!!

NOTE: I am working on bringing Ubuntu OS upgrade without using  control panel vnc / novnc. Hopefully I will succeed and then you will get to enjoy the latest LTS on your VPS. fingers crossed ...

Regarding the note at the end of your post:

The normal Ubuntu upgrade procedure through the command line works perfectly and I’ve always used it with zero issues. And it doesn’t require VNC/noVNC nor panel access. (For a matter of fact, panels don’t even have an option to upgrade the existing OS, you can only install a clean one and start from scratch).

I honestly have no idea what went wrong with the VPS 9 Ubuntu upgrades @deanhills was talking about. Something for sure must have been done wrong by the holder(s) that caused issues. I’ve upgraded my VPS 9 from 18.04 to 20.04 with zero issues (the same upgrade also worked really well on all my local machines which proves that it’s safe).

I’ve also upgraded older versions of Ubuntu during the past several years, which also worked with no issues.

I don’t understand why, according to deanhills, VPS 9 holders have had issues with upgrading Ubuntu... it’s definitely not a hardware problem as, well, not only does that not make sense, but the fact that I upgraded with no issues shows that there’s nothing wrong with VPS 9 itself.

What it could be is potentially a faulty Ubuntu 14 template that VirMach is using (their other Ubuntu templates dont even boot up!!!). This seems to most certainly be the issue. Hence its the templates VirMach is using, not VPS 9 itself.