So you’ve installed Ubuntu on Bash on Windows 10, and you’re having fun using all your favourite Bash commands and CLI apps on a Windows device.
But hold up.
Have you run lsb_release -a yet? If you do you’ll see that you’re running Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS.
Hey, it’s a great release. But wouldn’t you rather be running the latest Long Term Support release of Ubuntu, Ubuntu 16.04?
According to this thread on the Bash on Windows bug tracker an upgrade to the Xenial Xerus “…is definitely something we [Microsoft] will be looking to support in (during) the next release.”
But when is that exactly?!
Upgrade Ubuntu on Bash on WIndows 10 to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
So you’re brave, don’t mind potentially hosing your Windows subsystem for Linux (WSL) install, and want to know how to do it.
It’s an ugly hack but also an obvious one assuming you’re familiar with command-line upgrades:
sudo do-release-upgrade -f DistUpgradeViewNonInteractive -d
This won’t complete gracefully and will get stuck at a y/n prompt. You’ll need to Ctrl + C your way out. Run the following command to complete the upgrade:
sudo dpkg --configure -a
Finally, run the standard apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade and apt-get autoremove to finish things off.
I should note that I have not tried the technique.