Public bug reported:
Hello Ubuntu Development Team,
I would like to report a serious issue that occurred during an upgrade
from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS.
My system was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with the GNOME desktop. During
the release upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS, the upgrade process became
stuck and reported that the software index was broken. Running package
repair commands failed because the package database was locked by a
release upgrader process.
During troubleshooting, we found:
The system reported itself as Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (Resolute).
The release upgrader process became stuck.
The package manager was left in a partially upgraded state.
Core packages such as libc6 and perl were at mixed 24.04 and 26.04 versions.
APT eventually repaired the installation with apt --fix-broken install.
After package repair and reboot, Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS completed successfully and
is now operating normally.
However, after the upgrade I found that my personal files were no longer
present.
Investigation showed:
/home/gary still existed.
No alternate user profile such as /home/gary.old or /home/gary.bak existed.
Standard folders such as Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, and Videos were
nearly empty.
Timestamps on many home-directory folders indicate that they were recreated
around the time of the upgrade.
Browser profiles and application data remained present.
No obvious copies of the missing files were found elsewhere on the system.
Examples of folder timestamps:
Desktop: 2026-09-30 09:21
Music: 2026-09-30 09:21
Public: 2026-09-30 09:21
Templates: 2026-09-30 09:21
Downloads: 2026-10-01 05:31
Pictures: 2026-10-01 10:08
Videos: 2026-10-01 10:09
Documents: 2026-10-01 10:12
The operating system upgrade was ultimately successful, but it appears
that the user profile may have been recreated or reset during the
upgrade process.
Fortunately I have backups, so I am not requesting data recovery
assistance. I am reporting this because the behavior could affect other
users performing an upgrade from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 26.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:26.04.25
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 7.0.0-34.34-generic 7.0.14
Uname: Linux 7.0.0-34-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.34.1-0ubuntu0.1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Oct 1 10:45:20 2026
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-02-22 (3143 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
PATH=(custom, no user)
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm-256color
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:
** Affects: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug dist-upgrade resolute third-party-packages
wayland-session
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Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2169166
Title:
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to 26.04.1 LTS Upgrade Appears to Have Recreated Home
Directory and Lost User Files
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