Software updater won't upgrade to 22.04.5 LTS

What is the output of:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
lsb_release -a
uname -a

Thanks

marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:3 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:5 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Hit:6 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu focal InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see it.
marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libaribb24-0
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro with 'esm-apps' enabled:
  libavformat58 libavfilter7 libmagickcore-6.q16-6-extra imagemagick
  libswresample3 libswresample3 libgegl-0.4-0 libzmq5 libmagickwand-6.q16-6
  libgegl-common libzbar0 libexo-2-0 libpostproc55 ntpdate imagemagick-6.q16
  libavcodec-extra libavcodec58 libavcodec58 libexo-common
  python-pkg-resources libavutil56 libavutil56 libswscale5 libopenexr24
  libsdl2-2.0-0 libsdl2-2.0-0 libmysofa1 libmagickcore-6.q16-6 python-pil
  libde265-0 libexo-helpers imagemagick-6-common
Learn more about Ubuntu Pro at https://ubuntu.com/pro
The following packages have been kept back:
  libavcodec-extra
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ uname -a
Linux marythemoose-H61M-DS2 5.4.0-204-generic #224-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 5 13:38:28 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

If you want to do the release upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04, you can to that by opening a command terminal window and issuing the command
sudo do-release-upgrade

This is the output I get when issue that command:

marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade
[sudo] password for marythemoose:
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

I tried to get the updates, but it says the same thing:

marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Hit:4 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:5 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:6 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

"The following packages have been kept back:
  libavcodec-extra"

What output do you receive for the commands

apt policy libavcodec-extra
apt --simulate install libavcodec-extra

marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ apt policy libavcodec-extra
libavcodec-extra:
  Installed: 7:3.4.8-0ubuntu0.2
  Candidate: 7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1
  Version table:
     7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/universe amd64 Packages
     7:4.2.2-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages
 *** 7:3.4.8-0ubuntu0.2 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ apt --simulate install libavcodec-extra
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt needs root privileges for real execution.
      Also, keep in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 libavcodec-extra : Depends: libavcodec-extra58 (= 7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

What output do you get for

apt --simulate install libavcodec-extra libavcodec-extra58

marythemoose@marythemoose-H61M-DS2:~$ apt --simulate install libavcodec-extra libavcodec-extra58
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt needs root privileges for real execution.
      Also, keep in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  i965-va-driver:i386 intel-media-va-driver:i386 libaom0:i386
  libavcodec-extra57 libavutil55 libavutil56:i386 libcairo-gobject2:i386
  libcodec2-0.9:i386 libcrystalhd3 libdatrie1:i386 libfribidi0:i386
  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 libgomp1:i386 libgraphite2-3:i386 libharfbuzz0b:i386
  libigdgmm11:i386 libmp3lame0:i386 libnuma1:i386 libopenjp2-7:i386
  libpango-1.0-0:i386 libpangocairo-1.0-0:i386 libpangoft2-1.0-0:i386
  librsvg2-2:i386 librsvg2-common:i386 libshine3:i386 libsnappy1v5:i386
  libsoxr0:i386 libspeex1:i386 libstb0:i386 libswresample2 libswresample3:i386
  libthai0:i386 libtwolame0:i386 libva-drm2:i386 libva-x11-2:i386 libva2:i386
  libvdpau1:i386 libvpx5 libvpx6:i386 libwavpack1:i386 libwebpmux3:i386
  libx264-152 libx264-155:i386 libx265-146 libx265-179:i386 libxvidcore4:i386
  libzvbi0:i386 mesa-va-drivers:i386 mesa-vdpau-drivers:i386
  va-driver-all:i386 vdpau-driver-all:i386
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED
  libavcodec58 libavcodec58:i386 libfaudio0:i386
The following NEW packages will be installed
  libavcodec-extra58
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libavcodec-extra
1 to upgrade, 1 to newly install, 3 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
Remv libfaudio0:i386 [20.04-2]
Remv libavcodec58:i386 [7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1]
Remv libavcodec58 [7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1] [audacity:amd64 libavformat58:amd64 libavfilter7:amd64 libchromaprint1:amd64 libgegl-0.4-0:amd64 libfaudio0:amd64 gstreamer1.0-libav:amd64 ]
Inst libavcodec-extra58 (7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1 Ubuntu:20.04/focal-updates, Ubuntu:20.04/focal-security [amd64])
Inst libavcodec-extra [7:3.4.8-0ubuntu0.2] (7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1 Ubuntu:20.04/focal-updates, Ubuntu:20.04/focal-security [amd64])
Conf libavcodec-extra58 (7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1 Ubuntu:20.04/focal-updates, Ubuntu:20.04/focal-security [amd64])
Conf libavcodec-extra (7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1 Ubuntu:20.04/focal-updates, Ubuntu:20.04/focal-security [amd64])

That should work.

sudo apt install libavcodec-extra libavcodec-extra58

Yes! It worked. Thank you so much.

Sorry, this has gone from bad to worse now.
There wasn't enought space in the boot partition for the upgrade, so I removed kernel to make room, but the upgrade failed and aborted, the system restarted, and now it won't run because the kernel is missing.
I've tried every option I can see to boot from what remains but nothing works.
I've downloaded ubuntu onto a usb stick to try to get in that way, but I don't understand how to do this. I've read online about needing to mount systems, chroot into it and install kernels, but I don't understand what any of that means.
I don't even know if I'm booting into the USB drive correctly.

Sorry about this, any help woud be greatly appreciated.

When you boot the system from the hard disk, what exactly happens?
Are you able to force showing the grub menu (by repeatedly hitting the left shift key early during booting)?

If I boot the system and don't hit any keys, it displays a screen of code ends with this line:
[ 2.136022] ---[ end Kernal panic - not syncing: VFS : Unable to mount root fs on unkown-block(0,0) ]---

If I go to the grub menu, it gives me Ubuntu, Advaced options, and memory tests.

The advanced options are Ubuntu, with Linux 5.15.0-130-generic, or the same with recovery mode.

If I try recovery mode, it produces more code but it ends with the same line.

Boot into Ubuntu live USB / CD desktop and run a full fsck on all internal file systems (with them unmounted)

"run a full fsck on all internal file systems (with them unmounted)"

Could you explain how to do this please.

Google is your friend.

Here is an example of pages you'd find
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1518426

Turns out my friend is ChatGPT - this is the output in the terminal, hope this is helpful:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sdb1
fsck from util-linux 2.39.3
fsck.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
/dev/sdb1: 1218 files, 1514409/1961724 clusters

Is there only /dev/sda1? I'm guessing the other is swap space.

Also run:

sudo fsck -f /dev/sda1

To check the file system as well

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck -f /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux 2.39.3
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda1: 324/62248 files (15.4% non-contiguous), 104215/248832 blocks

OK. If you reboot to the installed OS as normal, does it boot OK?

no, same problem as before.

I'll try to take a picture of the text, get it transcribed and post it here...

wn-block(0,0)
 2.127383] CPU:0 PID: 1 Conn: swapper /0 Not tainted 5.15.0-130-generic #140 -Ubuntu
 2.1274451 Hardware name: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. H61M-DS2/H61M-DS2, B IOS F1 07/22/2011
 2.1275071 Call Trace:
2.1275621 < TASK>
2.1276171 show_stack+0x52 0x5c
2.127678] dunp_stack_lvl+0x4a/0x63
2.1277361 dump_stack+0x1040x16
2.127793] panic+0x15c/0x33b
2.1278531 mount_block_root+0x144/0x1dd
2.1279121 mount root +0x10c^0x11c
2.127968] prepare_namespace+0x13f/0x191
2.1280261 kerne l_init_freeab le+0x18c/0x1b5
2.1280831 ? rest_init+0x100/0x100
2.128142] kernel_init+0x1b 0x150
2.1282001 7 rest_init+0x100 0x100
2.1282571 ret _fron_fork+0x2240x30
2.1283181 </TASK> 2.128402] Kernel Offset: 0x22400000 fron 0xffffffff81000000 (relocat ion ra" ge : 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff)
2.128466] ---/ end Kernel panic - not syncing: UFS: Unable to nount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) ]---

https://askubuntu.com/questions/41930/kernel-panic-not-syncing-vfs-unable-to-mount-root-fs-on-unknown-block0-0

Possibly this. Bit of a chroot from live USB desktop

Sorted it. Thanks very much for all your help!