This is fixed nowdays. Both the gtk based ui upgrader and the cli upgrader will figure out automatically if they are on a desktop or a server install.
** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu) Status: Triaged => Fix Released -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/149538 Title: upgrade-manager should cope with server upgrades (or fail gracefully, suggesting alternate tools) -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs