The normal way to do this is to upgrade to 9.04, then again to 9.10.

The upgrade to 9.10 seems to cause problems for a lot of people, so my choice
would be to install from scratch. In most cases, this means backing up all your
data, then restoring it after the fresh installation. Don't forget your email
and browser favorites, which usually need to go through an export/import
process.

I also like to make a list of what software I have installed:
sudo dpkg --get-selections > packagelist.txt

On the new installation, I go through the list manually and install the
applications I use.