Welcome, @jrains .
As stated above, the instructions you found won’t work on the Librem 5’s architecture, but in answer to your request for help in understanding their meaning and usage:
Those groups of text, one at a time, would be copied or typed into the terminal, with each one followed by a press of the Enter
key, to execute them.
The #
symbol in this context means “what follows this symbol is just a comment or instruction.” It is used throughout the file system, for example, in configuration files. You will frequently see online guides telling you to “Comment out that line” or “Uncomment that line.” Translation: insert or remove the #
.
In the terminal, every action begins with a “command,” and everything you type is case-sensitive. (Spaces matter, too.) Some commands require “admin-level” access and must be prefaced with the sudo
command (sudo
= “superuser do”), because they could damage your system if not used properly. If you try to run such a command without sudo
, you’ll get a “permission denied” message.
The terminal command wget
basically means go get a file from the indicated website. (Caution: this implies that you trust that website.)
The -o-
following wget
is an “option” that tacks on an additional instruction for performing the command, e.g. “output to a file.” You can learn which arguments are used with specific commands by typing --help
after the command in the terminal; for example: wget --help
will list all the arguments usable with wget
.
The commands in those instructions are directing the system to download files, verify the files’ integrity, save them to the appropriate directories in the file system, and finally install the application. Read about them by typing or copying each command into the terminal, followed by the Enter
key, one at a time.
wget--help
gpg --help
cat --help
tee --help
echo --help
apt --help
update --help
install --help
You can also find lots of guides on the internet about how to use any command.
It’s important to always perform an update following any installation, and also on a regular basis, i.e. daily, or whenever the system notifies you that updates are available. Many updates are critical to security and should be applied as soon as possible.
On the Librem 5, you can update from the PureOS software application with the press of a button, or from the terminal.
The terminal commands to perform updates are:
sudo apt update
(That downloads the list of available updates for any applications in the system.)
sudo apt upgrade
(That applies the updates, if any were found.)
Note that if you have installed flathub and any flatpaks
, they will be updated along with system packages when you update from the PureOS software app, but in order to update them from the terminal, you’ll need to execute a separate command:
flatpak update
Learning Linux is a process that happens naturally as you use it. There’s no need to try and memorize everything immediately; whenever any particular need arises, just go to the internet and find a reputable guide that’s relevant and recent. Most of the time, you’ll probably just use the graphical user interface, but the terminal is very helpful, if not unavoidable for some actions.
Here’s a great overview for using the terminal, with a free, downloadable e-book at the end. You can refer to it as needed.