My basic question

Hardware Librem 5
1

My L5 has dragged me back to linux and I’m rusty. It terms of update I’m using

sudo apt update

which is all good. But it tells me "what " is available for update. I’ve tried a few commands such as

sudo apt update
sudo apt-get update

neither will update the phone.

Could someone please tell me the commands to get the phone to perform the available upgrades/updates?

Sorry for the basic question. I do admit to a quick search only but nothing jumped out so I thought I throw myself at the mercy of the forum.

4 Likes
2

After sudo apt update, run sudo apt upgrade (if any available updates were found.

You can also do it in one go:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Or:
sudo apt update && apt list --upgradable -a
if you want to see what’s upgradable before executing an upgrade.

6 Likes
3

In my opinion, update is kind of a misnomer, as it only means “look for updates” in this context.

Other apt options

$ apt --help

This is the Linux Mint "apt" command.

This commands acts as a wrapper for the APT package manager and many other useful tools such as apt-get, apt-cache, apt-mark, dpkg, aptitude...etc.

It is installed in /usr/local/bin/apt. To use the upstream apt command directly type /usr/bin/apt.

Usage: apt command [options]
       apt help command [options]

Commands:
  add-repository   - Add entries to apt sources.list
  autoclean        - Erase cache for packages no longer available
  autopurge        - Erase system-wide config files left by removed packages
  autoremove       - Remove dependency packages no longer required
  build            - Build binary or source packages from sources
  build-dep        - Configure build-dependencies for source packages
  changelog        - View a package's changelog
  check            - Verify there are no broken dependencies
  clean            - Erase downloaded archive files
  contains         - List packages containing a file
  content          - List files contained in and installed by a package(s)
  deb              - Install a local .deb package
  depends          - Show package dependency information
  dist-upgrade     - Fully upgrade the system by allowing other package changes
  download         - Download packages to the current working directory
  edit-sources     - Edit /etc/apt/sources.list with your preferred text editor
  dselect-upgrade  - Follow dselect selections
  full-upgrade     - Same as 'dist-upgrade'
  held             - List all held packages
  help             - Show help for a command
  hold             - Hold a package
  install          - Install and/or upgrade packages
  list             - List packages handled by the system (e.g., installed)
  policy           - Show policy settings
  purge            - Remove packages and their system-wide configuration files
  recommends       - List missing recommended packages for a particular package
  rdepends         - Show reverse dependency information for a package
  reinstall        - Reinstall packages or install if not yet installed
  remove           - Remove packages
  search           - Search for a package by name and/or expression
  show             - Display detailed information about a package
  showhold         - Same as 'held'
  showsrc          - Display source package records matching the given package
  source           - Download source archives
  sources          - Same as 'edit-sources'
  unhold           - Unhold a package
  update           - Download lists of new/upgradable packages
  upgrade          - Perform a safe upgrade
  version          - Show the installed version of a package
5 Likes
4

Thanks so much for that reply. Got it happening now. Much appreciated!

5 Likes
5

I think that it means “uptdate the local list/database of packages”.

For example, you might do:

apt install somepackage

without doing

apt update

first. That might or might not do what you want, since “somepackage” might have been updated since you last updated your local package list. the install would try to download the old version, which would not be found.

What you think of as update debian calls upgrade. I welcome this granularity.

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6

I agree that the choice of word is unhelpful but it is what it is, and certainly can’t change now.

2 Likes