You installed Linux. Perhaps you installed it to get away from Windows or MacOS, maybe you’re trying to learn some new tech skills or your computer is really old and you don’t want to buy a new one yet. All valid reasons. However, you’re glaring at this new world of an OS and you’re thinking . . . “Well, what do I do now?” I’ve got your back my friend! In this 10 part series, I show you step by step, screenshot by screenshot, how to get your new Linux install set up just the way you need it for your goals.
In Part 1, we talk about how to update your system. Often, your Linux install ISO file doesn’t have the latest updates, hence the need to update. Updating your system also helps lay the foundation for other awesome Linux experiences including productivity, content creation, even gaming. Let’s get started.
Update Your System
There are two primary ways that you can update your system: the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the terminal. The GUI is definitely the easiest way and the way that we will start with, but I encourage you to learn how to use the terminal as well. The terminal actually allows you to do more with Linux and allows you greater OS control. Finally, there are tasks that require the terminal to complete. As you attempt these steps leave a comment below if you run into issues and I’ll get back to you shortly. When you describe the issue, include as much detail as you can (error codes, screenshots, pop up error dialogs, etc.) as it will help me resolve the concern. Let’s learn how to update your OS with the GUI:
Updating your OS with the GUI (Popup method)
Often, the GUI Software Updater may deliver a popup informing you of an update, as you can see below:
To update your system, click “Install Now”
An “Authentication Required” prompt will appear. Type in your admin password and click “Authenticate.”
Once you click authenticate, a status box will appear showing the download status of your updates.
Once the download completes, you’ll see a new prompt asking to install the updates now or to remind you later. For this tutorial, we will focus on installing them now. Click “Install Now.”
You’ll see another “Authentication Required” dialog box as seen previously. Type in your admin password and click “Authenticate.” With most Linux updates you might need to restart in order for them to take effect. Unlike Windows, Zorin will not forcefully restart your computer after an update is installed unless you configure it to do so (I won’t be covering how to set up an auto-restart after an update for this tutorial). I’m clicking “Restart Now.” For further reading on this, you can investigate this Zorin forum post.
Once your system restarts, it is ready for any other tasks that you have. Now, lets talk about how to update with the Software Updater if it doesn’t give a popup and/or if you want to manually check for updates:
Checking for updates with the software updater manually
There’s a couple methods that you can use to open the software updater. The first one is to open the menu (especially if your Linux distro has a Windows “Start” menu style of app launcher) and type in “Software” as shown below:
Click software Updater at the top of the search results
Once you click “Software Updater” in the list, the system will populate a new dialog box showing search activity:
Since we updated the software in the previous process, it shows that the software is up to date. If there were any updates, then the system would provide a similar dialog box as we saw in the previous process.
That covers the Software Updater software. Now, we move on to updating the software via the terminal (which in my opinion is the better option).
Updating Linux OS via the Terminal
The Linux terminal is often intimidating for people as there is a lot to know and a lot that can go wrong if one doesn’t understand how they work. As mentioned above, the terminal is very useful and allows complete control over the OS. When you use a GUI for other programs like a web browser, the buttons that you click on within the software actually execute terminal commands on the system “in the background,” so to speak.
This works well for many situations, but the problem is that are normally more options and commands to use. If the software developer doesn’t code a button for each and every command, then you lose access to those commands if you only use the GUI software to complete your work. If you instead learn terminal commands, you gain access to every option available for that software in addition to others. Imagine the access and control that this gives you! I’ll publish a series at some point about the terminal to help you become more familiar with the terminal. For now, lets use the terminal to update the software
To begin, open terminal by either going to your distro’s (Each type of Linux OS, be it Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Zorin OS, etc. is called a distribution, or distro) app launcher and searching for “Terminal” or by simply browsing your app launcher menu, as shown below.
Once your terminal is open, it will look like this:
Now that the terminal window is open, it is time to execute two easy commands to get the OS to fetch upgrades from the Linux server. The two commands, which are actually combined into one command (explained in a moment) are: “sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y” (when you type these in, do it without the quotes. I used the quotes to illustrate exactly what is included in the command.)
Before we execute this though, lets break down this command a little to explain what each part does:
Sudo = run the command with administrator capabilities (also called superuser or “root”)
apt = Advanced Package Tool (manages the application software packages within Linux)
apt update = check for any updates to the local package index (check if any software or OS updates are available)
&& = run the command after the && only if the command before the && runs properly
apt upgrade = install the upgrades that are downloaded onto the system
-y = if the upgrade process generates any questions, answer yes to all (most updates or upgrades trigger yes/no or similar questions. This command tells the system yes to all)
Understanding a little terminal language now will help you later as you continue to learn/explore Linux.
Press Enter once you have placed the command in the terminal. When you enter a command with “sudo” in it, it will require a password most of the time. Enter your admin password (which you would have set during installation of the OS). One thing to note is that the cursor might not move/show any characters that you’ve typed in when you type this password in, that is normal and it is a security feature. If this is the case with your OS, type in your password as if the cursor is moving and then press Enter. The terminal will tell you if the password was wrong, but if it was right, you’ll see the terminal start to perform its work:
As you can see, we performed the software update earlier, so the terminal shows “0 upgraded, 0 newly installed,” etc. If there were available packages, we would have seen lines showing upgrades being downloaded, packages put in place, etc. and it would have all happened automatically because we included “-y” at the end of the command.
Wrap up
In this guide, we began a series involving updating Linux through the GUI and the terminal. We discussed the ease and/or difficulty of each and how to execute an upgrade with each method. We learned little bits and pieces of what happens behind the scenes when we click a button within a GUI, and actually worked “behind the scenes” with the terminal, which gives more options and control over the Linux system.
In the next part of the series (coming soon), we will go over how to upgrade the drivers on a Linux system. Drivers are important for proper functioning of everything on a system. If there is a certain topic you’d like me to cover here, feel free to let me know in the comments below and share this tutorial with someone that you think would find it useful. Thank you so much for your time and have an awesome day!
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