How do I update Ubuntu Linux softwares?

by nixCraft on May 18, 2006 · 35 comments· last updated at July 24, 2007

Q. I have latest version of Ubuntu Linux. How do I update Ubuntu Linux for security and application fix or upgrades?

A. Ubuntu Linux can be upgraded using GUI tools or using traditional command line tools.

Using apt-get command line tool

apt-get is the command-line tool for handling packages. You can use following command options:

=> apt-get update : Update is used to resynchronize the package index files from their sources via Internet.

=> apt-get upgrade : Upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system

=> apt-get install package-name : install is followed by one or more packages desired for installation. If package is already installed it will try to update to latest version.

a) Open terminal and type following two commands (Application > Accessories > Terminal):

b) Get update software list, enter:
$ sudo apt-get update

c) Update software(s) i.e. apply updates:
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

d) Please note that above two command will fetch files from Internet. The location of update pages is specified in /etc/apt/sources.list (repositories). You need NOT to make any changes to this file until and unless you need extra repositories for your setup.

e) To upgrade individual software called foo type command:
$ sudo apt-get install foo

Using Ubuntu Update Manager tool

This is GUI tool. It works like Microsoft /Red Hat update manager i.e. you will see a little icon in the kicker bar/taskbar when there are updates. It will only appear when new upgrades are available. All you have to do is click on it and follow the online instructions.

You can also star GUI tool by Clicking System > Administration > Update Manager

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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }

1 kingsly October 2, 2007 at 9:31 am

up date Ubuntu6.06 i have Ubuntu6.10isofile

2 Phan November 9, 2007 at 6:01 am

I installed ubuntu sofware in my laptop but I can changed the display of monitor (the evolution of screen is only 1240×768). I want to change it into 1240×800 to fit with the widescreen. So what do I do to change it.
I want to have vietnamese font in ubunto? please let me know the way to get it!
thank you very much!

3 son March 3, 2008 at 6:12 pm

I installed the ubuntu 7.10 versiyon.At the beginning ı can not connect the internet then find a way and mozilla can connect the web.But there is a problem about updates ı have not a web connection for doing updates.no problem about modem no problem about networking and mozilla work good but other application like pidgin and updates do not connect web.What can ı do?

4 Silencedbear December 25, 2010 at 10:48 pm: Try updating your software sources. Go to linux ubuntu website and search for software sources. I had this problem similar to this with my Pidgen. I had to change the server addresses for my Yahoo chat to work. But you go to System>Administration>Software Sources. Hope This Helps You….
Reply

5 Matey December 15, 2008 at 4:48 pm

I cannot update my Feisty 7.04 and don’t have GUI on the server!
How can I do any updates at all?
apt-get update returns a lot of errors but downloads some things? I do not know what or where?
and apt-get install update does Not work and gives me E: error !
I know now that ubuntu has abandoned the 7.04 version and has changed the link/ulr so the server cant find the files it needs (to download). but when I try to put a correct link in my sources.list file the errors continue!?
Does anyone know how to Manually install the updates???
Now if Microsoft had change the URL, we would never hear the end of it, that is only fair not to mess with the configuration files on a fairly new operating system (feisty 7.04 is not that old at all, compared to NT is a new born baby)!
I am new in linux and really like some of the features but it sucks when you have to spend all your time on a dumb little simple matter as to an update,

6 Brian January 14, 2009 at 8:24 pm

Working Ubuntu server from the command-line, this help was very useful.

7 john March 25, 2009 at 3:15 am

I the speed of updating is so slowly,what should i do to update faster?

8 Chris Cummings June 11, 2010 at 5:44 pm: is that bad?
Reply
9 yannaing March 9, 2012 at 10:25 am: yes…..it was last updated for 113 days ago….fuck the update manager……check,check,check
Reply

10 Matey March 26, 2009 at 5:33 pm

if you update your network settings and if you are getting IP address from DHCP you can run dhclient eth0 (or whatever NIC) and update the net info.
this will improve your speed.

11 james May 15, 2009 at 1:25 am

Hello,
I installed ubuntu linux 9.0 on my computer how can i install a program i bought from the store or add a new graphics card. I have been trying to put new programs on my computer but the disc always comes up as a file and doesn’t autorun the program for installation. need much help thank you

12 mehdi May 15, 2009 at 9:56 am

If you are in the Graphical mode (GUI) then you can browse the cdrom to see what program is executable (usually install.sh or similar program).
If the CD is a linux program then a shortcut (link) to it will appear on your desktop.

If you are in the command line;
There are usually a link (or shortcut) to the CDROM in the root of your drive, if there isnt then you have to cd /media then cd cdrom .
if you have the rights (login as root or type su ) then you can cd /cdrom
(after you load the cd in the drive) then you can do an ls to see any install.sh program or README file to tell you how to install that program.

13 Dennis Quek June 11, 2009 at 6:37 am

Great stuff, but can you upgrade just a single package eg. phpmyadmin only?

14 SEanS July 13, 2009 at 2:49 pm

Very good if you have a working system! But mine is not working so I can’t up date cos my upgrade is not completed until the desktop is updated and running.

So do I just re-load again or have I misses some thing?

Rgds SEanS

15 Boi October 5, 2009 at 9:48 am

How can you install a windows program on ubuntu?

16 zafer May 9, 2011 at 3:11 pm: firstly you must install wine. after you can install windows program together wine.
Reply

17 Mehdi October 6, 2009 at 12:01 pm

I am not an expert in Linux but I think you have to use the fdisk program in linux to create an NTFS or FAT32 partition so you can install Windows on it.
fdisk in command prompt is easy to use really,
you can do an fdisk -l (L) to see what is available then do fdisk /dev/sda1 or whatever
press m for help. then l to see the list of partitions. (i.e 8e for LVM or virtual drives in Linux)…

OR if you already have an unused partition (empty) you can install Windows on it.
but take extra care not to format the linux partition.

IF your Linux system does not come up correctly you can type fsck to fix it.

18 Fernando Luna October 12, 2009 at 6:54 pm

There may be a suitable alternative to your Windows program, depending on what it is. There are lots of choices as far as open source software goes, you might get lucky.

You might also be able to use Wine, a Windows Emulator to install and run your Windows program, again, depending on what program it is.

19 soulsinner November 19, 2009 at 4:20 pm

Hello all….
It’s been great with the Karmic. I’m using it almost anywhere. And it does work like charm after install.. And right now i’m learning the command so i can setup my own server box. Mehdi, you are a great guy, always trying to help others… So i want to add a bit on what mehdi talk about.
If u want to run a windows program install WINE and then you can run a lot of windows program(not all.. go to winehq and read the list)
I can run my warcraft & Counter Strike that reside on my NTFS(windows) partition just like that. WINE is really a great program.
2. U don’t need fdisk all the way to manage a partition. Use gParted instead. Shrink the partition. make a new empty partition and boot up the windows cd and install windows. then configure the GRUB loader to boot your windows as well.
3. Always make time to read some tutorial and browse the forum. It will help you greatly. And try to always use the terminal to make you more understand linux (although ubuntu have done a well done job on the GUI side)

20 mike runner March 11, 2010 at 9:13 pm

after installing packages how can i see the list of the packages or files that were just install? I am talking use terminal commands?

21 Rambang gedian October 23, 2010 at 9:44 am

I HAVE problem to activate ubuntu 10.6 in my compture,,,,

22 Sisay milkias April 29, 2011 at 3:53 pm

I’ve faced a problem in using ubuntu to update softweres of midia player ,video player,to running & to compile fortran programming language & more help me

23 Kevin May 24, 2011 at 8:57 am

I am very new to ubuntu linux, I was wondering, if I have Ubuntu and I want to upgrade it to the next version, will the drivers (and etc), get updated (or at least stay there) as well? Or do I need to install one and each of them again manually?

24 Matey May 25, 2011 at 2:20 pm: I am new and still learning but here’s what I know:
If you have a computer which is running Windows then I suggest to use the Wubi which is a small file but installs the latest version of Ubuntu for you (without making changes in your file allocation table or boot sector and you will Not lose any of your Windows files, and it defaults into Windows with Ubuntu as 2nd choice).
As for the updates and upgrades Ubuntu has a program which comes up automatically and asks you to verify username/password and then it updates it regularly (You can turn that option off or set it in longer intervals), Otherwise you can do it in terminal by sudo apt-get updates or upgrade.
I had a bit of problem with the Auto Updates (In GUI) with version 10.x, I have not had any trouble with (the auto-updates) in this new (11.x ) version so far and I have been using it for few weeks now.
In the last version it would totally freeze the computer and the last time it froze I lost everything (of course it was a learning machine and I didnt rely on it for anything) But then other people told me they had same problem (in version 10.x).
So to be on the safe side, try to use the command line for updates and upgrades.
Also I think with updates you update the lib. files and some drivers but with upgrade you upgrade the kernel file?!
good luck.
Reply

25 William July 26, 2011 at 4:37 am

I am having troubles updating my 7.04 Feisty. I am trying to update to 11.04, but am not successful. I have the CD for it, and every time i run it, it takes forever, and doesnt seem to do anything. After a while, at the bottom, a few numbers and file names appear. it counts up from 1, and just keeps going up every second. It reached 8500 until i turned it off. Why will 11.04 get installed?

26 Matey July 26, 2011 at 10:05 pm

I used to have the same problem with updating, it was my hardware I think , I used different method of installation (used all the different options) but nothing worked.
Have you taken different options to see if it works? Do you have enough Hard Drive space left for an update?
Anyway now I do a partition-less install using Wubi but that is an exe file and only works in Windows. If they have something like Wubi for Linux, it would be excellent cuz it works great. (May be you can use Wine to run Wubi inside Ubuntu)? it is a 1.4 meg file but it picks up the latest version of Ubuntu for you and installs it.
good luck.

27 Milon August 19, 2011 at 1:36 pm

I did a mistake when I was running some programs. By mistake I pressed the update button on the software update page. Immediately I pressed the cancel button to cancel the update installation. But I didn’t able to cancel it. Then I pressed the shut down button immediately. After that when I started the computer, I didn’t able to open the computer anymore. it shows some spectral line on the screne.

Please give me some suggestion. Thank you.

28 Shivendra Mishra September 23, 2011 at 3:11 am

It’s writing command not found on my machine.

29 Carl September 28, 2011 at 5:35 pm

I can’t update my ubuntu drivers please someone help

30 naaree June 13, 2012 at 9:01 pm

i am intrested the program of ubuntu linux because i have learn about

31 Alain kat July 12, 2012 at 2:15 pm

I used to have the same problem with updating, and lose sound and other software by the way it was my hardware, I used different method of installation with network connection and I used all the different options and all worked.

32 eb4671 November 8, 2012 at 3:57 am

I’m VERY VERY new to ubuntu:

I installed 12.10 rebooted and ran the update and upgrade commands! after rebooting all I see is a dos looking window with something like the below:

Last login: Wed Nov 7 21:24: CST 2012 on tty1
Welcome to unbuntu 12.10 (GNU/Linux 3.5.0-17-generic i686)

* Documentation: https://help.unbuntu.com/
~$

I was hoping to see some sort of a window GUI screen after installing and updating!

Any ideas?

33 Matey November 9, 2012 at 2:27 am

I’ve been away for so long…anyway
login as root or admin, the root is there but you probably have to change his password so first do a su for super uswer then see if it takes your login, if not do a passwd root and set a new password but never log in as root bc it is dangerous and can wipe out your hard drive or do other damages without you meaning to do so…

create a user by adduseror useradd and then passwd user (whatever name you gave it) enter password 2ice and then run X for xwindow
you ,might want to try holding the Alt key then pressing F7(or shift alt f7) to see if the windows already loaded.
If not then reinstall the GUI or xwindows…(Hopefully you have netwirk connection because you will need to use the command apt-get a lot to downoad and install programs).If you are using MS Windows then you may want to install Wine(its a huge progrqam but you can run .exe and other files just like in windows)
good luck!

sorry I have been away for so long that I have forgotten a lot of my linux. I ythink 7x was the latest when I was running linux servers heh..been a while
hopefully someone else will reply.

34 Matey November 9, 2012 at 2:32 am

sorry about the typos..
adduser
or
useradd
both work but one is more elaborated

anyway it was network not netwirk…also it was supposed to be “I think version 7.x was the latest” not I ythink…anyway:
hopefully one of these days I’ll get me a job then I can get back into working on linux….
:-)

35 Eduardo de Oliveira December 19, 2012 at 4:05 pm