An operating system should be updated as often as possible. There are several reasons for this. There are two basic reasons for this: we want to be able to install new versions for many programs – these programs themselves get regular updates as well with new features and ways to improve the user experience, which may require the most recent version of the operating system in order to work. The second reason is to improve the operating system’s security features, so that the system does not become too susceptible to malware or hacking attempts from the outside.
It is very unlikely that you will ever have to deal with any security issues on a Raspberry computer. Nevertheless, we will now show you how to keep the operating system and the software on it up-to-date.
The simplest method here is to force an upgrade or update with two simple commands using the terminal. During an update, the following happens: The file package lists of the operating system get scannned and updated. These are stored in the /etc/apt/sources.list directory. For this, we open the terminal and enter the following:
sudo apt-get update
After entering this command, we confirm with the Enter / Return key. When asked if storage space can be used, enter “y” and then confirm again with the Enter / Return key. This whole process can quite a while – roughly around 15 minutes. But you can continue to use your Raspberry Pi in the meantime.
Hint: An update usually does not involve large amounts of data. So as a rule, you do not have to worry about losing a lot of disk storage space in the process.
As soon as the download is complete, we can proceed to install the update. All new versions of a file package are installed here. To do this, we enter the command:
sudo apt-get ugrade
After entering this command, we confirm with the Enter / Return key. When asked if storage space can be used, enter “y” and then confirm again with the Enter / Return key. This process may also take a while. So please be patient. However, you are still free to work on something else, in the meantime.
Great! You’ve updated your system! That way your Raspberry Pi always stays up to date and is better protected against malware attacks. 🙂