Update Ubuntu Terminal

Introduction to Ubuntu Terminal

The Linux Terminal is a text interface to our computer. Often, it is known as the prompt, console, terminal, shell, or several other names. It can provide the occurrence of being confusing and complex to use. The ability for copying and pasting commands using a website, comprised with the flexibility and power of the command line provides. It means that using it might be necessary when trying to pursue instructions online.

History of Terminal

During the developmental years of the computer industry, one of the previous operating systems was known as Unix. It was developed for running as a multi-user system over mainframe computers along with users remotely connecting to it by individual terminals.

The terminal was basic by current standards: only a screen and keyboard, with no power to locally run programs. Rather they would just transfer keystrokes to a server and show any data on the screen. There was no mouse, no stylish graphics, not even any color choice. Everything was transferred as text and got as text. Any program that executes on the mainframe had to generate text has a result and except text as the input.

On resources, the text is light as compared to the graphics. From 1970, running several terminals glacially around slow network connections, users were able to negotiate with programs efficiently and quickly. Also, the commands were kept terse for reducing several keystrokes required, speeding up the terminal usage even more. This efficiency and speed is one cause why the text interface is extensively used.

Some key points are below:

When logged into any Unix mainframe by a terminal, all users had to handle the array file management operations that we may now implement with a set of windows and a mouse.
Whether making files, re-titling them, moving them on a disk, or putting them into the subdirectories, users can entirely do everything using a textual interface in the 70s.
All of these operations required its command or program: one for modifying directories, another for listing their contents, a third for renaming or moving files, and so on. The user will connect to an individual master program that can then be used for launching any of the others to coordinate the implementation of all of these programs.
By wrapping the commands of the user, i.e., "shell program", can offer basic capabilities to any of them as the ability for passing data from a single command into another, or for using unique wildcard characters to implement with many similarly titled files at a time.
Users can even write basic code (known as shell scripts) which can be used for automating shell command's long series to make complicated tasks easier.
The actual Unix shell program was just known as sh, but it has been superseded and extended over the years, so on the latest Linux system we are most likely to be applying a shell called is bash.

Opening the Terminal

On the Ubuntu system, we can find the launcher for a terminal by pressing the "Activities" item on the top left side of the screen, then entering the few first letters of "shell", "prompt", "command", or "terminal". The developers have fixed up the launcher with every most basic synonym, so we should have no issues finding it.

Other Ubuntu flavors or other Linux versions will usually have the terminal launcher positioned in a similar place as our other application launches. It may be hidden away inside a submenu or we might have to find it from our launcher, but it is likely to be somewhere there.

If we cannot find any launcher or if we only wish a faster way for bringing up a terminal, almost all Linux systems apply a similar default shortcut of the keyboard to start it, i.e., Ctrl+Alt+T.

However, we launch our terminal, we should end up with an instead simple-looking window along with the odd text bit at the top. Depending on our Linux System, the colors might not be similar, but the general window layout along with a large text area must be similar.

How do we update the terminal?

One of the primary attractions of Linux has received be the fact that the OS and the software it executes are free. On Ubuntu, software updates are free, unlike proprietary systems. We will never need to worry about a wastage of money for the greatest and latest upgrades and applications.

Keeping our Ubuntu server system, installed application, docker, and the kernel is a necessary task of the system admin. An updated system of Ubuntu means increased system stability and fever security problems Linux Ubuntu is pretty user-friendly if it comes to using security patches and updates.

In this article, we will explain how do we update our Ubuntu system with the help of the apt command or many tools of GUI for desktop installation.

The operating system updates of Ubuntu follow a specific cycle, but the version schedule could be a bit confusing. Also, we are going to go on the methods that we can apply to keep our system updated both by GUI and the command line.

Release Cycle of Ubuntu

Ubuntu releases LTS versions every two years. All LTS versions are fully supported with new updates and security patches for five years. If we have not already, we should upgrade our install to the current LTS version so that things smoothly continue to run. This procedure can be done at no cost and takes only a few minutes.

It is possible to proceed with the LTS version and for getting security updates behind the five years plan by subscribing to the Extended Security Maintenance program of Ubuntu. Doing so should just be applicable in very less edge cases, and the standard user does not need to think about it, only upgrade to the current LTS version for free.

Inspect update information

We can always inspect the support duration of our current Ubuntu installation using the below command:

The below screenshot displays the support expiration of the currently installed Ubuntu version. It happens to be a meantime version and the screenshot represents support for the nine months.

If we would quickly like to know what release of Ubuntu we are running so we can compare it with what is available at the site of Canonical. The below command of Linux will provide us the information we are looking for:

Updating by command line

Ubuntu contains a graphical application particularly to apply updates but updating with the terminal offers us a little more control and transparency.

1. We need to first open the terminal window and enter the following command for updating the index list of the packages:

$ sudo apt update

2. This section is not essential, but if we would like to find which packages are to update, then we can enter the below command:

3. If we wanted to individually update packages we can always apply apt install PACKAGE-NAME. Or, for installing updates for every package on our system, we can enter the following command:

Our operating system is upgraded completely once the updates of the packages are ended installing.

Updating by GUI

If we would like to bypass the terminal, it is also possible to upgrade Ubuntu by the GUI.

We need to first open the menu of Applications and search for the Software Updater to get started.
Run the Software Updater and let to find new updates.
We can optionally press the "Details of Updates" option for getting an itemized list of what Ubuntu procedures to upgrade.
We can deselect or select the individual packages we want to update in this menu. Also, we can highlight any package inside the question and press the "Technical Description" option for more information regarding any update of a package.
Press the "Install Now" option to start the upgrade once ready.
We will be needed to enter our administrator password before continuing.
Now, the Ubuntu update should be in progress. Press the "Details" option to check more details about the update of the running system.
Now, our Ubuntu system has been successfully updated, as the closing window should affirm. The Software Updater might advise us to reboot our system for the upgrade to finish.