How to update Manjaro Linux or Arch Linux? This sounds like a simple topic, isn’t it? While this is certainly useful for beginners, reading these ‘simple topics’ often lead to some hidden gems that you might not be aware of.
For example, in this article I’ll discuss both GUI and terminal way of updating your Arch-based distribution. The interesting part is the subtle difference between pacman -Syu and pacman -Syyu (with an extra y) commands.
I am a Manjaro user and I love it. I have written this tutorial using Manjaro but the command part is applicable for other Arch-based distributions as well. I’ll also show the GUI application for Manjaro.
- Updating Manjaro and other Arch-based distributions using command line
- Updating Manjaro Linux using GUI
Let’s see how to keep your software and system up-to-date
Update Arch or Manjaro Linux using command line
You can access the terminal by typing Ctrl+Alt+T or by clicking on the menu button on the left hand side corner and find it by typing terminal. Personally I find that updating any distro through terminal is faster and robust.
Simplest way to update Arch Linux distributions is to use:
sudo pacman -SyuIt compares the local package database against the distribution’s software repository. If there are any new package versions available, you will be prompted to type yes to update the outstanding packages.
There is another way to update your system.
sudo pacman -SyyuYou can notice the extra y in this command. The extra y forces the package manager to download package database regardless of whether there is any change in the versions or not.
This is helpful when you have a corrupted package database and you want to force a synchronization.
I don’t recommend using sudo pacman -Syyu all the time because it will unnecessarily take a long time in synchronizing the database. It will also consume more network bandwidth.
As you can see in the image above, even if my system is up-to-date, the database is still being updated.
Recommended Read:
How to Install and Remove Software in Manjaro Linux
This complete beginner’s guide shows you multiple ways to install and remove software in Manjaro Linux.
Update Manjaro the Graphical Interface (GUI)
I find Manjaro an excellent distribution. If you find it difficult to install Arch Linux, you can try Manjaro Linux. It is based on Arch Linux but a lot more beginner-friendly.
Manjaro provides plenty of graphical tools so you won’t have to use the terminal for most tasks, if you don’t want to.
The process for updating Manjaro through Xfce GUI is quite straight forward. You can either click on the Menu icon on the left handside corner and type software update or you can navigate to the software update option as shown below.
My system is already up-to-date and no further action is needed. If there were any updates, you would see it here.
You might be prompted to restart your system after installing updates in some cases.
I hope you like this quick little tip. Keep on reading It’s FOSS as I add more Arch and Manjaro tutorials.
Hi. I have an old version of Manjaro running on my computer. The friend who originally put this on my computer for me passed away two years ago, and if I try to update, it says there are missing keys and it won’t allow me to do it. Also, I can’t download anything from the repository. I would love to update my system, but my friend also configured a very unique startup page for me, and I’m afraid I’ll lose it if I try to install an entirely new version of Manjaro as opposed to updates. I’m also afraid to do it myself, because I think I’ll screw everything up. Also use the LibreOffice suite. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks
Hello Lydia,
Sorry to hear about your friend. I would surely try to help.
Could you share the last few lines of the error message displayed? It will be a lot better if you do that in our forum because it will be easier for me to follow: https://itsfoss.community/
I want to update only core /system packages in manjaro is there any way for that.
Hi Prashant, there is no way to update a single repository as all of the official repositories are meant to be used as a group.
Packages from community repository may be “linked” to packages from extra and core repository, so just updating community repository will cause problems.
Furthermore you shouldn’t even install a new package without fully upgrading all the packages.
I think it might be helpful if this tutorial explained what S, y, and u represent and why they are used. I’ve just started using Manjaro in a VM at work and your article title caught my attention. To date, I have just been clicking the Update Notification to update the system. While I have now learned the command to run the update reading this article, I still do not know why those letters are used. Coming from an apt background, ‘apt install’ makes sense to me, but ‘-Syu’ remains unclear. Possible words that come to mind for those letters are System, update, and yes, but I’m just guessing. Thank you!
We’ll cover pacman in detail in a separate tutorial.
Hello, the commands can be compared to equivalent apt.
Firstly by running pacman -S –help on terminal you can see the following.
S: Sync
y: refresh
u: sysupgrade
To install a package(s) by name:
pacman -S = apt install
To upgrade Packages:
pacman -Syu = apt update and then apt upgrade
If you run sudo pacman -Sy the command will only sync the databases without upgrading.
To upgrade Packages like distribution upgrades:
pacman -Syu = apt update and then apt dist-upgrade
One of my next articles will be a description of pacman commands to unleash the full potential
Thank you. I appreciate the descriptive reply.
Based on what you have stated, one item that remains unclear is that, while separate items using apt, package upgrades and distribution upgrades use the same command in Arch based systems. I can only assume this is because they are rolling distributions. Is that the reason?
That’s the reason indeed.
You may notice a new release update such as “manjaro-release-19.0.2-1” under the core repository. It’s interesting to keep an eye on your updates to track the distribution changes.
It is probably worth mentioning that you must ALWAYS use a full db refresh (-Syyu) whenever you have messed with mirrors,branches,etc (pacman-mirrors).
If the mirrors return notification that your local package is newer, and this is not on purpose or in error (such as if manjaro has decided to roll-back a package, or if you have moved ‘down’ a branch such as from Testing to Stable) you may wish to add an extra ‘u’ to also allow downgrade syncs (-Syuu if it is not from a mirror change, -Syyuu if is such as after branch change).
A small note – if you have packages from AUR (Arch User Repos) then pacman won’t touch those packages and you’ll have to use whatever tool you used to install them (for example yay or aurman) but the options/flags will likely be the same or simillar as for pacman.
And you can always enable AUR support in pamac
Hey! An individual article for Arch User Repositories (AUR) is in progress already! This topic can get to an extent of being an article by itself so stay tuned as it will be covered thoroughly.
Nice! Can I make a small request and kindly ask to additionally list the current AUR clients as a small bonus in that article?
I don’t use Arch or Arch based distro on daily basis currently but I really enjoyed this past article on ITSFOSS: https://itsfoss.com/best-aur-helpers/
Hi Karlis, your idea has been noted!