Upgrading Alpine Linux to a new release branch

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This page covers upgrading Alpine Linux to a newer release branch. To apply regular security updates and bugfixes refer Upgrading a running system.

Upgrading to latest release

When Alpine Linux is installed in sys mode, e.g. on a hard drive, upgrading to the next stable version involves 3 steps

  1. Update Repositories file
  2. Updating package lists
  3. Upgrading packages

i.e Updating the /etc/apk/repositories file followed by a straightforward package manager operation. However, for older release branches, refer Upgrading from older versions for specific upgrade steps.

Warning: Before actually upgrading your system, make sure that you have a backup of your important data and read the release notes


Update Repositories File

The Repositories file /etc/apk/repositories can be updated using one of the following methods.

Using setup-apkrepos script

Launch the setup-apkrepos script:

# setup-apkrepos

Pressing e will open the file to edit using vi editor. Edit the repository lines to reflect the new version number.

Using sed command

Use a one-line command to edit all version numbers in the file "in place". Here's how you'd change v3.19 to v3.20:

# sed -i -e 's/v3\.19/v3\.20/g' /etc/apk/repositories

Manual editing of /etc/apk/repositories

Edit the /etc/apk/repositories file using any editor of your choice (nano for instance) to edit the Alpine Linux package repositories.

Contents of /etc/apk/repositories

http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.19/main http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.19/community

In the above file, to upgrade Alpine Linux from version 3.19 to 3.20, simply replace the number 3.19 by 3.20 in all the places, so that the updated repositories file looks like below:

Contents of /etc/apk/repositories

http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.20/main http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.20/community

Using latest-stable instead of version number

Note, subsequent manual changes of the version numbers in /etc/apk/repositories may be avoided for future release upgrades by having the repository lines refer to "latest-stable" instead of an absolute value:

Contents of /etc/apk/repositories

http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/main http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/community
Warning: Changing the repositories to latest-stable may initiate unexpected release upgrades. So beware of the consequences of unexpected release upgrades, when using latest-stable.


Updating package lists

With the correct repositories file in place, the latest index list of available packages can be obtained with:

# apk update

Tip: Adding the --update-cache or -U to another apk command, as in apk add -U ... or apk upgrade -U, has the same effect as always running apk update immediately before the other apk command. Instead of auto-update it only if the index has not been updated recently.

Upgrading packages

At times it is required to first upgrade just the Alpine Linux Package Manager itself to the latest available version, before upgrading any other package. This was the case, for example, when upgrading from a version of Alpine before 2.3.0_rc1. But simply always doing so shouldn't hurt, either:

# apk add --upgrade apk-tools

Next, to upgrade all installed packages:

# apk upgrade --available

The --available switch is used to force all packages to be upgraded, even if they have the same version numbers. Sometimes changes in musl require doing this.

Note: All services that have been upgraded need to be restarted, to begin using the upgraded version. If the kernel is upgraded, it's required to reboot to begin using the upgraded version:

sync reboot

Upgrading to Edge

An upgrade of Alpine Linux from a stable version to the rolling development version edge basically requires the same steps as Upgrading to latest release.

The crucial difference is, that when editing the /etc/apk/repositories file, all referenced repository versions (such as v3.21 or latest-stable) therein need to be pointing to edge.

When using edge branch, testing repository can be added if the packages that one needs are available only in testing repository.

Note: Remember that, packages in testing repository have no support.


Contents of /etc/apk/repositories

#/media/cdrom/apks http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing

After upgrading to edge, the currently installed edge version may be checked with

$ cat /etc/alpine-release

and referring to the build date that is attached to the release.

Warning: Do not enable stable and edge repos at the same time. This can break your system. Either use edge or stable. If you mix stable and edge repositories, you're on your own.


Upgrading Alpine Linux on CD

Boot media

If the boot media being used (such as a CD, for example) is separate from the media used to store the configuration information, simply download the latest ISO, and replace the boot media contents with the contents of the latest ISO.

If booting from a CD, this would simply mean replacing the CD with a CD made from the new image and rebooting the Alpine Linux box.

Update local package installations

If you have locally installed and configured additional packages using APK caching you should also perform the following steps.

Backup the local configuration prior to upgrading.

lbu ci

Update your repositories using the procedures detailed above. After upgrading the packages, save the upgraded configuration changes, before rebooting the system.

lbu ci

Upgrading Alpine Linux on other removable media (such as CF/USB)

The following instructions are for run-from-RAM Alpine installations running on Compact Flash or USB media. Updating your repositories using the procedures detailed above, then running:

apk upgrade --update-cache --available

will suffice for some purposes. (If you want the new packages to be used after a reboot, you should enable APK caching.)

However, this is not an adequate general solution because it won't honor any kernel upgrades and the like. For the general solution, you'll need to upgrade your boot medium (Compact Flash or USB). That is what the following steps describe how to do.

Setup environment variables

To make the documentation a bit more "generic" we start by setting some environment variables.

vi /etc/lbu/lbu.conf

Make sure that the variable LBU_MEDIA is not commented (by removing the leading '#').

You also need to set a appropriate value for your LBU_MEDIA. The media you choose will be the media where you store your settings/configuration.

Note: Even if you have you alpine installed on CF, HD or USB you can still choose to save your config on some other media that suits your needs. But remember that both the media where you have your Alpine system AND the media where you have your config need to be in your box when booting it.

Examples: 

LBU_MEDIA=usb

or: 

LBU_MEDIA=sda1

Now that you have your /etc/lbu/lbu.conf configured for your needs, we will set the environment variables (note the leading .).

. /etc/lbu/lbu.conf

You can test if your environment variable was set:

echo $LBU_MEDIA

It should output something like usb, sda1, or whatever you just configured.

Back up your config

Before starting to upgrade, it's wise to save your configuration.

lbu ci

Upgrade Operating System

Start by checking that you have enough space on your media. For a standard Alpine image, you need at least 400MB available space.

df -h | grep "Filesystem\|$LBU_MEDIA"

Download and verify new release

Make sure the media that holds your Alpine system is mounted readwrite.

mount -oremount,rw /media/$LBU_MEDIA

If using Alpine Linux 2.2.3 or newer: Download the latest release,

wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/releases/<arch>/<image>.iso

and then use the following command to mount and copy files as needed for you:

setup-bootable -u alpine-extended-<version>-<arch>.iso /media/$LBU_MEDIA

Once the command completes, proceed to the Save changes section.

For older versions of Alpine

Start downloading a new '.iso' and a '.sha1' file

cd /media/$LBU_MEDIA wget -c {{#latestalp:alpine|url}} wget {{#latestalp:alpine|url}}.sha1

Check integrity of the downloaded files (it might take some time):

sha1sum -c {{#latestalp:alpine|file}}.sha1

The output of the above command should say 'OK'.
 If says 'FAILED', delete the iso file and download it again.

If using Alpine Linux 1.10.4 or newer: there is a tool setup-bootable that will mount and copy the image you just downloaded to your boot medium. With this tool simply do:

setup-bootable -u {{#latestalp:alpine|file}} /media/$LBU_MEDIA

Instructions for older versions of Alpine are located elsewhere.

Save changes

Now that all upgrades are done, we should save our settings to our media (which you hopefully have backed up prior to doing this upgrade).

lbu ci

Load new kernel

In most cases you will need to reboot Alpine Linux (especially if there are changes in the kernel):

sync reboot

Note: If you know what you are doing, you might not need to reboot. But make sure that all services affected by the upgrade are restarted.

Update to latest kernel on armhf (eg. Raspberry Pi 0 or 1)

On Alpine 3.X and newer, kernel is not upgraded when using apk upgrade and setup-bootable does not work properly.

If you want to upgrade your kernel, you will need to get it from the latest release, but first you must have and run :

apk update; apk version -l '<'; apk upgrade; lbu ci;

So now all your packages are upgraded, you can upgrade your kernel.

1. We need to get some variables :

. /etc/os-release; . /etc/lbu/lbu.conf; ARCH=$(cat /etc/apk/arch);

2. You must verify if they are correctly set, using this :

echo "alpine version : $VERSION_ID"; echo "lbu media : $LBU_MEDIA"; echo "arch : $ARCH"

3. And it will output something like this (if not, do not continue this process) :

alpine version : 3.16.2 lbu media : mmcblk0p1 arch : armhf

4. Then you can run this script (WARNING : config.txt will be overwritten!) :

cd /media/$LBU_MEDIA; mount -oremount,rw /media/$LBU_MEDIA; wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/releases/$ARCH/alpine-rpi-$VERSION_ID-$ARCH.tar.gz; wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/releases/$ARCH/alpine-rpi-$VERSION_ID-$ARCH.tar.gz.sha256; sha256sum -c *.sha256; rm /media/$LBU_MEDIA/apks/$ARCH/*; rm /media/$LBU_MEDIA/cache/*; apk update && apk cache -v download; tar xzf alpine-rpi-$VERSION_ID-$ARCH.tar.gz; rm alpine-rpi-$VERSION_ID-$ARCH.tar.gz alpine-rpi-$VERSION_ID-$ARCH.tar.gz.sha256; sync; reboot;

5. Test-it !

uname -a

Alternatively, you may upgrade the kernel from repositories.

Update local package installations

This is done just as at #Update local package installations, above.

Updating a USB/CF diskless install without setup-bootable

It is possible to update a diskless install of Alpine from another system, or without using the setup-bootable script. This was tested for the 3.13 to the 3.14 upgrade on a Raspberry Pi.

Before starting, update /etc/apk/repositories file to retrieve packages for the new release. Then update all packages with:

apk update && apk upgrade -i -a --update-cache

We can then use update-conf to check for changes to configurations from the new packages.

# check apk-new config changes update-conf -a -l update-conf -a

We now need to prepare to update the kernel and boot materials. To do this, we stop the modloop (which is the loopback mount providing kernel modules) and remount the SD media as read/write.

We can also shutdown the system, eject the media, and perform the next steps on another machine (if so, skip this command block)

rc-service modloop stop mount /media/mmcblk0p1 -o remount,rw cd /media/mmcblk0p1

At this point, remove all files from the SD media except for /cache, *.apkvol.tar.gz, usercfg.txt, and config.txt Rename config.txt to config.txt.bak temporarily, as extracting the new tar file will overwrite the file.

We can now download the new release and extract it. This example is for an Alpine Raspberry Pi release, so feel free to adjust the URLs for your system.

wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.13/releases/aarch64/alpine-rpi-3.13.0-aarch64.tar.gz.sha256 wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.13/releases/aarch64/alpine-rpi-3.13.0-aarch64.tar.gz sha256sum -c *.sha256 tar zxf *-aarch64.tar.gz && sync rm alpine-rpi-*

Restore the original config.txt:

mv config.txt.bak config.txt

Update the persistent storage using lbu:

lbu ci -d

We can now reboot, and this should boot into the new kernel. Once this is done, we can clean up and re-download apk caches:

mount /media/mmcblk0p1 -o remount,rw rm /media/mmcblk0p1/cache/* sync && apk update && apk cache -v download mount /media/mmcblk0p1 -o remount,ro

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