This page details the Endless OS system software updates. Please note that the Applications & Application runtimes are managed separately.
Endless OS uses OSTree, a non-destructive and atomic technique to deploy operating system updates. That means updates can be installed without affecting the running state of the system, making the process safe and robust from environmental factors such as a sudden power loss.
Endless OS updates are published according to planned engineering efforts from the development team. Stay connected to our Community to become aware of such plans, and view our Developer documentation for information how to obtain pre-release development and beta versions.
When connected to the internet with WiFi or ethernet, Endless OS will periodically check if updates are available, and if so, will proceed to automatically download them from the internet, and apply them in the background. The user will receive a desktop notification when an update is available, and when the machine is ready to be restarted.
Endless OS updates can also be obtained and installed through the following methods:
Once a user moves or renames anything on his/her desktop, that user now maintains his/her own copy of the icon grid layout, so any changes made to the default desktop icon grid do not impact existing users.
However, if the user has not made any desktop modifications and then receives an OS update, any updated desktop icon layout present in the new version will take immediate effect.
After an upgrade, one previous version of the OS is kept on your computer. This makes it possible to roll back to the old version if there is a problem with the new version.
With OSTree, keeping a previous version of the OS does not double the disk space used: only the differences between the two versions need to be stored. For minor upgrades (such as 3.4.0 to 3.4.1) the difference is typically only a few megabytes. For major upgrades (such as 3.3.x to 3.4.x) the difference is significantly larger, but the ability to roll back to the old version is even more valuable.
If you are very short of disk space after a major upgrade, you can remove the previous version by opening a Terminal window and running this command:
$ sudo ostree admin undeploy 1
This will last until the next time an OS upgrade is available.