Upgrade

Upgrade an existing install of Regolith.

Regolith 1.4.1 -> Regolith 1.5

If your system already has added the regolith-linux/release PPA, then upgrading is just matter of performing an upgrade:

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

After performing the update, log back in to your system. However, if you have staged your own i3 config file or Xresources root, read the below section Upgrading with Customizations.

Regolith 1.0 - 1.2 -> Regolith 1.5

To upgrade from Regolith 1.0 - 1.2, the PPA URL must be changed and then new package versions are applied by the package manager:

$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kgilmer/regolith-stable
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:regolith-linux/release
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

After performing these steps, you'll need to log out and back again.

Upgrading with Customizations

When updating from a major or minor version (eg 1.2 to 1.3), it is often the case that new Xresource values and other config files have been updated. Existing Xresource and config files such as the i3 config file will need to be updated in order for the upgrade to function properly. If you've customized any Regolith config files or created a stand-alone Xresource file (~/.Xresources-regolith), these may need to be updated to take the upgraded files into account. A simple approach to doing this is to move them elsewhere, perform the upgrade, and then reintegrate any desired customizations into the new files:

$ mkdir ~/regolith-backup
$ mv ~/.Xresources-regolith ~/regolith-backup
$ mv ~/.config/regolith ~/regolith-backup

Once these steps are performed, logging back in should result in a “stock” instance of Regolith. From there, any changes desired to be reintegrated can be done by editing the new versions of the Regolith config files that exist in the /etc/regolith directory.

Edits to /etc/regolith/... files

If you've taken shortcuts and manually edited files owned by root in /etc/regolith or elsewhere, the packaging tool may not update the files, nor mention that stale files have been left. Even removing the package via apt remove ... may not result in a clean system. In this case, use the purge command to remove the package and manually delete any left over files. For example, to clean up the i3 config file:

$ sudo apt purge regolith-i3-gaps-config
$ sudo rm -Rf /etc/regolith/i3 # be sure to backup any important changes
$ sudo apt install regolith-i3-gaps-config

Troubleshooting

Status indicators missing after Upgrade

Regolith 1.4 changes the way in which blocks are installed and configured. This change is necessary to cleanly support the arm64 architecture and make it simple to swap out components like the notification subsystem. From 1.4 onward, blocks are installed by the package manager. See this HowTo on adding and configuring blocks.

Upgrading Ubuntu

The Ubuntu upgrade process automatically removes all PPAs from the system, including Regolith. The Regolith PPA must be re-added once the Ubuntu upgrade completes.

  1. If the standard Ubuntu session is not installed, install it:
    $ sudo apt install ubuntu-session. (If you have it already installed this should cause no harm.)
  2. Perform the upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version.
  3. After rebooting, log into the stock Ubuntu session (not Regolith).
  4. Add the Regolith PPA, as the installation process removed PPAs:
    $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:regolith-linux/release
  5. Upgrade Regolith to the latest version:
    $ sudo apt upgrade && sudo apt install regolith-desktop-standard
  6. Reboot, and now select the Regolith session at the login screen.

NOTE: Some users have reported that regolith-desktop is automatically uninstalled during the upgrade. If this happens, simply run sudo apt install --reinstall regolith-desktop-standard after the upgrade completes to restore the Regolith desktop session.

Reinstallation

In the case that the Regolith desktop environment becomes corrupted or otherwise unbootable, follow these steps to reset it. No user files will be removed as part of this process:

  1. Login to the stock Ubuntu session. If this session is not available, install it with sudo apt install ubuntu-session. If you are unable to login, type ctrl alt F2 to access a TTY. After installing ubuntu-session, you will have the option to select the Ubuntu session type in the login screen.
  2. Uninstall Regolith from within the Ubuntu session:
$ sudo apt purge regolith-*
$ sudo apt autoremove
$ rm -Rf ~/.config/regolith/flags
  1. Verify that no regolith packages are still installed with apt list --installed | grep -i regolith. The command should not return any packages. If it does, manually uninstall them with sudo apt purge <package>.
  2. Reinstall Regolith:
$ sudo apt install regolith-desktop i3xrocks-net-traffic i3xrocks-cpu-usage i3xrocks-time #also consider i3xrocks-battery i3xrocks-memory i3xrocks-weather
  1. Reboot the computer, and when logging in select the “Regolith” session in the gear menu. At this point you can remove ubuntu-session if you don't want the stock GNOME session (optional).

Uninstallation of regolith-desktop

Simply follow these steps to remove Regolith Desktop installed via PPA from your system:

  1. Log out of the Regolith session and into the default Ubuntu session.
  2. Open a terminal and run:
$ sudo apt purge regolith-desktop && sudo apt autoremove
  1. Now remove the PPA:
$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:regolith-linux/release
  1. You can now safely delete the directory ~/.config/regolith.