Upgrading Wi-Fi packages...whilst connecting to Wi-Fi

[jason_a69]

I am trying to update the packages on a Pi Zero which is located an awful long way from where I am so I would prefer that this didn’t fail!

These are the 2 packages

libglib2.0-0/oldstable 2.66.8-1+deb11u4 armhf [upgradable from: 2.66.8-1+deb11u3]
wpasupplicant/oldstable 2:2.9.0-21+deb11u1 armhf [upgradable from: 2:2.9.0-21]

As I am connected to Wi-Fi I can understand if this cannot be completed, is there a way to download the packages manually and then install them in a script when the box reboots?

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks

Jason

[Jappe]

TLDR;

• download the packages without installing them
• verify that the packages are correctly downloaded
• write a script which installs the packages
• config crontab to run the script on boot
• reboot

(assuming you do this as root user)

1. download the packages

apt-get update
apt-get install --download-only libglib2.0-0 wpasupplicant

2. Verify

ls /var/cache/apt/archives/libglib2.0-0* /var/cache/apt/archives/wpasupplicant*

You should see an output for both files.

3. create the script:

nano ~/update_script.sh
Creates the script in home directory of root.

Content of the script:

#!/bin/bash

# Install the downloaded packages
dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/libglib2.0-0*.deb
dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archages/wpasupplicant*.deb

# Remove the script from the crontab
(crontab -l | grep -v 'update_script.sh') | crontab -

# Delete the script
rm -- "$0"

Save and close nano.

4. Make it executable

chmod +x ~/update_script.sh

5. Add it to crontab

crontab -e

Add the line:

@reboot /root/update_script.sh

6. reboot

reboot

To test the part with the script, crontab and reboot, you could just create a dummy script which creates a file somewhere or something similiar you can verify.

I make no guarantee that it will work

[jason_a69]

Thank you very much!

I will give it a go later and provide feedback.

[jason_a69]

I made a couple of tweeks

• I copied the 2 .deb files from /var/cache/apt/archives to /root
• I put logging in the script because it failed the first time because no PATH was defined and I did not know why. The logging pointed that out.
• I removed the last 5 lines which removes update_script.sh from crontab (I did it manually after the script had run successfully)

So my script looks like this

#!/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

# Install the downloaded packages
dpkg -i /root/libglib2.0-0*.deb >> /root/update_script.log 2>&1
dpkg -i /root/wpasupplicant*.deb >> /root/update_script.log 2>&1

Thanks very much once again.

[Joulinar]

Another option might be using screen tool. This should keep alive the session even if disconnected Debian -- Details of package screen in bookworm