In this article, we will see how to quickly upgrade to Elementary OS 5.1 Hera using System settings and from the command line.

The team at Elementary OS had released the next major update Elementary OS 5.1 code-named Hera. With its clean design and highly monitored AppCenter, Elementary OS has build it’s own user base in recent time. You can read more about what the latest release has to offer :

What’s new in Elementary OS 5.1

This article is for the Elementary OS users who are still running 5.0 Juno release.

If you are running Elementary OS 5.0 Juno, you can easily upgrade your system to the latest release. You can do it either via the System Settings or use the Terminal to upgrade your system.

One thing to note is if you are using any older Elementary OS release than Juno, there is no way of upgrading it to Hera. You have to rather go with a clean install.

First thing, lets check which release you are using. Open up System Settings > About page to see the current version you are running. As you can see below, I am currently running elementary OS 5 Juno 64-bit system running on a i5 processor.

Elementary OS 5 Juno

Now, lets see the two ways with which you can upgrade to Elementary OS 5.1 Hera.

Using System Update – GUI way

Open System Settings > About > Check for Updates.

Under Installed tab, you will see an option of Operating System Updates along with individual applications that requires updates. You can either just proceed with the Operating System Updates or Update everything.

Installed Apps

It’s recommended to Update All to upgrade to Elementary OS 5.1 along with all the default applications and the non-curated ones.

This step will download all the updates and install it. You can boot into Elementary OS Hera once it’s finished.

Upgrade to Elementary OS 5.1 using Command Line

The other way you can upgrade your system is through command line. Open a Terminal and type in below command to find out the current release.

ambarish@ElementaryOS :~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: elementary
Description: elementary OS 5.0 Juno
Release: 5.0
Codename: juno

Let update the system first.

sudo apt-get update

Once done, you can start the upgrade.

sudo apt-get upgrade

This will calculate your upgrade and provide the list of packages that were automatically installed and are no longer required. It also lists out the package that will remain as it is and the ones which will be upgraded.

Type ‘Y’ for yes and press to continue. This will download all the updates and upgrade your system to the latest ElementaryOS 5.1 Hera.

In between installation, you will see a warning of services getting restarted and whether you want to approve all the restarts without any further asking. Select Yes and continue.

Upgrade to Elementary OS 5.1

The upgrade to Elementary OS 5.1 will take its own time, depending upon your internet speed. Once it’s done, restart your system to boot into the Elementary OS 5.1 Hera release.

Elementary OS 5.1 Hera

Additionally, you can improve the hardware support using below command

sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-hwe-18.04

Wrapping Up

Congratulations, you are now running the latest release of Elementary OS. Let us know in the comments if you face any issue!