There are several ways to update openSUSE Leap. However, there is one way that has served me the best over the last 10 years using openSUSE. And this is via the YaST Software Management graphical (GUI) interface.

Other ways to update openSUSE Leap are:

• Via the command line / Zypper
• YaST online update
• KDE Plasma Software Updates

The command line / Zypper method works just as well as the method described in this article. However, not everybody is comfortable with using the command line (CLI) interface.

YaST online update is good for patching openSUSE official software, however this doesn’t cover software patches from third party repositories such as Packman or Google Chrome.

KDE Plasma Software Updates does find all software that needs updating, however it isn’t smart enough to resolve all issues So sometimes a software update will fail because of missing dependencies or package conflicts.

Using YaST Software Management for updating an openSUSE Leap system is therefore the most reliable way of doing it. The first step in this method is to open YaST and then open Software Management.

The next step is to open the tab Repositories. If you have used this tab before, it should already be available. Otherwise, click on the View button and then select Repositories.

In this tab, click on one of the software packages with the right mouse button (context click) and select ‘All in This List’ and then click on ‘ Update if newer version available’.

Now go to the tab Installation Summary and click on the Accept button.

In many cases there are also Automatic Changes, these are dependent software packages that will be automatically updated to the right version or will be automatically installed. Click Continue to advance.

Now the update will start and all updates will be downloaded and installed.

In some situations a new Linux kernel is installed as well. The system will need to reboot for this new kernel to work. All other software packages will function normally and will not require any system reboot. So you can continue working if you want to. But reboot your system after finishing your activities. Click OK to advance.

In the end YaST Software Management will present an overview of the installed software packages. Click on Finish to end the update process. Or click on Continue if you like to install additional software packages.

Conclusion

The YaST Software Management tool is the most reliable way to update your openSUSE Leap system via a graphical (GUI) interface. In a future article I will address updating openSUSE (Leap and Tumbleweed) systems via the command line.

Published on: 1 January 2020