Finding New Packages and Upgrading Packages with Synaptic

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If you just want to find out what packages are available on the APT repositories but are not installed on your machine, click the Show drop-down menu button at the top of the Synaptic window that, by default, says All Packages, and select Not Installed. Synaptic will then display only those packages available for download that are not yet installed on your system.

If you instead want to know which of your packages are upgradable, go to the same drop-down menu button and select Upgradable. Synaptic will then show you what packages on your system are upgradable, what version of a given package you have, and what more recent version is available for download. You can then choose the packages you want to upgrade, and click the Upgrade button. Once you are done with your selections, you need only click the Execute button in the main Synaptic window to start getting the files.

You can also upgrade every package that is upgradable by clicking the Upgrade All button at the top of the main Synaptic window (and don’t mess with the Dist Upgrade button). Of course, this could require a lot of downloading time, so once you’ve clicked that button, and the Execute button after that, check out the Operation Summary window before committing to the process to see how much data you will have to download. A full system upgrade may require downloading over 100MB of files — a very hefty download if you are working with a dial-up Internet connection. If you think you can bear the size of the download indicated in your case, click the Proceed button in the Operation Summary window; if not, click Cancel.

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