Raspberry Pi Updater

A simple script to automatically resume downloading updates.

Note: This script is needed only if the Pi has an unsteady Wi-Fi connection.

Have you ever had the following ecperience? You start your Raspberry Pi downloading updates. Then you leave the room for a while. When you return, you find that your Raspberry Pi failed to "fetch some archives."

That is precisely what this script is for.

Prerequities

To run the script, Python 3.11 must be installed on the machine. The script uses a third-prty library called Rich. So, a virtual environment is needed.

To set up a Python virtual environment (in this case, venv), navigate to the folder in which you wish to house the script. Open a terminal window from that folder (press F4) and enter the following command:

# Install the virtual environment
python -m venv venv --prompt="updater"

Activate the virtual environment with the following command:

# Activate the virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

If you are not using bash, replace source with a period (.):

# Alternate activation method.
. venv/bin/activate

Update pip with this command:

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Now, install Rich:

pip install rich

The script updater.py was developed using rich version 13.7.0, though other versions should work, too.

How to use the Script

With the virtual environment activated, the script can be run this way:

python updater.py sudo apt update

Without the virtual environment activated, the script can also be run using the bash convenience script, updater.sh:

bash updater.sh

Currently, the script prompts you for the commands. This will change later to accept the commands on the same line that invokes the script.

All updater.sh does is activate the Python virtual environment, accept a command from the user and then run updater.py.

Supported Commands

• sudo apt update
• sudo apt upgrade
• sudo apy dist-upgrade
• sudo apt full-upgrade

Any additional flags to these commands, such as -y, are also supported.

What RPI-Updater Does

• Resumes downloading updates if the download times out.
• Keeps trying to connect to the internet if the connection is lost.
• Keeps running until stopped by the user.

What RPI-Updater Does Not Do

• Install updates or programs.
• Automate installing updates

Disclaimer

This script was developed using Python 3.11.2 on a Raspberry Pi 4, running Bookworm OS. It has not been tested on any other machine or operating system.