Update Small Devices (<20GB) via USB

Update the Desktop on small devices (<20GB storage) with a USB drive.

Warning

If you manage both standard desktops and mini devices, you must update the standard desktops first before updating the mini devices.

1. Prepare the USB Drive

First, you need to copy the correct update files to a USB drive. This is done on a computer that already has the updates.

Verify Update Exists Locally

Verify the desktop-mini component is available locally. This is the special version for small devices.

# Check for the mini desktop component
tl-comp-latest desktop-mini

If the component is not there, pull it from the bastion first.

Transfer Files to USB

Mount your USB and copy the desktop-mini and admin components to it.

# Mount the 4th partition of your USB drive
sudo mount /dev/sdx4 /mnt 

# Create the destination directories
mkdir -p /mnt/desktop /mnt/admin

# Transfer the mini desktop and the admin component
rsync -avP /srv/desktop-mini/vX.X.X* /mnt/desktop/
rsync -avP /srv/admin/vX.X.X* /mnt/admin/

Note

Replace vX.X.X with the actual version number you found.

Unmount the drive when done:

# Unmount the drive safely
sudo umount /mnt

2. Install the Update

Boot from the USB Drive

Restart the computer and boot from the prepared USB drive. This process varies by device.

Execute the Update

From the USB environment, run the update command, targeting the computer’s internal drive (e.g., /dev/mmcblk0 or /dev/sda).

# Update an existing TechLit system
tl-hw-update-desktop /dev/mmcblk0

Tip

If the above command fails or you want to do a completely fresh installation, you can use tl-hw-prepare instead. See the device provisioning guide for more details.

Complete the Update

After the command finishes, reboot the computer.

reboot