Small Storage Devices (32GB or Less)

This guide is for Mini Computers (<20GB) and Chromebooks (32GB). These devices require a USB drive for updates because they lack the storage space for standard background updates.

Prepare the USB Drive (if needed)

Before updating, ensure your USB drive contains the correct update files (desktop for Chromebooks, or desktop-mini for Minis).

Verify Update Exists Locally

On a computer that already has the updates, verify the required component is available.

# For Chromebooks
tl-comp-latest desktop

# For Mini Computers
tl-comp-latest desktop-mini

Transfer Files to USB

Mount your USB and copy the 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 component (replace 'desktop' with 'desktop-mini' if needed)
rsync -avP /srv/desktop/vX.X.X* /mnt/desktop/
rsync -avP /srv/admin/vX.X.X* /mnt/admin/

Note

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

1. Free Up Space (32GB Devices Only)

If you are updating a 32GB Chromebook, you must free up space before proceeding.

Open the application menu and launch the Manage Components tool.
Delete all existing desktop versions and snapshots. This is a critical step.

2. Install the Update

Once your USB is ready, follow these steps on the target computer.

Boot from the USB Drive

Restart the computer and boot from the USB drive.

Chromebooks: Press ESC repeatedly after power-on and select the USB.
Minis: The boot key varies by manufacturer (usually F12, F11, or Esc).

Execute the Command

From the recovery environment, run the update command for the internal drive (usually /dev/mmcblk0 or /dev/sda).

To Update an existing system:

tl-hw-update-desktop /dev/mmcblk0

To Setup a new computer (Fresh Install):

tl-hw-prepare /dev/mmcblk0 tl-xxxx

Tip

If tl-hw-update-desktop fails, use tl-hw-prepare instead. This will wipe the drive and start fresh.

Reboot

After the command finishes, restart the computer.

reboot