Updating Haiku

Do you know you can upgrade Haiku to the latest version ?

Current stable version is R1 Beta5, but in case you need to upgrade to the latest nightly version, this article will explain you how to do.

Please note that upgrading Haiku to the nightly version might bring some instability.

So please use only in specific cases or on a virtualized installation.

Updating to nightly version

We suppose your system is on the stable version R1 Beta5. In order to switch to the nightly version, type the below command in a Terminal :

pkgman add https://eu.hpkg.haiku-os.org/haiku/master/$(getarch)/current

Now launch Haiku Depot and select the "HakuDepot > Manage repositories" menu :

As you can see, a new "Enabled" line has appeared with the Haiku master version which is the nightly one:

Now finalize the installation with the below :

pkgman full-sync

To complete with this update, reboot your system.

If you go to the Haiku source activity website, you will notice the various "hrev" versions corresponding to each additional change committed on a daily basis :

When you system is restarted, launch the "About Haiku" :

As you can see the revision is "hrev58392" corresponding to a commit done 36 hours before (Faster Open State Change) :)

Downgrading to R1 Beta5

Ok now that you are under the Nightly version, what about downgrading to the stable R1 Beta5 ?

Quite simple, type the below command :

pkgman add https://eu.hpkg.haiku-os.org/haiku/r1beta5/$(getarch)/current

If you go back to Haiku Depot, you will notice the "r1beta5" repository is now enabled :

Finalize with :

pkgman full-sync

And complete with a reboot of the system.

If you go again in the "About System", you will see the new version :

Great ! You are now back to R1 Beta5 :)

If you need more details on that topic, there's a nice page named updating and downgrading your system on the official Haiku website.