Software & Update Management

Overview

openmediavault is a Debian based distribution. It uses APT to install packages. All standard Debian packages are upgraded using the official Debian mirrors. openmediavault packages are upgraded using the https://packages.openmediavault.org repository.

Update Manager

The update manager displays all available packages for upgrade. You can select them if you want to do individual or mass upgrade. The server uses cron-apt to perform a daily apt-get update and fetch upgrade packages automatically. If you have notifications enabled you will receive an email every time packages are ready for installation.

Using CLI

apt-get

If you want to update/upgrade in the console you can use apt-get update then apt-get upgrade.

omv-upgrade

This is non-interactive wrapper script that basically re-synchronizes the package index files from their sources and installs the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system from the sources.

omv-release-upgrade

This is a script which is included only in the last versions of openmediavault before moving to the next major release version, e.g. 5.6.x to 6.x. This command migrates the system to the next major openmediavault version (which mostly includes a Debian distribution upgrade as well).

Installing plugins

Plugins can be installed via the web interface or CLI. If the plugin requires some extra software, the Debian package management will fetch all dependencies from the configured Debian package repositories.

Installing Software

You can install all software available in the Debian repositories on your server.

Warning

Please note that the installation of additional software may impair or prevent the functionality of openmediavault. This includes especially the installation of newer Python package versions via PIP which have already been installed via APT. Also, please do not install packages from Debian Backports, Testing or Experimental repositories, as this may install incompatible package versions. openmediavault is strictly tied to the Debian version it is based on.

Better use a container based solution to install additional software to do not affect the openmediavault operating system.

Install:

$ apt-get install <packagename>

Remove:

$ apt-get remove <packagename>

Purge (remove package and configuration files):

$ apt-get purge <packagename>

Repositories

Debian

The OS repositories are in this file /etc/apt/sources.list.

External

Debian provides the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ folder for adding external repositories. The configuration files for the openmediavault package repositories are located here.

Warning

If there is a strong need to add the Backports, Testing or Experimental Debian repository just to install the most recent software, then please ensure that these packages are properly pinned [1] to avoid the system becoming unstable for adding core unsupported software by mistake.

[1]	https://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences