Pi-hole is a fantastic product for your home network that allows ad blocking at the network level. I thought that it is updated in the same way as all other parts of the system; using the sudo apt-get update
and then sudo apt-get upgrade
. But when I logged into my Pi-hole web interface yesterday, I saw a red message saying Pi-hole Version v4.3.1 (Update available!)
. So how do I update my Pi-hole? In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to update Pi-hole software to the latest version.
Let’s begin
Updating Pi-hole software to the latest version is a really easy process. To do this, we will use the console command pihole -up
. Now, step by step guide.
Log into your Raspberry Pi’s (or whatever you use as a Pi-hole) console.
If your Raspberry Pi is configured to start a graphical desktop when it boots, or if you just prefer to use one, then look for a program called “LXTerminal”.
You can connect to your Raspberry Pi from another computer over the network with SSH using the command
ssh pi@192.168.2.1
in Terminal. Make sure you replace192.168.2.1
with actual IP address of your Raspberry Pi.
Type the following command to check if there is an update of Pi-hole:
pihole -v
Pi-hole version is v4.3.1 (Latest: v4.3.2) AdminLTE version is v4.3 (Latest: v4.3) FTL version is v4.3.1 (Latest: v4.3.1)
In my case, the AdminLTE and FTL is up to date, but the Pi-hole itself is out of date. There is an update v4.3.2.
Type the following command to start the Pi-hole update process:
During the update process, there will be a short period where Pi-hole will not be available.
Nothing in the Pi-hole update process will change your Pi-hole configuration files, unless you have edited any of the files that tell you not to edit them.
pihole -up
[i] Checking for updates... [i] Pi-hole Core: update available [i] Web Interface: up to date [i] FTL: up to date [i] Pi-hole core files out of date, updating local repo. [✓] Check for existing repository in /etc/.pihole [✓] Update repo in /etc/.pihole [i] If you had made any changes in '/etc/.pihole/', they have been stashed using 'git stash' [✓] Root user check .;;,. .ccccc:,. :cccclll:. ..,, :ccccclll. ;ooodc 'ccll:;ll .oooodc .;cll.;;looo:. .. ','. .',,,,,,'. .',,,,,,,,,,. .',,,,,,,,,,,,.... ....''',,,,,,,'....... ......... .... ......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ......... .... ......... ........,,,,,,,'...... ....',,,,,,,,,,,,. .',,,,,,,,,'. .',,,,,,'. ..'''. [i] Existing PHP installation detected : PHP version 7.3.9-1~deb10u1 [i] Performing unattended setup, no whiptail dialogs will be displayed [✓] Disk space check [✓] Update local cache of available packages [✓] Checking apt-get for upgraded packages... up to date! [i] Installer Dependency checks... [✓] Checking for apt-utils [✓] Checking for dialog [✓] Checking for debconf [✓] Checking for dhcpcd5 [✓] Checking for git [✓] Checking for iproute2 [✓] Checking for whiptail [i] Performing reconfiguration, skipping download of local repos [✓] Resetting repository within /etc/.pihole... [✓] Resetting repository within /var/www/html/admin... [i] Main Dependency checks... [✓] Checking for cron [✓] Checking for curl [✓] Checking for dnsutils [✓] Checking for iputils-ping [✓] Checking for lsof [✓] Checking for netcat [✓] Checking for psmisc [✓] Checking for sudo [✓] Checking for unzip [✓] Checking for wget [✓] Checking for idn2 [✓] Checking for sqlite3 [✓] Checking for libcap2-bin [✓] Checking for dns-root-data [✓] Checking for resolvconf [✓] Checking for libcap2 [✓] Checking for lighttpd [✓] Checking for php7.3-common [✓] Checking for php7.3-cgi [✓] Checking for php7.3-sqlite3 [✓] Enabling lighttpd service to start on reboot... [i] FTL Checks... [✓] Detected ARM-hf architecture (armv6 or lower) Using ARM binary [i] Checking for existing FTL binary... [i] Latest FTL Binary already installed (v4.3.1). Confirming Checksum... [i] Checksum correct. No need to download! [✓] Checking for user 'pihole' [✓] Installing scripts from /etc/.pihole [i] Installing configs from /etc/.pihole... [i] Existing dnsmasq.conf found... it is not a Pi-hole file, leaving alone! [✓] Copying 01-pihole.conf to /etc/dnsmasq.d/01-pihole.conf [i] Installing blocking page... [✓] Creating directory for blocking page, and copying files [✗] Backing up index.lighttpd.html No default index.lighttpd.html file found... not backing up [✓] Installing sudoer file [✓] Installing latest Cron script [✓] Installing latest logrotate script [i] Backing up /etc/dnsmasq.conf to /etc/dnsmasq.conf.old [✓] man pages installed and database updated [i] Testing if systemd-resolved is enabled [i] Systemd-resolved is not enabled [✓] Restarting lighttpd service... [✓] Enabling lighttpd service to start on reboot... [i] Restarting services... [✓] Enabling pihole-FTL service to start on reboot... [✓] Restarting pihole-FTL service... [✓] Deleting existing list cache [i] Pi-hole blocking is enabled [✗] DNS resolution is currently unavailable [✓] DNS resolution is now available [i] Neutrino emissions detected... [✓] Pulling blocklist source list into range [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts) [✓] Status: Retrieval successful [i] Target: mirror1.malwaredomains.com (justdomains) [✓] Status: Retrieval successful [i] Target: sysctl.org (hosts) [✓] Status: Retrieval successful [i] Target: zeustracker.abuse.ch (blocklist.php?download=domainblocklist) [✓] Status: Retrieval successful [i] Target: s3.amazonaws.com (simple_tracking.txt) [✓] Status: Retrieval successful [i] Target: s3.amazonaws.com (simple_ad.txt) [✓] Status: Retrieval successful [i] Target: hosts-file.net (ad_servers.txt) [✓] Status: Retrieval successful [✓] Consolidating blocklists [✓] Extracting domains from blocklists [i] Number of domains being pulled in by gravity: 138226 [✓] Removing duplicate domains [i] Number of unique domains trapped in the Event Horizon: 115995 [i] Nothing to whitelist! [i] Number of regex filters: 0 [✓] Parsing domains into hosts format [✓] Cleaning up stray matter [✓] Force-reloading DNS service [✓] DNS service is running [✓] Pi-hole blocking is Enabled [i] The install log is located at: /etc/pihole/install.log Update Complete! Current Pi-hole version is v4.3.2 Current AdminLTE version is v4.3 Current FTL version is v4.3.1
Finally, you can retype the command pihole -v
to verify that you have the latest version of Pi-hole already installed.
pihole -v
Pi-hole version is v4.3.2 (Latest: v4.3.2) AdminLTE version is v4.3 (Latest: v4.3) FTL version is v4.3.1 (Latest: v4.3.1)
Conclusion
That’s it, you’re done. Now you have updated your Pi-hole software. So simple isn’t it?
I hope this article has helped you learn how to update Pi-hole software to the latest version.