How to upgrade geth and mist in Ubuntu?

Question

I set up a Ubuntu laptop specifically to install Geth/Mist 0.5.2 and have not upgraded since. I want to upgrade to 0.8.1 but need some direction. Am happy to work from terminal, but don't have enough background to do this on my own.

I have searched reddit and StackExchange but haven't seen an upgrade walk through for absolute beginners. I have downloaded Ethereum-Wallet-linux64-0-8-1.zip from https://github.com/ethereum/mist/releases but don't know if I just need to open the wallet icon to update or work from the command line. I have ether in my wallet that I don't want to lose. My keys are backed up. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Upgrading Mist on Ubuntu

1. Backup your keystore (/.ethereum/keystore)
2. Backup your data folder (/.config/Mist)
3. Download the latest zip from here and install.

For more information on backing up wallets, see here: How to backup mist wallets?

Upgrading go-ethereum:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

or simply build the git repository.

git clone https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum
cd go-ethereum  # (use "git checkout <branch>" to switch to branches or tag/commit. ex: git checkout -f tags/v1.10.16)
make geth       # (to build geth binary in build/bin)
make clean      # (clean things up, if you want to build a different branch or commit)
sudo cp build/bin/geth /usr/local/bin/

Answer 2

As an extra to previous answer

Mist update (if Mist is installed in /home/mist)

mv mist mist_old_version
wget https://github.com/ethereum/mist/releases/download/0.8.1/Mist-linux64-0-8-1.zip
unzip Mist-linux64-0-8-1.zip
mv Mist-linux64-0-8-1 mist

Only thing you should avoid to keep your ether safe - never run old versions geth/Mist if you`ve already started to use a new one on the same user account.