If you’ve been following my project to build a PiHole (https://muckypaws.com/2020/09/19/building-a-pi-hole/) then you’re probably overdue patching your Raspberry Pi and upgrading the PiHole software, and we’ll cover the steps needed in today article.

How do you know an update is needed? PiHole will give you a hint at the bottom of the Admin Portal Page. Navigate to the web portal and you will see a message in the footer of the webpage like below.

Using SSH or PuTTY log into your PiHole Raspberry Pi Server.

 Last login: Sun Dec 27 16:06:09 on ttys000
 jason@Jasons-iMac ~ % ssh dietpi@192.168.15.253
 dietpi@192.168.15.253’s password: 
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  DietPi v6.34.3 : 16:27 - Sun 12/27/20
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  - Device model : RPi Zero W (armv6l)
  - CPU temp : 45'C : 113'F (Optimal temperature)
  - LAN IP : 192.168.15.253 (wlan0)
  - MOTD : ^
          *#*        Lightweight Xmas Justice Tips:
         *###*       - Protect yourself and the people around you
        *#####*      - Celebrate light, buy less junk, gift more love
       *#######*     - How about hosting your own video chat to get closer?
      *#########*
     *Merry  Xmas*   All the best from everyone at DietPi =))
    *#############*
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 

  DietPi Team     : MichaIng (lead), Daniel Knight (founder), Joulinar (support)
  Image           : DietPi Core Team (pre-image: Raspbian Lite)
  Web             : https://dietpi.com | https://twitter.com/DietPi_
  Donate          : https://dietpi.com/#donate
  DietPi Hosting  : Powered by https://myvirtualserver.com
 
  dietpi-launcher : All the DietPi programs in one place.
  dietpi-config   : Feature rich configuration tool for your device.
  dietpi-software : Select optimized software for installation.
  htop            : Resource monitor.
  cpu             : Shows CPU information and stats.
 
 

At the command line, issue the following commands: –

sudo apt update -y && apt full-upgrade -y

sudo apt clean

sudo reboot now

Once the PiHole has rebooted, log back in, using SSH/PuTTY and issue this command: –

  dietpi@pihole1:~$ sudo pihole -up 

This will initiate the process for patching and updating the main components.

   [i] Checking for updates...
   [i] Pi-hole Core: update available
   [i] Web Interface: update available
   [i] FTL: update available
 
   [i] Pi-hole core files out of date, updating local repo.
   [✓] Check for existing repository in /etc/.pihole
   [i] Update repo in /etc/.pihole...HEAD is now at 41bdb74 Merge pull request #3941 from pi-hole/release/v5.2.2
   [✓] Update repo in /etc/.pihole
 

   [i] If you had made any changes in '/etc/.pihole/', they have been stashed using 'git stash'

   [i] Pi-hole Web Admin files out of date, updating local repo.
   [✓] Check for existing repository in /var/www/html/admin
   [i] Update repo in /var/www/html/admin...HEAD is now at 780dff0 Merge pull request #1666 from pi-hole/release/v5.2.2
   [✓] Update repo in /var/www/html/admin
 

   [i] If you had made any changes in '/var/www/html/admin/', they have been stashed using 'git stash'
 
   [i] FTL out of date, it will be updated by the installer.
 
   [✓] Root user check 

...

   [✓] Pi-hole blocking is enabled
 
   [i] The install log is located at: /etc/pihole/install.log
 Update Complete! 

   Current Pi-hole version is v5.2.2.
   Current AdminLTE version is v5.2.2.
   Current FTL version is v5.3.4.
 dietpi@pihole1:~$  

The process is now complete, when logging back into the Web Admin Portal you will see in the footer that there are no more components to upgrade.

Looking forward, it may be worthwhile creating a cron job to check daily for patches and updates, fully automating the upgrade process.