Ethereum: How to update and older version of electrum on ubuntu 17?

Updating and Upgrading Older Versions of Electrum in Ubuntu 17

As Ethereum continues to grow in popularity, so does the need for updates and upgrades to cryptocurrency management tools. In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of updating and upgrading older versions of Electrum in Ubuntu 17.

Why Upgrade Electrum?

Before diving into the upgrade process, it’s important to understand why you should upgrade your version of Electrum. If you’re running an older version, you could be missing out on new features, bug fixes, and security patches that can improve your overall user experience and protect your cryptocurrency assets.

Installing Python 3 for Electrum

Before you begin the upgrade process, make sure you have Python 3 installed on your Ubuntu system. This can be done by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install python3

After installing Python 3, you will need to upgrade or downgrade it depending on your needs.

Upgrading Electrum

Now that we have covered the prerequisites, let’s upgrade Electrum.

• Upgrading to Python 3: We have already covered this step above. Make sure Python 3 is up to date by running:

sudo apt-get upgrade

• Upgrade or downgrade Electrum: If you have an older version of Electrum installed (e.g. Electrum-3.0.4.tar.gz), we will upgrade it to the latest version. Otherwise, we will install a new version.

To update an existing Electrum installation:

sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools python3-pyqt5 python3-pip -o /usr/local/bin/python3

This command updates the system’s Python 3 package index and installs the latest available version of Electrum. If you want to downgrade, use:

sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools python3-pyqt5 python3-pip -o /usr/local/bin/python2

To install a new version of Electrum:

Download 
tar xzf Electrum-3.0.7.tar.gz -C ~/electrum/

Here we have updated to the latest version (Electrum-3.0.7). This command extracts and installs Electrum from the provided tarball.

Configuring Electrum for Ubuntu 17

After installing the new version of Electrum, you will need to configure it to use with your Bitcoin wallet. You can do this by creating a configuration file in the ~/electrum directory.

Create a new file called ~/.config/electrum/config.json (or create the directory if it doesn’t exist):

{
"wallets": [
{
"name": "Bitcoin",
"url": "
}
]
}

Replace your-bitcoin-wallet-addr with the actual address of your Bitcoin wallet.

Launching Electrum

Once you have configured the new version of Electrum, start it by running:

~/electrum/electrum --config ~/.config/electrum/config.json

That’s it! Your Electrum installation should now be up to date and ready to use with your Bitcoin wallet.

Additional Tips

• Make sure to upgrade all packages on your system before installing new ones.

• If you encounter issues during the upgrade process, try disabling apt-prefetch by running:

sudo dpkg --set-selections <<< "apt-get install -f | grep -v '^apt-prefetch\|apt-get-\|pre\n' && sudo apt-get -o 'no-cache' upgrade"

This command will disable package caching and allow you to upgrade all packages again.