Update/Remove .rpm

[Mark]

Hello, I am new to Linux, like many I would like to get away from Windows, but I am not so well versed in Linux.
A simple question in itself:
I have installed a program, Mullvad, via the rpm. What I don’t know is how to update it. The commands I find on the Mullvad site don’t work, and I haven’t found an answer. How does it work? And if that doesn’t work, how do I delete the program completely?
Thank you!

[SkatorGaytor]

If you downloaded and installed the .rpm directly then it will not receive automatic updates, you’d have to keep an eye on their website and manually install new updates. You should avoid installing software like this wherever possible.

To install it properly, you’ll need to add the mullvad repository and then layer the mullvad-vpn package via rpm-ostree, this way it will be updated automatically along with the rest of your system. Because bazzite is based on fedora-atomic, adding repositories and installing system packages is different to regular fedora, therefore the fedora installation instructions on mullvad’s site need some tweaking to work on fedora-atomic based systems.
Installing system level packages is done via “layering” them on-top of the system image. Layering packages should be a last resort where installing via flatpak, brew, or distrobox is not an option, however it is appropriate in this situation.

First, you’ll want to remove the mullvad-vpn package you manually installed with rpm-ostree uninstall mullvad-vpn then reboot.

Now we’ll install the mullvad repository and mullvad-vpn package:

1. Download the mullvad repository file (mullvad.repo)

wget https://repository.mullvad.net/rpm/stable/mullvad.repo

2. copy it into /etc/yum.repos.d/ (this is where .repo files live)

sudo cp mullvad.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/

3. Refresh package metadata so rpm-ostree knows there’s a new repository

rpm-ostree refresh-md

4. Install the mullvad-vpn package

rpm-ostree install mullvad-vpn

5. Reboot your computer

6. Start and enable the mullvad vpn background service

sudo systemctl enable --now mullvad-daemon

You should now have mullvad installed correctly so that it receives automatic updates!

A word of caution, layering packages like VPNs can cause issues on fedora atomic systems. You may find you need to remove it and the mullvad repository at some point if it causes breakages, especially during major version updates (e.g. fedora 41>42), so be mindful of this if you run into issues updating in future!

[Mark]

Thank you very much! It worked perfectly.

I will try to adapt the commands according to the pattern if I need them again.

In general, it would be great if there were tutorials somewhere for such basic things.

I know Bazzite is quite small and new, but it has huge potential.

It’s hard to find detailed Terminal instructions that work with Bazzite. At least for me.

[SkatorGaytor]

I’m glad to hear it, and yes this method will work for any fedora repository if you need to layer other packages not included in the default repositories in future. You can also reverse the steps to get rid of it (uninstall the package/s with rpm-ostree, delete the .repo file from /etc/yum.repos.d, and refresh rpm-ostree)

I recommend checking out the bazzite documentation, and also the bluefin documentation if you haven’t already. They contain plenty of tips and tricks to help you get to grips with things in ublue land. There’s also the official discord server and of course this forum if you’re stuck. It’s worth searching the forum and the discord archive (easier than searching discord directly) first to see if someone has already answered your question.