Hi all,
some months ago I've installed Pure Data on my lubuntu 64 bit, now I'm trying to update my Pd 0.50.2 to a newer version.
When I try to update the software list with "sudo apt-get upgrade", in the result I've got this message: <<The repository "http://apt.puredata.info/releases focal Release" does not have a release file>>.

Therefore, if I write sudo apt-get upgrade puredata I receive this message: "puredata is already the newest version (0.50.2-3)."

Now, what's the best way for updating Pure Data and do not lose my preferences?

I see that in the download page, there are many packages:
puredata-core_0.51.4-1_amd64.deb
puredata-core_0.51.4-1~bpo10+1_amd64.deb
puredata-dev_0.51.4-1_all.deb
puredata-extra_0.51.4-1_amd64.deb
puredata-gui_0.51.4-1_all.deb
puredata-gui_0.51.4-1~bpo10+1_all.deb
puredata-utils_0.51.4-1_amd64.deb
puredata-utils_0.51.4-1~bpo10+1_amd64.deb
puredata_0.51.4-1_all.deb
...

I haven't found on the web many information, so here I am.
I'm not a linux and pure Data expert at all and I don't want to do random things.

Many thanks

On Linux you'll get the version of your system when installing software via apt-get. Unless you upgrade your system you'll always get the same Pd version. If you're on a system with frequent updates, like Ubuntu or Ubuntu Studio (not LTS), then you can just wait a few months till the next release when you'll get an up-to-date Pd.
If you don't want to wait or you have a system that doesn't update frequently you can compile Pd from the source. Just go to Miller's website and download the latest source. It includes a INSTALL file with instructions on how to do it, it's really not hard.

@alexandros I have already compiled a version which is now out of date. If I want to compile the newest version on that system, is there anything I should take care of or can I just compile the new version and everything should work fine? (Just afraid of breaking things here)

Everything will be replaced by the new installation. Note that software you compile yourself end up in /usr/local/bin whereas software installed via apt-get ends up in /usr/bin, so the older Pd will still be there. It's just the pd command in the terminal will be linked to /usr/local/bin/puredata/bin/pd instead of /usr/bin/.... when you run sudo make install. The older version you compiled yourself will be overwritten.

@alexandros Thank you very much!

You can compile the latest source version, and run Pd locally, in your home dir. Note that it doesn't come without some issues, mostly with paths and externals. But vanilla usually works fine.

I'm also (generally) using the 0.50.2 in Ubuntu 20.04.1 repositories, but that's due to the lengthy process of compiling Ofelia to work with that version (yeah, "breaking something" in Linux is a thing). Deken didn't work for that external.

@gmoon I did compile Ofelia for Ubuntu and I remember that it was quite smooth. Hasn't @cuinjune fixed this yet? I think this was a known issue that would get fixed, or I might not remember right.

@alexandros for me compiling Ofelia with Ubuntu works without any problems and is quite fast.

@alexandros
If I recall, that install failed until I placed all the OpenFrameWorks source in the ~/OF/ directory. I.e., it wouldn't compile correctly in a subdirectory, only the base of my home dir. That wasn't clear to me from the install docs. And Ofelia source into the ~/OF/addons/ dir.

Deken fails w/Ofelia in my Ubuntu install due to (I believe -- I don't want to try again and overwrite the existing version) a checksum error. Deken does find the external, they just won't install.

Also of interest maybe that if you use Debian you can install Pd from backports which means that you get the newest version of Pd almost immediately after release by simply updating the system via apt. So great!

Have to add that where problems with Debian + Ofelia in the past. I solved them on my system, but not sure if they are solved in general with current versions.

@gmoon Hi, in case you have trouble installing Ofelia through Deken, you can also download the compiled external binaries from https://github.com/cuinjune/Ofelia/releases

@cuinjune Thanks - bookmarked!

(Ofelia is really pretty amazing, btw.)