Quick Ubuntu gripe

So I’ve been having troubles with Ubuntu for the last few days: first, upgrading the desktop causes a cyclic restart after logging in: sound is broken again, as I remember putting good hours in making that work: and now I couldn’t find the command to upgrade without a gui. For someone concerned with gaining some server market share, that particular command is not very easy to find. Mind you, I’m not going to jump ship: I’ve also tried to concurrently install Mandrivia, and that’s not working out too well either.