A Complete Idiot's Guide To Endeavour OS Maintenance / Update / Upgrade

I’m a complete idiot - so here’s my guide for you!

It has been asked a lot, and fairly frequently recently it seems, especially by new Endeavour/new to Linux users. It was recently asked that I post how I update - so here it is.

“How do I maintain / update / upgrade my system?!? Help!!”

This is my maintenance plan. I have been using the same install for almost 2 years now without any major issue. I’m VERY aware there’s more than one way to do this. And most importantly -

Many of these can be done through the welcome center app - They do very much the same thing, you just need to click on it. But since this is a terminal centric distro with a target audience of intermediate users - we’re doing this in terminal. Completely new users who have found themselves here for whatever reason (and possibly overwhelmed) will find this even more beneficial.

  1. The Golden Rule
    Rule # 1 to keeping a system up and running and NOT having problems -
    DON’T BREAK YOUR OWN COMPUTER. Most problems are user generated.

  1. (a) Keep updated
  • maintenance schedule - as frequently as you would like. From several times a day to at least once every other week (in my opinion)
yay

That’s it.

  1. (b) Sorting pacnew/pacsave files - when prompted by terminal
  • maintenance schedule - whenever you are notified by yay that you have a pacnew or pacsave file that needs tending to. This schedule varies upon frequency of receiving them
  • you will ALWAYS be notified during the update process if they are created.
  • The longer you wait to tend to them, the more difficult life can become for you.
  • There is a great tool in the EOS-welcome app for this that combines pacdiff and meld
  • I also use the program meld from terminal for this
  • note for Arch users who may be reading this - you will need meld from the repos if you don’t already have it to complete this step
DIFFPROG=meld pacdiff

  1. (a) Update Mirrors - Arch
  • maintenance schedule - approximately once every 1-2 months
  • this will save the fastest 25 mirrors, will show you in terminal (verbose flag) and only call on those with https protocol - please append accordingly to your needs
  • this gets saved to /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

I usually copy and paste this from my current mirrorlist file as it will show up on top and then I don’t have to type it out every time.

reflector --protocol https --verbose --latest 25 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Always after updating your mirrorlist - refresh your entire system

yay -Syyu
  1. (b) Update Mirrors - Endeavour (optional)
  • maintenance schedule - 1-6months
  • there is not a huge amount of them, so it’s up to you if it’s worth it to do it more or less frequently.
  • this will be saved in /etc/pacman.d/endeavouros-mirrorlist
eos-rankmirrors --verbose

Always after updating your mirrorlist - refresh your entire system

yay -Syyu

  1. Clean Journal
journalctl --vacuum-time=4weeks

  1. Clean Cache
paccache -r

I also do not carry a cache of uninstalled packages - I assume I uninstalled them for a reason. If you would like to remove ALL uninstalled packages (as I do)

paccache -ruk0

  1. Remove Orphans
pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)

  1. Clearing Old Configuration Files

8. DON’T BREAK YOUR OWN SYSTEM

  • It’s so important I added it at the end again
  • most people have problems due to their own doing. The easiest way to continue having a trouble free system is by not creating problems.

Warning - I’m not responsible for any and all problems that may come from following this guide. It’s your computer to do as you please, good or bad. You are sudo, you have the power and with that it’s your own responsibility to maintain your computer as you wish. If you do NOT understand what these do - do your own research first. Good luck.

This can be shared freely as anyone would see fit.

For further information and where I got the overwhelming majority of this guide - please see:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance

:beers:
Cheers - to a long and trouble free installation. Keep on rollin’.

edited to include pacnew/pacsave and eos-rankmirrors as well as page breaks between each step for clarity

edited again - what started out as my personal guide for how I update my own Arch/Endeavour systems has been embraced by the team and community more than I originally had intended or anticipated. I have removed some bits to make the distinction that this is a guide for Endeavour specifically and to distinguish they are not the same, nor the same project.

**

Moderation note:

Please only reply here if you have a question about parts of the guide, do not start a discussion in that thread, and go create a new thread instead, linking to this one, in case you really need/want to discuss something in detail.
[@joekamprad]

123 Likes

All very sound advice, if not slightly overkill. I especially like the rule no. 1, one should always remember it.

7 Likes

I like it. I sit down and do it whenever I feel appropriate which as noted is like every 4-8 week-ish.

It makes me feel like a sudo master, but really it takes like 10 min and I’m done hahaha.

But it comes up a lot, and I’ve had 2 people within a week ask me directly about it, so I figured it was over due. Now when people ask - it’s just copy/paste and /thread.

7 Likes

I’m sure 1. implies this:

:joy:

5 Likes

Yeah, I’ll copy paste this thread, too, when the question arises. Easier than writing it myself. :+1:t3:

4 Likes

Great advise, written nice and clearly

2 Likes

I don’t even know what that means, I have never done or bothered using that. Now I feel like a complete idiot :rofl:

Edit: perhaps add a bullet point why each maintenance step should be necessary to be idiot proof. To be honest the only thing I do is sudo pacman -Syu once a week.

2 Likes

Why not pin it right at the beginning of the forum, clearly visible to newcomers?

4 Likes

No one - especially new users - read pinned threads hahahaha.

But I’m all for it. I can make it a wiki post also I think.

I added the link to read up on it. It doesn’t hurt to peruse the Arch wiki on occasion. :wink:

3 Likes

For sure but you said idiot proof :smirk: I read the Arch wiki sometimes btw.

2 Likes

I never said such a thing.

I said I’m an idiot and this is my guide for updating.

Calling anything idiot proof is just a challenge to the many out there.

“Just look at how stupid the average person is. And then realize, the other half are even stupider than that.”

-George Carlin

7 Likes

Just checked the arch wiki. I never bothered with pacsave files before. Will have to pay attention.

3 Likes

I’m an idiot…Ive never done any of that! Computers still running. :thinking:

8 Likes

These are for maintenance and updates. You’re the install man, these don’t necessarily apply to you haha.

4 Likes

I just keep installing stuff. …again & again & again! :thinking: :weary:

5 Likes

Thanks a lot @fbodymechanic

2 Likes

Nice post, while I may not follow it to the letter, very sound advice. Made me stop and check my plan as a noob to EndeavourOS and Garuda.

6 Likes

hello haakoth
welcome :penguin_face:

2 Likes

One of the many reasons I was drawn to EOS was “A terminal-centric distro…”

Your cheatsheet forces me to master the terminal.

Thanks for all the trial and error, and research that went into this guide. I will have to learn about PACDIFF first cause it looks very serious.

Michael

3 Likes

Hi @haakoth
Welcome

2 Likes