This is the second time For EOS. This also happened with CatchyOS the one and only time I tried it. Hasn’t happened yet with Big Linux.
My issue is I’m gone for weeks at a time from my home PC and when I get back I have hundreds of updates to install.
I’m wondering if there is a way to mitigate this, maybe by limiting the amount of updates at one time, then restarting and repeating that until I get them all installed?
You can use Arch Linux Archive for that.
// Edit. It also allows you to jump forward, not just backwards.
Don’t use a rolling release distro then.
I’m not sure of what you are saying?
How would I do that exactly to keep from breaking EOS?
The difference with Big Linux is they only update once a week (according to the website), while with EOS there are always updates.
Where did I say it would prevent it from breaking?
I replied to this:
maybe by limiting the amount of updates at one time, then restarting and repeating that until I get them all installed?
Maybe indeed a non rolling distro is better for you.
Indeed, Arch based distros really aren’t good for infrequent updates. Too many things happen.
While we are always happy Users choose EOS at the end of the day you must choose the correct tool for the job. EOS is Arch with a few sane defaults and some custom branding.
The right tool for the job may not be the most popular or even the one you want to use. You have to choose YOUR own level of Comfort.
Yeah, Arch based may not be suitable if you are leaving it a long time between updates. If you still want rolling, you could try openSUSE Tumbleweed. I once successfully updated a laptop running that after leaving it for about 18 months. I was both surprised and impressed.
I agree with you Richard, but I also have read of people resurrecting an old laptop that hadn’t been updated in years. The difference is that they probably put forth the effort to be aware of issues they might run into and quite possibly a level of expertise as well.
I experienced this a few years ago in the same situation while traveling for business. When I got home about a month later, I ran some updates and suddenly my system wouldn’t boot. It was an easy fix for me, but in my opinion, whether it’s a rolling release or not, an operating system shouldn’t behave like that. I see it as a fundamental flaw. So what did I end up doing? One word: Debian.
There are usually daily updates with Big Linux also.
So far though, I guess I’ve been lucky with it with the large amount updates on it after I get back from my travels.
Yeah I was just hoping there was a way to avoid doing all those updates at the same time.
Yeah, maybe I wasn’t clear.
I want to keep from breaking EOS and was wondering if all the hundreds of updates could be installed in smaller groups instead of all at once.
When it breaks, I have no way of knowing which update(s) are the issue as I can’t get to the boot screen any more.
Well you could black list those apps you feel you need to do “manual intervention for” however this will require a lot of work. You would basically need to blacklist and unblacklist items and to be honest I’m not even sure that would prevent things from breaking. Again a lot of work for very little reward. Would be best to use a non rolling release in those cases where updates can’t be done in a timely manner.
The number of packages doesn’t make a difference. The only real way to fix it is to look into what went wrong.
It;s the way that Tumbleweed is released. Every release is an atomic snapshot, so it doesn’t matter if you update daily or every year, you always get the latest snapshot. Arch releases it’s packages piecemeal, which in theory should have no more problems as you are always getting the latest state, but it seems to not handle big gaps in updates so well. I don’t know why.
Here’s what I do to minimize breakage.
My system is on btrfs, with snapper and snap-pac creating snapshots before/after updates. Obviously that’s a personal choice, and not one you can change without starting fresh, but it can be useful to boot a broken system, so mentioning it. But the main things, that anyone can do…
I use checkupdates frequently.
How many packages need updating?
checkupdates | wc -l
Is there a new keyring?
checkupdates | grep ring
If there is a new archlinux-keyring…
Look at the old/new version. If you check frequently and notice there is one-version-newer, it’s a very good idea to update now.
If it’s been a while and you see archlinux-keyring would skip over a version, STOP, jump forward to where I describe how to handle that.
Before updating, I always run…
checkupdates -d
It downloads packages to cache, but does not update the main pacman database. If you have an internet outage while it’s downloading, it’s safe to checkupdates -d again until it succeeds.
As soon as checkupdates -d completes successfully, run the usual…
sudo pacman -Syu
It will go much more quickly because it doesn’t have to download anything.
*** If archlinux-keyring has skipped a version ***
Use the arch linux archive. Instructions for that are elsewhere, but basically:
Seems like a lot of work, but not really unless you have skipped a keyring. Just checkupdates every few days and then you decide when to actually update.
I have a laptop I forget about and have to do this occasionally. But on my main machines, I check frequently and update whenever there’s 100-200 packages, or a new keyring.
Pick and choose what you like from this. There are of course other ways. It’s just what I do, after a few “broken” arch updates over the past several years. But definitely check out checkupdates if you haven’t used it before.
One needs to pay attention to the output of pacman as it updates. Pacman will usually tell you what went wrong. Pacman will also tell you what it updated and if there is any manual intervention to perform. Don’t reboot until you can confirm pacman finished successfully. Also, read all the news on the Arch Linux website from the last time you performed an update and pay attention to advice given in the news items.
sorry iam new here, i dont know how fast the EOS push the update, i have been on other distro base on Archlinux , the update was very fast. i think Archlinux have multiple type of release , always keep update and changing, stable release is couples of month , and long support . i thing EOS is suite to stable or long support to keep the os stable.
for me an update shouldnt be mean to must update. so as far as your system work fine then no need to update. this will keep your system long run