How to maintain an healthy system

[Unexist]

Hello,
I’m trying to return to Linux after 15 years spent using dark-sides OS
After reading and watching suggestion, reviews and opinions, I’ve shortlisted 3 Linux distros to try. The first one is EOS thanks in particular to this friendly community. I understand the installation process and I understand that Arch needs to be taken care off or it could end bad. What I’m interested to learn in this topic is: how I can maintain an healthy system after the installation?

1. You need to update EOS frequently or you risk to break the system. Can I use only the command eos-update as a shortcut for every update I need to do, or do I need to use others type of update commands?

2. On Mac I use Homebrew and I use the commands autoremove and cleanup to clean the system from old and unused files. Do I need to use something similar on EOS? I read for example of cleaning the cache and removing unused dependencies. If this is required, can you post the commands?

3. How often do you suggest to update the system? Everyday, one time for week or doesn’t really matter?

4. Do you have other suggestions to maintain an healthy system for the long run?

Thank you and have a good day.

[TomDoe]

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 c…

This should answer a lot of your questions.

[thefrog]

Welcome to the purple side

You should add to your reading

How to run a stress-free EndeavourOS

I have spent a lot of time over the last 8 years helping people fix their broken systems and seeing people constantly describe how much trouble it is to keep their Arch-based systems running. Meanwhile, even though I run many systems with different configs, I never actually have these problems myself.1 I have helped people with so many obscure issues that if I ever did have issues with systems failing after an update I could fix them myself without too much trouble in most cases. However, I d…

[pebcak]

@Unexist

1. Do you have other suggestions to maintain an healthy system for the long run?

Take heed of Arch’s KISS philosophy.

[_Six]

A full update of the system.

For me I do this once a week on a Saturday, I’ve had no issues doing it this way.

My only advice for maintaining a healthy system in the long run is to always double check commands, or backup or make note of the changes before doing them so you can reverse mistakes or kind of like a personal log. Sometimes a change will not creep up as an issue until later.

The two links attached already were what I read when I started and are good resources. But the update frequency is personal preference but ill-advised to leave the system too long without updating.

[r0ckhopper]

@pebcak

Take heed of Arch’s KISS philosophy.

[pebcak]

Yeah, Arch Rocks and Rolls All Nite (and day)

[swh]

You want the best, you got the best. The hottest distro on ARCH. KISS

[Unexist]

Thank you, I’ve read the topics mentioned and I will follow those advice. I’m happy to report that I’ve installed and I’m now writing this reply from EOS

In fact I’m a little worried that all works too well, the installer took just 7 minutes to finish the work using a cheap Mini-PC with an Intel N100 and after updating and restarting the system I can use my set of Logitech MX keyboard + mouse.

The only thing that I needed to do was starting the Bluetooth with two commands. For future references, I used:

sudo systemctl start bluetooth

sudo systemctl enable bluetooth

I hope that I’ve not destroyed the system already

[r0ckhopper]

I use

sudo systemctl enable --now bluetooth.service

but I guess if bluetooth is working for you it makes no difference.

[ricklinux]

Honestly there isn’t that much maintenance to do. Just keep it updated frequently. Don’t try to configure the crap out of the desktop. Stick with software that is known and works. Follow the EOS wiki and also the Arch wiki if needed. Don’t do partial updates. Always update prior to installing anything new. Update your mirrors when needed. Install things properly by using pacman or yay not some googled ideas. There are lots of tools on EOS to help with things such as EOS Welcome, AKM, EOS Apps Info, EOS log tool, EOS update, EOS Wiki, and the Forum. Before doing something know what to do and how. Learn! Enjoy!

Edit: Also let me not forget pacseek! It’s a great tool.

[Octagon]

1. If you do not update the system frequently just because you like to use recent software, why shortlist EOS? The only risk is that if you do not update EOS or Arch for a very, very long time all the mirrors will go out of service and you will have to download the installer to get the fresh list.
2. Arch or EOS cannot be run on questions and answers. Use wiki and man on yay.
3. I update the system whenever I shut it down. Occasionally reboot is recommended by the update, so that saves a little bit of time and effort.
4. In a very long time, I would recommend keeping 2 kernels - the latest and the LTS one. On an Intel Mac Mini with Wi-Fi only I keep three - the latest standard and zen and the LTS. Use yay akm. I would also recommend trying the developer version of software first. For example, there are packages for .net, Julia, Rust… but they are a bit of special cases.