What's your Linux update policy?

D

Deadjasper

2[H]4U
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Oct 28, 2001
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I've recently (this year) started to update my Linux install when the updates become available, running Timeshift first of course. I haven't run into any issues...... yet. But in the past I hardly ever updated because I've lost my Linux install completely due to an update. Seems like something has changed and they made this less likely to happen.

So what's your personal update policy and why?

TIA :)
 
I still avoid updates like the plague.

History says, updates break shit, 50-75% of the time. and usually epically broken, not like oh just fix it.
Updates 1-2 years are reinstalls.

Good news if linux devs have fixed this. For the past 10 years this has been a "must be your problem, not smart enough" issue.
 
My personal update policy is if I understand the update, do it when it makes sense (could be ASAP for security if it includes my use cases or major perf improvemments again if it hits my use cases), otherwise, I try to wait a month or so and let other people find the bugs.

In my youth, I ran Debian unstable and updated constantly. I'm too old for that shit now.
 
Update, or upgrade?

I update whenever there are updates available. Even on Arch, always update when I can. When there are updates to libc, etc, or major version updates to kde, etc, then I proceed with caution. If my package manager asks a load of questions during the update, I stop and perform a sanity check. If there are a bunch of packages being removed, I stop and perform a sanity check.

Upgrades require more careful consideration—they usually involve switching between major versions of several packages at once, and so a mishap or package bug can cause the whole thing to fail in a bad state, and make recovery a pita. Even when successful, changes in configuration file defaults and incompatible customizations can cause serious headaches when trying to figure out what's wrong. On debian and arch, it's always a good idea to look for new configuration files after a big update, and consider editing the new files to do what you want instead of sticking with the old ones.
 
I update Manjaro whenever they pop up. I have Timeshift and a USB live disc JIK but I've never needed it. Have a 1.1G update loading as I type this. If it fails I'll report back later heh.
 
I'll have to look into Timeshift on Arch since I'd love to have snapshots just in case something goes sideways (like a recent headache with SDDM).
 
When they pop up, I install them without thought. However, I am on Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS, Xanmod kernels and the latest Mesa so, I know that I am not going to have issues.
 
I probably have 30+ Linux devices here that I update regularly without issue. Mostly Fedora and rPi.

The last failed update I had was probably 5 years ago and it was due to proprietary Nvidia drivers.
 
All my personal stuff is on my home drive which isn't my install drive. I update whenever there are updates. In the past 3 years Manjaro broke on me once which I was able to chroot into and fix. If that is scary perhaps I would wait. But one time in 3 years is a better track record then that other OS some people seem to use. You can always boot from a USB chroot and roll back an update... and I always say keep a LTS kernel and your current kernel installed at all time. One tip no matter what distro your using figure out how many packages your PM stores. They all have settings it increase or drop the number of previous packages it keeps. You can set it to roll back 3 or 4 deep if your paranoid. I keep Pacman 2 deep... so I can roll back to the last or the one previous to that, seems a good balance between options and storage space.

If all else fails I just delete my OS part recreate and reinstall. All my settings, preferences ect are on my home. I used to do that so I could distro hop a little easier... but really I haven't had any reason to move off Manjaro in years. The extra few weeks they hold Arch updates seems to be all that is required to keep things from breaking. (I haven't been forced to completely kill a install in a long time I don't even remember the last time probably 8 or 9 years back on one of the kids machines when they where annoying teens)

In general though yes people thinking things are more stable the last few years are not crazy. In general most of the code bases for most of the major bits have been kept pretty clean. Cleaning things up has been a priority. Clean code = stable code.
 
With that said, a lot of my current stability issues are with new hardware both desktop and laptop. Things were you have to run the latest kernel and even then, you might have to download latest firmwares on top of that.

My new Dell XPS 13 for example (running Tumbleweed), the bluetooth is hit or miss, but system runs a lot more stable if disabled completely. There are also Tigerlake issues when on battery.

I've seen lockups, pauses, panics, etc.. Suspend seems to work, but hibernate has been a mess.

The pains of being on the bleeding edge with vendors that are notoriously linux non-friendly.
 
Pretty much every linux install that I used Nvidia or Radeon proprietary drivers on, grenaded on some upgrade. Once I started sticking with open source things went smooth.
 
B00nie said:
Pretty much every linux install that I used Nvidia or Radeon proprietary drivers on, grenaded on some upgrade. Once I started sticking with open source things went smooth.
Click to expand...
That's why I stick with DKMS modules. Easier to rollback or re-build if issues occur.
 
I only do updates and rarely so. Only when I feel adventurous and have a backup image handy. Exceptions - like on Windows: the web browser, communicators, other drive-by vectors.

I try to split up various functions into VMs and only install the bare minimum on them without "maybe I'll need this down the line". That way, one failure won't bring all my stuff down.

Only if I had a service facing the web, I'd probably keep it updating as soon as there are updates.

I go to a lower runlevel beforehand and avoid updating things that are currently running.

If my install is not kosher (I mixed in a package from outside the distribution or configured something in a non-standard way via the command line instead of the recommended route) - I expect failure and proceed with caution.
 
Once a day for my servers. My Arch install...more or less whenever bring down yakuake and type paru. So many times a day lol.
 
Usually within a day or so of the updates going live. I couldn't tell you the last time I had an issue with updates so it's not something I worry about much. This is with Manjaro on my main machine and server.
 
I apply every update and I've never had a problem, having said that I run LTS releases.

I run Nvidia proprietary drivers and only ever encountered one issue which was easily resolved.
 
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