Arch Linux

jason076

Member

Registered: 2021-07-18

Posts: 1

Do I need to reinstall arch to get major changes in the distribution

Hi, I am using Arch Linux for several years now. A question that is still unanswered to me is if I have to reinstall Arch Linux from time to time to get Major changes in the distribution like replacing the init system with systemd (I know Arch is already using systemd, this is just an example). Is this all handled by the rolling release model? If this is the case, how is it achieved? Is the base package doing the trick? If I look in to it's pkgbuild file it seems to be a meta package and not a group so if it changes it will force the system to update.

Are there any other mechanics how major distribution changes were distributed to existing installations?

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: Do I need to reinstall arch to get major changes in the distribution

This is the official news item from the transition to systemd: https://archlinux.org/news/systemd-is-n … allations/

systemd is now the default on new installations
2012-10-13 - Thomas Bächler

The base group now contains the systemd-sysvcompat package. This means that all new installations will boot with systemd by default.

As some packages still lack native systemd units, users can install the initscripts package and use the DAEMONS array in /etc/rc.conf to start services using the legacy rc.d scripts.

This change does not affect existing installations. For the time being, the initscripts and sysvinit packages remain available from our repositories. However, individual packages may now start relying on the system being booted with systemd.

Please refer to the wiki for how to transition an existing installation to systemd.

There was a transition guide in the wiki.

However, your question implies, that this is a recurring event. It is not. The systemd transition was maybe the biggest transition so far. People have been migrating Arch installs from all kinds of states. Your question cannot be answered, as there is no "normally" in those big changes. The general idea is, that Arch is rolling release and that resources will be diverted into making sure that existing installs do not have to be redone.

zpg443

Member

Registered: 2016-12-03

Posts: 300

Re: Do I need to reinstall arch to get major changes in the distribution

You might this article informative:

Rolling with Arch Linux

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,337

Website

Re: Do I need to reinstall arch to get major changes in the distribution

The only thing you'd *ever* have to reinstall for is changing processor architecture.  And even that might not strictly require it, though it'd likely be the best approach.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman