Arch Linux

reshlliw

Member

Registered: 2008-02-11

Posts: 7

Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

Hi there,

I'm currently looking at Arch to replace Ubuntu as my desktop Linux of choice. The reasons are the level of control and, more importantly, having a rolling release system.

I've been reading the FAQ and came across the following:

Arch Linux releases are quite infrequent, and usually happen only when a major change has been made to the installer or something has happened that makes it difficult to run pacman -Syu to update from the previous release.

I interpret this to mean that in order to upgrade in some instances a reinstall is required. Yet below this it says:

. If you are looking to obtain the latest Arch Linux release, you do not need to reinstall. You simply run the pacman -Syu command and your system will be identical to what you would get with a brand-new install.

This I take to mean that a reinstall is never required (assuming I can work around any fubars that occur!). 

The two seem to contradict each other.

My question is once I have Arch installed will I ever need to reinstall, assuming a reasonable level of Linux competence?

Doehni

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-05-19

Posts: 175

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

You only need to install Arch once, after that a

pacman -Syu

updates your Arch to the newest version.
If you are treating your installation nicely, it should be not a to big deal to let it stay on your hd for a long time...

reshlliw

Member

Registered: 2008-02-11

Posts: 7

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

I'll try to be kind to it!

Thanks for the quick answer. I'll start my ISO download now

lilsirecho

Veteran

Registered: 2003-10-24

Posts: 5,000

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

In Linux, anything can happen even upgrade without problems.

However, if one doesn't upgrade often, there are caveats that do occur and it requires reading the news items to decipher the things that have been changed.

Staying with the upgrades at least weekly eases the process and no re-installs should be necessary.

Re-installs are usually necessary with major boo-boos by the user, like some I have made!!!!

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Bestiapeluda

Member

From: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Registered: 2007-10-16

Posts: 181

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

once you have tried the rolling release system, there is no turning back.

dyscoria

Member

Registered: 2008-01-10

Posts: 1,007

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

Just make sure you update quite often and always check the output of pacman. It will usually tell you specific things related to any changes. For instance, recently the several mirrorlists (one for each repository: core, extra etc.) were merged into one file. Following that upgrade the pacman output said that those extra files could be deleted. Simple maintenance really. That's the only type of change I can imagine would break a system (stuff related to pacman). There's a recent thread hanging around somewhere of someone trying to install using one of the first iso's and trying to upgrade using 'pacman -Syu' without too much success. The problem was related to pacman i think.

And yes as Bestiapeluda put it, once you've tried it there's no turning back. It's so utterly convenient and generally (from what I see on the forums) an entire system rarely breaks. Usually individual programs are more prone to breaking, or maybe temporary malfunction of a graphics or sound driver. But yeah, as long as you don't use a 5 year old iso to install Arch, I think you're safe

Last edited by dyscoria (2008-02-12 01:18:46)

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flack 2.0.6: menu-driven BASH script to easily tag FLAC files (AUR)
knock-once 1.2: BASH script to easily create/send one-time sequences for knockd (forum/AUR)

bionnaki

Member

Registered: 2006-09-05

Posts: 289

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

I recommend using the ftp iso & installing the latest at first, by the way.

reshlliw

Member

Registered: 2008-02-11

Posts: 7

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

Well, I installed from the core ISO rather than FTP and it all upgraded just fine. Things are going pretty well, and installation was a breeze. From first impressions, I'm suitably impressed!

dyscoria

Member

Registered: 2008-01-10

Posts: 1,007

Re: Are reinstalls ever required to upgrade between releases?

Great! Installation is the biggest hurdle I think. After you are able to get a graphical desktop running, it's a breeze.

In my experience, an ISO install has been better than an FTP install. I had several (small) problems come up with the FTP install so i'm going to stick with the ISO. Problem is, all i've got is DVD to burn them onto, so I have gigabytes of unused space on them...

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flack 2.0.6: menu-driven BASH script to easily tag FLAC files (AUR)
knock-once 1.2: BASH script to easily create/send one-time sequences for knockd (forum/AUR)