How do you protect your system from upgrades?

carryingweight · 2022-11-14 23:51:55

After reading through the wiki it has been heavily suggested that I protect my system from upgrades. A full backup is obviously the best way but is too inconvenient, so I have it as a last resort option. Root snapshotting to me seems like the way to do it, but I've been told that there is some danger to that and it should also be a last resort type option. I was just wondering how some of you guys protect your system from upgrades, installs, package problems, etc. I am using LVM on ext4 btw

jasonwryan · 2022-11-15 00:10:30

I backup all my data (and configs) to two offsite locations, neither of which I have ever had to access except from PEBKAC. Fixing Arch is a lot quicker than re-installing in most cases.

cfr · 2022-11-15 01:17:49

$ type pacman
pacman is aliased to `/usr/bin/pacmatic'

I keep the LTS kernel installed.

I do the following, but not to protect things from Arch upgrades. I do them to protect things from (1) user error (2) disk failure (and, to a lesser extent, other hardware failure) and (3) firmware upgrades:

I backup crucial user data and configs to the cloud (with a service which encrypts it on my machine).
I sometimes (but should often) rsync everything to an external HDD.

Trilby · 2022-11-15 02:58:53

carryingweight wrote:

I was just wondering how some of you guys protect your system from upgrades, installs, package problems, etc.

I don't ... at all. I don't keep backups of any regeneratable system data (e.g., packages). I don't read the news unless I see something off in the pacman output, then I check. I'll even not infrequently empty the pacman cache.

Of course I also put q-tips in my ears, remove tags from matresses, and I never wait the full 2 minutes after cooking to eat microwave popcorn. I like to live dangerously.

But I take responsibility and gain knowledge on how to fix things that might go wrong. It's never been a problem, and I don't expect it will be. Except the popcorn thing ... if I get a scorching hot kernel stuck between my teeth, I guess that's just it for me; I accept that risk.

ewaller · 2022-11-15 03:04:03

Trilby wrote:

I never wait the full 2 minutes after cooking to eat microwave popcorn.

Microwave? I would have taken you for a for a popcorn popper over wood fire ember kind of guy

ngoonee · 2022-11-15 03:28:33

Best way to protect your system from upgrades is to not upgrade. Mission critical systems shouldn't use Arch. Daily use systems can use Arch, just be careful not to update at the wrong time. Make sure your data is separate from system config (some form of etckeeper/dotfiles helps here) and you're good to go. Its rare you'd need to do so, any update breakage is normally easily fixed as long as you're familiar with your system (which you will be having followed the installation guide and understood what its doing).

Head_on_a_Stick · 2022-11-15 07:50:21

I did have automatic daily snapshots (with the boot menu entries) set up for a while:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 0#p1957920

Don't bother any more though. Downgrading packages from a chroot is so easy.

carryingweight · 2022-11-28 06:15:50

cfr wrote:

I backup crucial user data and configs to the cloud (with a service which encrypts it on my machine).

I am interested in what you use to do this

cfr · 2022-11-28 23:14:49

carryingweight wrote:

cfr wrote:
I backup crucial user data and configs to the cloud (with a service which encrypts it on my machine).
I am interested in what you use to do this

I use spideroak-one (in AUR). It is not perfect - it does not always notice small changes - but it is pretty good and they've been invariably helpful even though Arch is not officially supported. But it is proprietary.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-11-14 23:51:55

How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#2 2022-11-15 00:10:30

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#3 2022-11-15 01:17:49

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#4 2022-11-15 02:58:53

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#5 2022-11-15 03:04:03

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#6 2022-11-15 03:28:33

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#7 2022-11-15 07:50:21

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#8 2022-11-28 06:15:50

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

#9 2022-11-28 23:14:49

Re: How do you protect your system from upgrades?

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