updates and breaking system

schnootle · 2009-10-18 23:38:40

Hi Everyone

I have used arch full time for about 9 months, and for the most part loved it - i have cycled through many others and liked arch the most. My problem is i have twice rather catastrophically broken things from a full system update.

I realize that releasing packages early is part of the arch approach, but is there a way i can keep my system mostly up to date while minimizing that risk of breaking things? (i try to do work on my computer as well as tinker). Like is there an older more stable set of packages, or does pacman always use the bleeding edge ones?.

Thanks for any help guys.

Acecero · 2009-10-18 23:44:10

Yes there are an older set of packages kept in the package cache, if you haven't clean any package cache from the /var/cache/pacman/pkg directory. You can always downgrade packages to a more stable one if the current one breaks.

schnootle · 2009-10-18 23:52:10

Thank Acecero

Yeah i managed to make use of that one of the times it broke, as i could boot from the live cd, chroot into my installation and roll back to an older kernel. But the last time it happened i couldn't even chroot from the live cd, so i couldn't access the package cache to roll back.

I guess what i hoped might exist is a way to set pacman to use packages that are a bit older when it does the update, that way you always stay a bit behind the bleeding edge

Acecero · 2009-10-18 23:58:53

schnootle wrote:

Thank Acecero
Yeah i managed to make use of that one of the times it broke, as i could boot from the live cd, chroot into my installation and roll back to an older kernel. But the last time it happened i couldn't even chroot from the live cd, so i couldn't access the package cache to roll back.
I guess what i hoped might exist is a way to set pacman to use packages that are a bit older when it does the update, that way you always stay a bit behind the bleeding edge

If its the kernel your talking about, you can always compile a custom kernel to an older version.

There is also a feature for that. You can use the IgnorePkg variable from your pacman.conf. Details are here.

sand_man · 2009-10-19 00:08:04

Breakages are really quite rare. What exactly have you had problems with in the past?

Misfit138 · 2009-10-19 00:23:37

Arch also has an lts kernel that is officially supported now. Sounds like what you may be looking for.

schnootle · 2009-10-19 00:27:18

Breakages are really quite rare. What exactly have you had problems with in the past?

Its happened twice from updates for me, one was an issue with the kernel update i could fix be using an older one. The second time it wouldn't boot, with errors along the lines of "too many symbolic links" which i imagine was due to some link linking to itself or something - this also stopped me chrooting to roll back. I spent ages and couldn't track it down so i just ended up reinstalling. I guess its just made me lose my nerve with updates, when i need my computer for work

ngoonee · 2009-10-19 00:28:14

sand_man wrote:

Breakages are really quite rare. What exactly have you had problems with in the past?

+1. I update once or twice a day, and rarely get breakages at all, some minor annoyances here and there. Am wondering what it is that breaks your system so bad you have to use a boot CD....

Acecero · 2009-10-19 00:44:01

ngoonee wrote:

Am wondering what it is that breaks your system so bad you have to use a boot CD....

schnootle wrote:

...an issue with the kernel update i could fix be using an older one...

raul_nds · 2009-10-19 01:21:38

I rarely get breakages. In fact I only remember having breakages when using the testing repo.

And it was Allan who broke it.

But I remember when every update of xorg-server brought chaos behind it, I just added it to the IgnorePkg and worked like a charm.
That and not cleaning the cache very often

keenerd · 2009-10-19 02:01:25

Pacmatic makes you aware of issues that usually lead to a broken system, before things start breaking.

grey · 2009-10-19 14:11:48

ARM (Arch Rollback Machine) is great for rollbacks, IgnorePkg keeps the broken packages from being installed at the next upgrade, but that all depends on being able to get into the system.
If your /root partition isn't too big (i.e. you have separate /var and /home partitions), you could take a snapshot of /root before the upgrade using fsarchiver running from a SystemRescueCD. Then if things break completely you can restore.
Or you could look into filesystems with snapshot capability (ZFS, BTRFS), but I don't know to what extent they are ready to be used on Linux, and if you can use them to restore things from the outside.

stryder · 2009-10-19 15:19:58

Clone your system to another partition, keep data (or home) in another partition. Also create a common /var/cache/pacman/pkg. Update your clone system only when it is safe. When one is borked, just use the other, but keep on updating the borked one until it is OK. If it is really bad, just clone the working one over. No down time.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-18 23:38:40

updates and breaking system

#2 2009-10-18 23:44:10

Re: updates and breaking system

#3 2009-10-18 23:52:10

Re: updates and breaking system

#4 2009-10-18 23:58:53

Re: updates and breaking system

#5 2009-10-19 00:08:04

Re: updates and breaking system

#6 2009-10-19 00:23:37

Re: updates and breaking system

#7 2009-10-19 00:27:18

Re: updates and breaking system

#8 2009-10-19 00:28:14

Re: updates and breaking system

#9 2009-10-19 00:44:01

Re: updates and breaking system

#10 2009-10-19 01:21:38

Re: updates and breaking system

#11 2009-10-19 02:01:25

Re: updates and breaking system

#12 2009-10-19 14:11:48

Re: updates and breaking system

#13 2009-10-19 15:19:58

Re: updates and breaking system

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