Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

CaptainKirk · 2009-12-30 15:42:15

This is what I see in sudo pacman -Syu:

Targets (5): kernel26-firmware-2.6.32.2-2  kernel26-2.6.32.2-2  
             nvidia-190.42-2  kernel26-headers-2.6.32.2-2  oss-4.2_2002-2  

Total Download Size:    39.54 MB
Total Installed Size:   119.72 MB

and I am nervous. Upgrading kernel makes me nervous because if that fails, it could render the whole machine dead, no?

And upgrading nvidia makes me nervous because a few months ago, when I did that, I lost dual monitor support.

I managed to downgrade then, but still, I'm the nervous type. I had 177 (something like that) not 190 back then. Since then, someone on this fantastic forum told me I could (should) use 190.

Anyhow, anyone care to reassure me that it's going to be ok?

graysky · 2009-12-30 15:49:51

Many including myself have been using these packages. If you need to downgrade back to a prev version, you can always do this even if your system won't boot via the Live-CD and chroot. I would go ahead and allow the upgrade.

hokasch · 2009-12-30 16:00:43

If it makes you more comfortable, here someone did an update for the first time in a year, and it all came out working and shiny.

To boost your confidence further, install a second kernel before the Syu, maybe -lts, to have a backup. Just in case.

hume's doona · 2009-12-30 16:07:27

i think the new nvidia drivers might have trouble, i had to downgrade on my mac running gentoo back to 188.something i think just to get a display at all... haven't tried that driver on arch though, this netbok has intel

jolinfire · 2009-12-30 16:30:12

No problem here with last nvidia driver :

jolinfire ~ $ pacman -Si nvidia
Dépôt                 : extra
Nom                   : nvidia
Version               : 190.42-2
URL                   : http://www.nvidia.com/
Licences              : custom  
Groupes               : --
Fournit               : --
Dépend de             : kernel26>=2.6.32  kernel26<2.6.33  nvidia-utils=190.42  
Dépendances opt.      : --
Est en conflit avec   : nvidia-96xx  nvidia-173xx  
Remplace              : --
A télécharger         : 3133,54 K
Taille (installé)     : 11403,00 K
Paqueteur             : Tobias Powalowski <tpowa@archlinux.org>
Architecture          : x86_64
Compilé le            : ven. 04 déc. 2009 15:43:51 CET
somme MD5             : a0affee7878123dc35436a38c4f7c559
Description           : NVIDIA drivers for kernel26.

CaptainKirk · 2009-12-30 18:09:57

graysky wrote:

If you need to downgrade back to a prev version, you can always do this even if your system won't boot via the Live-CD and chroot. I would go ahead and allow the upgrade.

Oh, I didn't know that. OK, very good to know.

hokasch wrote:

If it makes you more comfortable, here someone did an update for the first time in a year, and it all came out working and shiny.

Hmmm, so maybe I should also wait six months? LOL [just kidding]

hokasch wrote:

To boost your confidence further, install a second kernel before the Syu, maybe -lts, to have a backup. Just in case.

Googling for "second kernel installation" doesn't show any clear results. Is there a manual how to do this?

hume's doona wrote:

i think the new nvidia drivers might have trouble, i had to downgrade on my mac running gentoo back to 188.something i think just to get a display at all... haven't tried that driver on arch though, this netbok has intel

Hmmm. I have a GeForce video card. Well, I suppose I did manage to downgrade once before, so if there is a problem, I can do it again.

Thank you all for the responses.

hokasch · 2009-12-30 19:00:58

Hmmm, so maybe I should also wait six months?

well, I would be rather carefull to abstract a general rule from this... anyway, you would just hold off confronting your fears and not face them with a valiant paaaacmaaaan S!Y!U!.
kernel26-lts is in aur, but even if xorg and /or KMS get screwed up you can boot to commandline (append "single" to grub kernel line) and downgrade. make sure the old kernel is still in your package cache, though.

Last edited by hokasch (2009-12-30 19:02:48)

ozar · 2009-12-30 19:09:50

Anyhow, anyone care to reassure me that it's going to be ok?

Another good option that you might want to consider in addition to the above suggestions is to always have a backup of your system on hand. That way, if any upgrade destroys your system, you can restore the backup and keep on going.

It's always worked for me over the years.

edit: oops, forgot to add that the upgrade went flawlessly for me.

Last edited by ozar (2009-12-30 19:11:02)

panosk · 2009-12-30 19:11:24

Yesterday I upgraded my laptop (intel graphics) and everything is fine. Today I upgraded my workstation (nvidia graphics) and everything is fine too. I am sure Arch devs tested the kernel thoroughly and that's why it took so long to get into [core]. However, keep a note that upgrading could always break sth, depending on your hardware and configuration. However, with Arch I have had less upgrade problems than in any "standard" release distro. Kudos to the devs for their amazing work.

Onyros · 2009-12-30 20:32:39

I experienced some performane degradation with the newer nVidia graphics. Screen tearing and everything, which I didn't have before, with a 6600GT - AGP version. Anyone else had this? (And even though I do know it's not a benchmark, glxgears gave me 6000+ and now gives me 4300 fps).

CaptainKirk · 2009-12-30 20:44:44

I ran the upgrade now. So far so good, but I haven't yet rebooted.

I also ran glxgears just for fun. Just over 2000 FPS. Soon I will reboot.

> However, with Arch I have had less upgrade problems than in any "standard" release distro.

I switched to Arch because the other distros never worked for me. Just had problems. I do not believe there is a better distro.

> Kudos to the devs for their amazing work.

Amen to that!

Thank you for all the comments. I appreciate it.

hokasch · 2009-12-30 20:56:20

Toi Toi Toi, then!

ngoonee · 2009-12-31 01:15:33

If you're afraid of updates, you may want to consider another distro . Arch's updates are as painless as can be, but once in a while random chance takes over and you do end up having to fix things manually, no matter how well the devs do their jobs.

cyberpatrol · 2009-12-31 02:39:47

Usually there's no reason for being nervous when upgrading kernels, but this time you should be careful because there's an important package update which is currently in [testing] missing in [core]. This leads to kernel panics for users who are using the stable repos.

See FS#17649.

There seem to be other people who also can't boot this new kernel.

mikesd · 2009-12-31 02:50:11

cyberpatrol wrote:

Usually there's no reason for being nervous when upgrading kernels, but this time you should be careful because there's an important package update which is currently in [testing] missing in [core]. This leads to kernel panics for users who are using the stable repos.
See FS#17649.
There seem to be other people who also can't boot this new kernel.

Has this been confirmed? I am running 2.6.32.2-2 using the stable repos and had no problems with the upgrade.

cyberpatrol · 2009-12-31 03:26:25

mikesd wrote:

Has this been confirmed? I am running 2.6.32.2-2 using the stable repos and had no problems with the upgrade.

I don't know what exactly has caused the kernel panic but changing several configurations in /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and rebuilding kernel26.img several times didn't help, and the kernel panics have been gone after updating the system to [testing] and rebuilding kernel26.img with the new mkinitcpio version from [testing].

I was lucky to have a second kernel installed so that I could boot with this not yet updated kernel. Otherwise I had some more trouble.

And from what I read in the arch-general mailing list and in the forums there seem to be some other people who have at least similar issues with this kernel version.

Last edited by cyberpatrol (2009-12-31 03:29:21)

Epiphanic · 2009-12-31 14:04:22

I just upgraded last night and had no problems. Pretty much the exact packages that the original poster had.

CaptainKirk · 2010-01-01 12:21:03

I upgraded once again today and got new nvidia and nvidia-utils. Then I rebooted and all is well.

Thanks to everyone who responded here.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-30 15:42:15

Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#2 2009-12-30 15:49:51

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#3 2009-12-30 16:00:43

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#4 2009-12-30 16:07:27

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#5 2009-12-30 16:30:12

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#6 2009-12-30 18:09:57

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#7 2009-12-30 19:00:58

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#8 2009-12-30 19:09:50

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#9 2009-12-30 19:11:24

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#10 2009-12-30 20:32:39

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#11 2009-12-30 20:44:44

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#12 2009-12-30 20:56:20

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#13 2009-12-31 01:15:33

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#14 2009-12-31 02:39:47

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#15 2009-12-31 02:50:11

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#16 2009-12-31 03:26:25

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#17 2009-12-31 14:04:22

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

#18 2010-01-01 12:21:03

Re: Is the Latest Upgrade Safe?

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