I am kind of new to Linux. I started with nobara and got comfortable with the overall feel of Linux. Then a few weeks ago I switched over to cashyos, to try something new.
But what I wonder all the time: How often should I update my system? With Windows there were some updates happening in the background about every week and it was not necessary nor possible to manage them in detail.
But now on Linux I get update notification sometimes twice a day. I am also aware, that cashyos is doing roling updates. As I understand it, this means they are pushing them without much delay for testing. Is this a reason to wait a little before applying new updates so bugs can be fixed? But when I wait, arent there always new updates coming in? Also those Bugfixes would also be updates that I would then delay.
How are you handling it? And how are your experiences?
first thing I do is turn off all update notifications, can’t stand shit beeping at me. then, systemd timer that autoupdates all flatpaks daily; happens quietly in the background, no popups, no nothings.
system gets updated like once a month (and restarted). reason: hate reboots, leave my system in the evening, wake it in the morning with all my shit how I left it.
I update daily sometimes, other times I’ll go weeks. Nothing really fixed, just when I think of it. I used to set a cron entry to update nightly, but figured that was pretty pointless for my use.
With Arch based, like CaxhyOS or Manjaro? Whenever I install new things or at weekends or when something important is fixed. But god beware, not every day. There is no reason for that.
Once a month.
every 15 minutes (i use Arch btw)
O but do it manually, not because a script will eventually break your system with a partial update, but because the excitement of watching your AUR packages get a new release knowing it is a gamble for system stability.
i only use the aur
How are you handling it?
I handle it by not using a rolling distro. I get security updates, but I’m not interrupted every time a new version of something becomes available. I do the periodic release upgrades on my own terms: when I have time.
And how are your experiences?
Wonderful. My system is very low maintenance, which means I have more time to get work done or play games.
My understanding is that unless you’re explicitly configuring yourself with Testing repos, you’re getting already tested software in your updates and should be fairly stable even with a rolling release.
For my gaming PC (Fedora) I’m pretty much updating whenever there’s updates. Non-gaming Laptop? Debian stable, i don’t need or want bleeding edge.
Normal day-to-day updates are applied daily. Even back when I used to use Arch. In my experience, there were very few breaking changes and if you checked the blog, you could take measures to prevent such measures.
With fulll distribution upgrades, I normally wait a week or so. Just in case.
Everytime I randomly remember to run
sudo pacman -SyuI do it and that’s almost everyday.Same but
eos-update --yay
Rolling release doesn’t mean that no testing is done. All updated packages are tested by maintainers before being released into the official repository. A rolling release simply means that there are no individually marked OS versions and you always get the latest packages.
In contrast, take Debian for example. It uses a point release system with major named versions (e.g. Debian 13 “Trixie”), minor point releases (e.g. 13.1), and security and bugfix patches between those. New feature updates are released only between point releases, and breaking changes are only introduced between major versions. This allows the maintainers to practice a greater amount of care in testing that the packages work well together, but also means that new features are always held back to some extent. This does not happen in a rolling release system. All upstream changes are pulled, tested, and released, regardless of whether a breaking change is introduced.
By its nature, a rolling release distribution will require a greater amount of maintenance. If a package update requires manual intervention, it will be published on archlinux.org. For as long as I’ve been a Linux user, I’ve only seen one package update that made systems temporarily unbootable, and I was saved from that by being a Manjaro user at the time.
But, to answer the question, I usually update my home and work PCs (both Arch) about once every week or two, or as required by a new software or important security update.
With my arch experience, there has been a few big deal manual interventions but nothing that has bricked my install. At the worst, you boot to a terminal so you can fix it.
It usually goes like this for me:
update, oh bother… probably time to reboot
BAM
OMG WTF
open www.archlinux.org on my phone
oh geez, ok…
tinker tinker reboot
its back to normal! w0ot
I will say that I have had to learn that I need to pay attention when a new kernel is released, because I somehow get it before the video driver is also updated, it will be broken after reboot
Maybe try the DKMS version of your video drivers? It automatically rebuilds every time you install a new kernel. For Nvidia the package is
nvidia-dkms. I don’t use AMD (yet) but I guess the package name would be something similar.But yes, it is a good idea to babysit your installation and pay attention to errors/warnings during the update. It is also a good idea to periodically check Arch news for breaking changes.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support
Daily
Every day with a self crafted (alias) command in the terminal. I use (Endeavour) Arch, BTW.
Once a day or so
When I have time to fix it.
Too many times I’ve thought “just a quick update” and something broke. So now I update when I have a bit of time up my sleeve, otherwise if it breaks and I can’t fix it straight away it stays in my head taking up most of my thoughts until I can fix it.
I have no cadence. Unless whatever software you’re using is unstable, you probably won’t notice updates. I update on a whim which is often because it’s habit. Though sometimes it can be weeks between when I run the update
