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Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

meribold.org

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Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#121

Post by collegeburner »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #73
5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstood the point of the distribution. There's no installer because Arch developers have no need of one. They're creating the distribution for themselves, and if you find it useful (I do), that's great. There's no expectation that an "average technically literate joe" is going to use it because he's not in its target group.

Arch isn't some small LFS niche distro anymore. At a certain point, you have to embrace at least some small amount of usability, or at least not reject PRs to add it. I found it quite embarrassing when one of the most popular distros out there had a worse installer than deb or slack from 20 years ago. That's not 'oops we forgot', it's not 'it was never really a priority' that's blatant user hostile elitism.

actually no you don't have to go change your project's philosophy bc different ppl start using it and demand different stuff. this is the kind of attitude that makes ppl hate maintaining FOSS anything.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#122

Post by goodpoint »

idoubtit wrote: post #88

I'm a happy user of another rolling release distribution: Debian testing. It's on my desktop and a laptop for a decade (even more for the desktop since I transferred the OS from my previous desktop pc). I can't remember any problem during the upgrades of the recent years. I often apply partial updates through `aptitude` on a weekly basis, and full upgrades once in a while (maybe monthly). There were some rough times…

Debian unstable is equally functional on desktops. 15 years without having to reinstall.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#123

Post by delusional »

Rackedup wrote: post #113

How often did the upgrade process broke? I've been using it for a few years and it broke a few times... but overall very happy.

My install has been alive since 2014. I've never had the upgrade process outright break. One in a while it requires some manual intervention like holding something back, or ignoring some package while upgrading. The only really "big" problem was when i switched from Nvidia to AMD and had to boot from a usb to restore the video drivers after failing to completely configure them.

This install has moved 4 disks in this time. Never a reinstall, just an rsync a a new fstab.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#124

Post by Macha »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #89
meribold wrote: post #35

I can provide some details regarding the times things did break that I mentioned in the article. * In September 2014, X broke, and I created an `/etc/X11/Xwrapper.config` file with the lines `allowed_users = anybody` and `needs_root_rights = yes` to get it to work again. I don't remember and don't have notes on why that helped. It sure does sound like a pretty terrible hack. I don't have that Xwrapper.config file any…

You didn't get bitten by a painful glibc upgrade? It's been long enough that I don't recall details, but I thought that was a big one.

The biggest upgrade I remember on my similarly aged system was initscripts -> systemd, and that had some steps to follow but went off smoothly.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#125

Post by kakwa_ »

oleg_antonyan wrote: post #108

So basically you use Arch Linux? (: btw, I use openSUSE Tumbleweed - more stable rolling release and it's awesome. Never going back to regular release with painful major updates every few years

Personally, I am using Debian Sid. The only somewhat painful part are the proprietary Nvidia drivers when a significant kernel upgrade occurs, but it's usually just a matter of selecting an older kernel in grub for a few days. Other than that, it's really up to date, and with an extensive choice of packages.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#126

Post by Macha »

sophacles wrote: post #58
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #34

I recently switched to an arch flavor because the AUR had a lot of little small utilities that make life better on wayland. Also, it's quite easy to install the latest version of golang and rust, etc. Pros: Documentation is excellent. Better than even Gentoo or Ubuntu's docs. Cons: Arch doesn't have an installer, and seems almost militantly against providing one, or a lot of other little utilities that could improve…

> Arch doesn't have an installer, and seems almost militantly against providing one, or a lot of other little utilities that could improve the user experience This just changed! The archinstall package is included on install media now and is not considered experimental (according to the wiki page history, that happened on 2022-07-08). https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/archinstall

Huh, it took a while for the wiki to be updated to reflect that. The official announcement was on april 1st, 2021 (the date was almost certainly a joke of how unexpected it was to people now following its development, but the release was no joke): https://archlinux.org/news/installation-medium-with-installe...

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#128

Post by Macha »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #76
pxeboot wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There actually is an optional installer included with the official installation media now [1]. [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/archinstall

This must be new, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

The previous installer was deprecated in 2012, so a 10 year period of no installer.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#130

Post by kelp »

I always love hearing these stories, especially because I'm too fickle to stick with something that long. I've mostly been a Mac user since maybe Puma or Jaguar, but I disto hop every few years. Spent a good while on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Still have an OpenBSD Thinkpad x1 Gen 6 around somewhere. That OpenBSD install could age like this, but I fat fingered a dd command and nuked the system disk in mid 2020, so it got a fresh install then.

Had various Arch installs on desktop and Thinkpad that I used as my day to day for while, but I always just ended up back on my Mac. And I get a new Mac every few years.

Any Linux I've had always ends up getting torn down at some point. I get a new computer and do a fresh install.

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