This probably sounds like a dumb question and I don’t know if this is the right place to ask this.
But, I have Tumbleweed installed for a few weeks now and do my updating manually via CLI.
When I do, sometimes I see that there is a dist-upgrade and it says to do that instead of the regular update.
But, I go ahead and proceed with my regular update and afterwards, check for updates and there are none.
Which makes me think that everything that needed updating was updated.
I have this alias in .bashrc:
alias ud='sudo zypper ref && sudo zypper up'
Is everything being updated as I see no more updates afterwards?
A couple of times I did the dist-upgrade and left my repos as is. It warned me about doing that. But, nothing bad seemed to happen.
But, I do understand, I just do not know what repos I should disable.
This is what I would use for a dist upgrade:
This general topic has been discussed over and over again here, the only guaranteed method to keep Tumbleweed up to date is “zypper dup”.
WRT your setup, please be aware that:
1- “zypper dup” implies a “zypper ref” done before everything else, so your script includes a duplicate (and a “–not-allow-vendor change” option by default unless you changed that yourself);
2- most of your enabled repos have duplicates with apparently different names or URLs, consider cleaning up your list;
3- the libdvdcss repo can safely be disabled once you got that one package installed, since it has no updates since years.
The main reason for a warning to running a “dup” with many repos enabled is that it may break your system if the same package is in two or more repos in different versions; I would check if that might be the case with the home:Herbster and shell utilities repos, for instance, compared to the “regular” repos.
One “packman” repo (not three as in your system) can usually be enabled, since the default --no-allow-vendor-change option will ensure sticking with the version in that repo.
Thanks and sorry as I thought this might be a touchy question. I’ve read a whole lot about the differences but, since I just did the upgrade and it didn’t list any more after doing so, I thought I’d ask.
I bookmarked your link eng-int. I’ll read it over asap.
I will clean up my repos and go for a dist-upgrade next time the system asks. Thanks for the info OrsoBruno. I didn’t know the “ref” was redundant.
The 2 extra packman repos: one was a mirror and the other was essentials for codecs so, I thought they might be needed but, I’ll disable those 2 also.
One question, is there any way to get rid of that box that pops up and says this?
Software Updates
There are 52 software updates available
with a button that says “Install Updates”.
BTW, a dist-upgrade was presented to me again this morning, so I quit the regular update, disabled the extra repos and went for it.
I did see a huge difference with 185 updates.
Something that did sort of alarm me was that libefivar1 was going to be downgraded. I didn’t think that looked good but, I went with it.
Enabled a few repos that I had disabled tried a regular upgrade and nothing happened so, I guess it was good.
Even though I know this is a touchy subject, I appreciate the info and posts. I have learned a lot.
The actual result of “zypper up” and “zypper dup” on TW has varied over time.
So, IMO it’s still worth answering all the time because the distro can’t even be consistent over time about what “zypper up” does.
Periodically I run “zypper up” out of curiousity followed by “zypper dup.”
At times, there has been no difference.
Today, as of this writing there is again a difference… “zypper dup” will update additional packages after a “zypper up.”
So,
It often does make a difference although there isn’t supposed to be a diff on TW…
Always run “zypper dup.”
Occasionally “zypper dup” causes downgrades, for instance when a problematic package is reverted back waiting for a fix.
In such a case, “zypper up” would not ask for a downgrade, possibly breaking your system.
There was another post recently that mentioned a bug. And the way to fix the bug was to downgrade efivar1. So this update was probably including that bug fix.
Thank you for the replies! I’m glad I posted this now maybe someone else will also benefit from it.
That is great that dup is smart enough to downgrade a package because of a bug!
I’m a long time Linux user, former mainframe programmer also computer electronics tech. that got started with computers in the late 70s.
Computers were pretty dumb back then.
But, the more I learn about openSUSE, the more I like it. Love the Compiz Fusion Icon working great like it does.
Arch Linux is the only other Linux OS that has a working Fusion Icon that I am aware of.
I had to go with Tumbleweed since it is like Arch, a rolling release. I’m not a fan of upgrading to the next version or doing a clean install, etc.
I am not sure that it is really a rolling release. I would think that meant that packages and patterns were updated individually as they became available, i.e. Factory.
The quality control and snapshotting leads me to regard Tumbleweed more as a rapid-release distribution. Upgrading often involves replacing thousands of files.
On Wed 25 Jul 2018 04:36:03 PM CDT, eng-int wrote:
Cavsfan;2875071 Wrote:
> I had to go with Tumbleweed since it is like Arch, a rolling release.
> I’m not a fan of upgrading to the next version or doing a clean
> install, etc.
I am not sure that it is really a rolling release. I would think that
meant that packages and patterns were updated individually as they
became available, i.e. Factory.
The quality control and snapshotting leads me to regard Tumbleweed more
as a rapid-release distribution. Upgrading often involves replacing
thousands of files.
Hi
Well a new release image(s) is/are created after every release…
sometimes there are a lot of updates, eg switch to gcc8
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SLES 15 | GNOME Shell 3.26.2 | 4.12.14-23-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!
… AND, for legitimate tech questions, although we prefer Users to first try to look for an answer in the Forums, I personally do not think any tech question from someone struggling with an issue should be considered a “touchy subject”.
We are trying our best to be a friendly forum.
Glad you have things worked out, and welcome aboard.
Doing a dist-upgrade once in a while does not change that fact IMO.
+1 Totally agree! I think this thread is worth posting and I have learned quite a bit myself.
Thanks for leaving it open since the info shared is invaluable to new openSUSE users like me and probably others as well.
Some forums are not tolerant at all and just say go read the wiki and close the thread. I’m glad that is not the case here and I am beginning to really like this forum and also feeling at home here.
I put a checked the box beside Software Updates, which says “hidden” above it in the notifications for the top panel.
I still got a popup saying I had 85 updates while I was updating via terminal. Is there something I missed?
I was busy doing testing in Arch most of the day but, just got into Tumbleweed and tried an up. It said it was going to update 85 packages and add a new one. But, it also said there was a distribution upgrade and I should cancel.
I gave it a ‘n’ and went with the dup. It did not update any more packages than the up listed but it did upgrade and I know now dup was the right thing to do.
So, it should be alright to just do an update if it does not say anything about a dist upgrade would it not?
When you open “System Tray Settings”, there are several tabs in the left column.
Your screenshot shows the tab labeled “Entries”. That’s where you set whether the tray icon is to be hidden or always visible.
The “General” tab also has an entry “Software Updates”. You might have to scroll down to find it (they appear to be in alphabetical order, and “Software Updates” is near the end). If you uncheck that, then the updater is not even started. So it won’t tell you anything about updates. That’s what I prefer, so that I can just use “zypper” on my own schedule.
Personally I do not understand this attitude. What is so attractive about a zypper up to prefer it above zypper dup. Despite the fact that “everybody” (the distribution itself, in many threads on the forums) advice to do a zypper dup as being the only supported way of doing it? Why telling proudly about cases where zypper up did not break anything (at least it was not noticed) and then more or less present it as “prove” that you do not need a zypper dup? Or ask hopefully: “Can there be situations that I can use my beloved zypper up”
It is like you coming with your car on a crossroads where a sign says “road flooded, take the by-pass”. And you driving on and succeeding in getting trough it without your engine stopping (but maybe two days later it shows to be damaged nevertheless) and then advertizing: “don’t believe the signs on the crossroad”.
IMHO those that did it wrong in the past, should gladly accept the advice and say to themselves: “am I glad that I did not unknowingly bork my system to much”, instead of advertizing the fact that they did wrong without real damage, to the innocent fellow users here?
There are many threads here on the forums where a zypper up was the start of problems and a (partly) system outage for some days before the friendly people here helped with their advise to do a zypper dup. I hope nobody hopes others have to go through learning the lesson “Use zypper dup on Tumbleweed” the hard way.
The distribution did several things to help. It made --no-vendor-change the default on zypper dup in Tumbleweed. It let the (not openSUSE invented) applet give the warning: “use zypper dup”.
