Dear all,
on TW and SR, how long time is possible without a zypper dup so that the system doesn’t break (still updates properly)?
I guess you cannot tell a specific time — but maybe a rough estimate, like a week/month/quarter/year.
TIA!
It probably depends on the updates that need to be applied. On a TW test VM that I have, I sometimes go a month and the updates have worked fine so far.
Generally speaking, I can’t think of much that would cause breakage with a long time between dups, but that said, more frequently is always better; if one doesn’t want to run upgrades that frequently, then a rolling distro might not be the best choice.
1 Like
Why would it break? I’ve been running Tumbleweed as my main system for a year now, I even use ext4 gets updated at every snapshot and never broken to the point of not booting…… With Slowroll you can either grab updates as they drop or once per month
1 Like
The questionable system would be used and updated for about half a year every two weeks and then about half a year not at all.
I wonder if about half a year could break a TW or SR.
Why not simply test it?
It is not recommended to use a system which did not recieve updates for half a year. As most users want some secure systems, i doubt many users tested it. But unless there is a substantial change in the system/programming/setup over the years (which requires severel intermediate upgrade steps inbetween), the risk for breakage should be low (besides the security implications).
1 Like
My habit is only update when zypper dup update size accumulates around 1.5GB, but check the forums if the English forums starts to report strange booting problems.
@C7NhtpnK That really does depend on what is being updated and why… There are a number of system packages that if not updated may break things, glib, rpm etc on a dup…
From 2 recent experiences:
- 1 year gave some minor issues, but really minor
- 2 years definitely is a no go. To much changes to fix.
There are also changes like the the /usr/ merge
1 Like
Yep one year is still good. Two years still can be done but lot of fixing to do.
I have one tumbleweed that I update once every 2 months and one that I use every day gets an update every snapshot. The latest snapshot here broke the tumbler in xfce
so I can’t see the thumbnails in thunar, I’m using dolphin for now for looking at my images from my drawings.
The biggest concern I would have, if it were my system, was being connected to the Internet without recent security patches.
A secondary concern might be that the more out-of-date the system is, there’s a possibility that attempting to install something from the repos is going to be more complicated (requiring manual conflict resolution, or just a large number of packages to install). That’s not insurmountable, nor as critical as having a potentially exploitable system connected to the rest of the world - even with external firewalls in place.
It kinda defeats the purpose IMO of using a rolling release.
2 Likes
Length of upgrade intervals doesn’t matter. Virtually all installations I manage are updated daily. However Tumbleweed readily upgrades after pausing for more than one year.
1 Like
Well, I am not quite sure regarding your answers. Some suggest problems, some don’t…
Security isn’t actually really a thing. If the system doesn’t get updated, it won’t be used: it’s just not touched then. It would probably be updated if connected and used again after some time.
But I am really concerned if all working properly in my use case. I could guess there being problems when not regularly updated for in a (long) while (like several months/half a year/a year). I would not dare just trying it (and maybe failing).
@C7NhtpnK Your system, you get to do what you want with it 
If it’s not connected to anything, should be fine. I would not use Tumbleweed like that, Leap, yes depending on it’s end use.
My ADS-B system gets updated rarely and still on Leap 15.6 (up 132 days 23:31) all traffic is outbound and services are running as their own users aside from internal network GPS and NTP services.
1 Like
This is useful information - it sounds like the intent is that this is a rarely-used system that’s powered down most of the time. Sure, that’s not a security issue then, because it’s not reachable.
You didn’t really define your use case for us, so the feedback that you’re getting is just generally broad information about what to expect.
If you’ve set the system up with btrfs and snapper, then the worst case if you go to update it and have problems is that you roll back and then come here and ask for help resolving whatever issues come up.
I once had a gap of at least three years. Couldn’t recall correctly but I think I didn’t do much to fix it. Not recommending this, just to show it’s doable.
@C7NhtpnK Here is an example of a delay period from updating…
https://forums.opensuse.org/t/intel-wifi-link-5100-agn-wont-load-firmware-tumbleweed-6-18-kernel/190320
Could be kernel (I would assume user needs to see the kernel update process and bisect each one…) or maybe just firmware between kernel 6.15 and 6.18…
It’s actually possible to test this retroactively:
Download an older Tumbleweed ISO and install it offline.
Then run a zypper dup directly to the current snapshot.
If the system upgrades without issues, you effectively validate that the time span between that ISO and the current snapshot is still safe for a full zypper dup.
1 Like
@rafaelj3d Finding an iso with 6.15 kernels? History repos only run about a month and no images…
@C7NhtpnK
The most updates I can remember was 4000+ one time (like 42-4300/2-3 gigs I think) and this was before zypper had preloading so it took a while … also I just recently reinstalled and reactivated snapper with my snapshot 0 dated 10/12/2020 so I’ve been doing zypper dup for almost 6 years now on this install (new SSD)… never had any problem to speak of … 