I’ve been looking into switching to Tumbleweed for easier distribution upgrades, and 13.1 was a good occasion to try this out on an alternate computer. So several days ago, I followed this tutorial and converted the openSUSE 12.3 repositories to openSUSE Tumbleweed. At that point 13.1 wasn’t released yet, and opensuse_current was still pointing to 12.3, so only a few packages were changed by ‘zypper dup’ since it was virtually the same version. Once 13.1 was out, I opened the computer to test how changes in the Tumbleweed repository would be detected. I logged in, opened Apper, and clicked “Check for new Updates” like I would usually. However, Apper couldn’t continue due to package conflicts. The only way to advance was to run ‘zypper dup’ again, after which the upgrade took place successfully.
The reason I’m confused is that I thought you only need to run ‘zypper dup’ when you first switch to Tumbleweed. After that, I imagined it would handle distribution upgrades like it handles all everyday updates. Is it correct that even if I’m on Tumbleweed, I need to run ‘zypper dup’ each time a new release of openSUSE comes out? Will this ever be changed and improved also? It’s not that I’m too lazy to run such a simple command or anything… I was just hoping this would allow for natural and unnoticeable upgrades via the normal update system, so one wouldn’t have to follow the release cycles and know when to run zypper manually each time.
That’s not surprising. On T’weed, I only use Apper as a notifier that there are some updates. I recommend that you do not use Apper to perform any updates. As already stated, use only “zypper dup”.
Ouch… I understand. I already used Apper for regular updates on Tumbleweed, and those seem to work fine just like before. I wouldn’t want to lose this simple updating ability either.
It would be nice if either Apper or a similar tool could detect when it’s appropriate to use a ‘zypper up’ or ‘zypper dup’ approach. If such was possible, I assume it would automatically use “up” for minor updates like until now, and “dup” when detecting a full distribution update. Would be nice to see this happening in the next years, though not crucial.
Well, you can use Apper, but you should at least enable “vendor change”. Otherwise you won’t get any updates from Tumbleweed when a new package gets moved in there.
Edit /etc/zypp/zypp.conf:
#### EXPERTS ONLY: Per default the solver will not replace packages of
## different vendors, unless you explicitly ask to do so. Setting this
## option to TRUE will disable this vendor check (unless the application
## explicitly re-enables it). Packages will then be considered based on
## repository priority and version only. This may easily damage your system.
##
## CHANGING THE DEFAULT IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
##
## Valid values: boolean
## Default value: false
##
# solver.allowVendorChange = false
Add “solver.allowVendorChange = true” there.
But as you have noticed, Apper is not able to solve dependency conflicts. You would still have to fall back to “zypper dup” in that case.
If you are using Tumbleweed, then why are you not posting in the “Tumbleweed” subforum? That’s where the Tumbleweeders hang out and look to respond to Tumbleweed questions/problems. This is the wrong forum for that, and this is usually a busier period for the moderators and helpers.
It would be nice if either Apper or a similar tool could detect when it’s appropriate to use a ‘zypper up’ or ‘zypper dup’ approach.
Lots of things would be nice to have. However, T’weed is not even the standard distro so you may have to wait a looong time for stuff that the maintainer doesn’t support.
Your questions suggest you may not have read the Tumbleweed portal (only a page) on the openSUSE Wiki which explains some of what you should be doing and how.
That’s where the Tumbleweeders hang out and look to respond to Tumbleweed questions/problems. This is the wrong forum for that, and this is usually a busier period for the moderators and helpers.