I am new to rolling-release distros and i have been using tumbleweed for around 2 weeks.
I am still not sure about when to update tumbleweed using
zypper dup
.
-Auto-update
This can give latest versions of software and OS but a lot of times can break the system
-Update once a week or so manually
That will make me a few snapshots behind but my system wont break
-Follow the tumbleweed mailing list and see if you want to update at every snapshot
This is too time consuming
-Update whenever you want to it doesn’t matter
That is a security problem and applications will not be up to date
Tumbleweed software update taking too much internet and causing problems as i cant use my laptop as it has 5400rpm HDD and it is at 100% while updating , which is most of the time.
Too many updates making me want to go back to OpenSuse leap but snaps and flatpaks didnt work for me in Leap 15.3 . I troubleshooted for 3 days couldnt find solution (so i upgraded to tumbleweed) …
So as I am new to rolling distros please suggest a healthy way to maintain a rolling release OS on a system
Hi
It all depends on the update, there is a notification here in the Forum on a new release, review the changes and up to you to decide where and when to update
Follow the Factory Mailing list to see what is happening and any fallout from a new release…
I have Tumbleweed installed in a virtual machine. I update that whenever I notice that updates are available. That’s to keep me informed.
However, for Tumbleweed on real machines, I update on Saturday. I don’t worry that I am occasionally a few updates behind. Once per week, or even once per two weeks is sufficient. Updating too often is too disruptive.
Excellent advice by @malcolmlewis, but if following the mailing list seems too time consuming to you, updating once a week or twice per month will do.
Auto-updating will consume a lot of bandwidth (and a lot of patience on a slow laptop): for instance lately libreoffice and other packages were rebuilt every other day from the same source, 300+ MB to download every time and no feature to gain…
Unless you run a very security sensitive system being a few snapshots behind is no great deal IMHO.
Enjoy Tumbleweed!
EDIT: @nrickert has typed faster basically the same advice.
Updates breaking an otherwise healthy system are inevitable no matter the update frequency we chose. Following mailing list is one way to reduce (reduce, not avoid) breakages but as said it is time consuming and shouldn’t be expected from non-tech-savvy users. Nonetheless keeping a regularly used system updated is important.
On my main machine I updated as soon as there are updates e.g. daily, I don’t find it disruptive. Every few weeks should be fine, provided you have other security measures.
That said, learn how to troubleshoot and revert updates:
Boot with an older kernel, and learn how to keep different kernel versions side by side;
Rollback to a previously working snapshot
Better learn these tasks before you really need them.
Another one (remote related to the subject here) you should practice is how to recover from a disaster (small or large). In other words, not only make backups, but have a plan, and test it, how to use those backups when you need them.
