[mythtv-users] linux updates suck

[Tom Dexter]

On 9/8/07, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>
> Updating a working system is always potential trouble, especially if you
> are updating the kernel. Unfortunately you may have been caught by
> kernel changes that effected things that Myth depends on.
>
> You need to always be prepared, by backing up all data, including your
> database, to completely re-install the system.
<snip>

...and I'd add that you should of course have those even if you're not updating.

I tend to think that for many (or maybe most) treating your myth box
like an appliance and doing nothing probably is a good idea.  At the
same time I certainly understand someone wanting their system to stay
up to date, especially compared to ending up stuck at MythTV 0.19 or
the like.  It's not like that's without it's consequences either.

I can see I'm in the minority here, but I update my Gentoo frontend
and backend all the time.  I know that I _could_ take the "if it ain't
broke don't fix it" approach, but I just don't like letting my systems
get woefully out of date.  Eventually something comes up (as it did
for many with SD) that forces you to upgrade, and it can mean
rebuilding the system.  With Gentoo there really aren't any major
version changes as such...you can install once and pretty much update
indefinitely.  That's one thing I've always liked about it.  Once you
let it way way behind however, updating can be much more difficult
than rebuilding.  I think I've gone up three kernel versions (not just
patches) since April.

When I update, I always copy and paste a list of all package updates.
If anything causes a problem I can always block that version and
downgrade.  And in a worst case I could always go to my dump of my /
and /boot partitions, though I doubt I'd ever need to.

And it's not like those updates are just for the sake of being anal or
something.  A lot of packages I use all the time (xine, mplayer for
example) _do_ if fact improve over time, and often the upgrades have
dependencies.

Just my preference I guess.

Tom