Safe to update Sabayon 4.2 Gnome?

[krinor]

Hi all!

This is my first time using Sabayon and I landed on the AMD64 Gnome edition (got 4GB of ram). So today, second day of a successful install, Sulfur tells me that there are 104 updates available, but from what I have read in the documentation installing so many updates at one time will hurt more than help your system.

So what shuld I do

[micia]

It is unsafe if you don't know what you will update.
Updates like a kernel update or configuration files updates need to be
careful, and usually people that update the system without enough care fall
in those pitfalls.

So if you update the system with enough care, it will go fine.

I suggest you to use equo instead of sulfur, for huge updates, since it is considered more stable.
If there are updates to equo/entropy/sulfur, you should apply them first:

Code: Select all

equo update
equo install entropy equo sulfur
equo update
equo cleanup
equo world --ask


this will:
- update your repositories
- install the latest entropy equo and sulfur (Sabayon package manager and interfaces)
- re-update the package list (not really necessary)
- cleanup downloaded packages cache (since equo does not do it automatically I usually do it during heavy updates)
- update all packages asking for confirmation

You should read some documentation on how to update the kernel and configuration files before doing it,
most update issues come directly from the philosophy "installation begin->next->next->next".

If you are unsure just update the packages that you know, and leave the system stuff for later, when
you will gain more experience.

[chenxiaolong]

Also, you should update the kernel first and restart, then update the rest of the packages because some updates might be installed for the current kernel rather than the new kernel (such as kernel modules or drivers). You should be fine then.

[krinor]

Thank you so much Micia, I will definitely read more docu on this, my goal is a 100% custom made Gentoo or lfs system, but you know this stuff takes time and that is not something i got alot of now.

Chen your tips is in great conflict with Micia's tips...

[micia]

They are not in conflict, he is probably trying to be more specific on how to update the kernel

Since the modules and kernel specific stuff is automatically chosen by the package manager to fit the current
kernel, when you are going to update the kernel itself, chenxiaolong is recommending you to install the kernel,
reboot (so that your new kernel will be made current), and then proceed.
The package manager (entropy, equo and sulfur) should always be installed first, even before the kernel.

I think that even a better way should be not to reboot (since you could be in trouble because of some modules
built for the old kernel).
My advice is to update the kernel, check that the new kernel is your current one using:

Code: Select all

eselect kernel list


you could get something like:

Code: Select all

eselect kernel list
Available kernel symlink targets:
  [1]   linux-2.6.29-sabayon *
  [2]   linux-2.6.30-sabayon


These are all the available kernels on the system, this is just an example.
The current kernel is the 2.6.29, let's assume that we want the 2.6.30 to be
our kernel.

So, let's make the new kernel current:

Code: Select all

eselect kernel set 2


in this command "2" is the number that corresponds to the 2.6.30 kernel, from the above listing.

Now all the packages should be selected for the new kernel, so you can safely proceed with the update.

This is just a simple guide, read the wiki for a more complete documentation.

[micia]

Well, the package manager does work, entropy works and portage too.

If you are referring to the GUI it works, but since it is a young project
and equo is considered more stable, I always suggest that.
I don't think you would be able to update 104 package using it if "it doesn't work"

However it is also easier to help users posting exact console commands than describing which
button they have to click on a window, considering that there are multiple localizations.

If you like the GUI interface to entropy, just use it, nobody is imposing you how to use your computer.