Hey guys just wanted to make a post to bring up awareness about kernel updates breaking systems, this use to be a litrle bit more a issue as I would hear a couple users I recommended Manjaro to having this issues where thier systems would break after a kennel update. This has been far less of a rarity now but it still happens unlike on other Linux distro’s with this one going for both bleeding edge and options but sticking with LTS by default which is good.
My mum updated her laptop recently and ran into this issue and while yes it’s a rarity as it’s never happened to her before the fact is it did and stopped her using her laptop until I fixed it but luckily I was there.
I just chroot in from a Manjaro live cd and reinstalled linux54 and it fixed the issue.
The point of this post was to both raise awareness and help you guys by giving feed, I want to let you guys know that this shouldn’t be a issue and should be fixed so Manjaro can continue to be a stable and reliable OS.
Breaking on updates and update issues should be reserved for Windows not Linux
I remember you from the last time you posted a boot problem with your dad’s computer right?
One thing that everybody needs to know, is here:
A rolling-relase distro has a higher chance to break compared with the conventional stable-release distro.
Unless a distributor has a superhuman QA, a rolling-release distro can barely make it as a beginner-friendly distro; you can get system failure on every update with higher probability than the conventional stable version release distro.
This is especially true if a computer system uses proprietary drivers such as the proprietary NVIDIA GPU driver.
I’m pretty sure you heard Manjaro was great for beginner or such … but I strongly disagree with this. Manjaro isn’t for beginner and casual users. Honestly, I’m not pretty confident with the quality of Manjaro QA; they are not open and you can’t tell how well they perform testings.
For your mum and dad (assuming a casual user), I actually recommend a Linux-based distro with the conventional stable-release model such as Debian (this distro is hard to install, but easy to use once you manage to install it) or Ubuntu. It’s just more stable and appropriate for casual users.
And if you had made sure that you had 3 or 4 different kernels installed in the first place and showed your mother what to do if one kernel breaks chrooting into Manjaro wouldn’t of been necessary. As for the post about Manjaro not being for beginners and the casual user I find it to be complete bull. I see more breakage on so called stable nonrolling releases than I do on rolling releases.
If it is indeed intended as feedback you report lacks a lot of info.
inxi -Fxxxx
What was kernel before the incident?
Which graphic driver was in use before the incident?
There is no mention of which kernel were in use before that - can one therefore - by the lack of mention - conclude kernel < 5.3? I ask because many use the wording reinstalled when referring to a broken system - when it - in this case - could as well be necessary to remove and unsupported kernel and adding a new supported kernel.
Upstream has very recently switched to use compressed firmware modules which requires kernel >=5.3.
The latest LTS kernel is 5.15 so why did you choose 5.4?
Was the choice because the 5.4, 5.10 and 5.15 is the only supported LTS kernels and you’d play it safe by going for 5.4?
You have mentioned nothing of Nvidia graphics so can it - by the lack of mention - be assumed this is an Intel only system?
I would strongly advise you to use a newer LTS kernel than the oldest LTS available - but that’s probably just me - and you have compelling reasons to chose otherwise.
When a system comes of age - especially Nvidia based systems - it becomes important to be proactive in the maintenance - watching out for decommissioned device drivers - not that this is a good thing - the decommision - but Nvidia has done it some time back.
I agree with that - Manjaro is a great tool for getting an Arch like experience - not for entering the Linux world.
For you QA statement - I am fairly certain that everything possible is done to mitigate issues - if you check Manjaro - Team you will find 20 volunteers - I am sure they would welcome your active participation - just ask where you can help.
But we are only human - and when building upon other human work - despite every effort made - errors happen.
That’s true but it has been less of a issue than it use to be and I want to try and help improve it so it’s even less of a issue egenif this is a rolling release.
Also this is just a Lenovo laptop with only intergrated graphics and using kernel 4.19
4.19 LTS is still there and supported which is what it’s using but I might swap it to the latest 5.15 LTS
I understand everyone is human and makes mistakes, I’m not making it out like it’s a huge disappointment, it was a easy fix but I just want to help improve the OS any way I can by reporting things so if there is anything they don’t know about than the community can help make it better
Also it’s just a Lenovo 120S laptop with intergrated Intel graphics
Even if I used one or more it would of still happened sadly since it didn’t install it properly and probs would of done it to the second kernel when it would of updated it both I assume.
I have to disagree with how much easier and more convenient Manjaro is over Ubuntu or especially Debian with everything being in the repo and all manageable from pamac instead of either missing packages or needing to add repos tho flatpak is a great addition Manjaro/Arch has it all from the repo and AUR out of the box also Installation is a easy as any modern Linux distro.
Sure you can say Ubuntu or especially Debian is a bit more stable which is great and they are amazing distros for people to use I just personally would rather have a much more bleeding edge distro like Manjaro that’s downstream from arch for more stability and waay more package support while the convenience of all the graphical tools Manjaro has and makes it easier for a user with how Manjaro does it, especially with how easy it is for me to just push out my software and updates with ease thanks to the AUR tho I will be eventually packaging them as flatpaks also
Eeeeeh, to me, you’re not making sense at all. To me, it seems you don’t have a broad knowledge on various packaging ecosystem out there.
For me, stability qualifies a distribution to be claimed suitable for beginners and casual users. It doesn’t matter if the distribution provides 1 million packages, be it bleeding-edge or not, from its official repository if the system can break and require Linux-savvy skills to fix.
Debora and Fedora, along with other similar deb and rpm based distributions, have their own official repository filled with packages suitable for casual users and a good starting point for beginners who want to study Linux in depth. Bleeding-edge doesn’t matter, 80/20 rule still applies.
There are snap, flatpack, and appimage if a package with latest version is needed. Some companies also provide deb and rpm packages for their products, like printer driver. Or for more advanced users, simply extending to 3rd party repositories is a good choice. Of course, these options are out-of-scope of the disribution guarantee on stability; the conventional stable-relase official packages are their guarantee on stability.
But if your qualification of a distribution suitable for beginners and casual users is solely based on the number of official packages, then I guess that’s your value .
Remember that AUR isn’t supported officially by Manjaro. The same way I explained the above out-of-scope of the disribution guarantee on stability.
Well I didn’t treat you as a beginner when you chose Manjaro … I was referring Debian or Ubuntu recommendation to casual users like your mom and dad .
“Eeeeeh, to me, you’re not making sense at all. To me, it seems you don’t have a broad knowledge on various packaging ecosystem out there.”
I have been a Linux user for almost 10 years, I am very aware of the package managers and ecosystem as I also develop for Linux
That’s true but the availability of software was only one thing I mentioned, I also mentioned ease of use of Manjaro in general as well as how it is to manage the software you need on it or with updating on top for repo packages, flatpak, Aur ect all easy accessible via the graphical package manager and all the other graphical tools Manjaro has for managing other stuff on the system but most users will just use the stable repo packages or flatpak.
“There are snap, flatpack, and appimage if a package with latest version is needed.”
Actually with flatpak that is the best thing about it is it packages the latest stable version for Linux distros all from one package manager, the said could be said for snap but snap is garbage in my opinon…
My family only have the AUR enabled for my desktop applications I have made for Youtube, YoutubeMusic, netflix, Binge and more tho I would love to put them on the Manjaro repo so the AUR isn’t needed for them.
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