KDE, Stability of Manjaro

Support
1

I am new here to Manjaro but not new to Linux in general.

I am currently on MX Linux (for stability), but I really love the concept of a rolling release. I do not care about bleeding edge software as much as I care about installing my system only once.

I have tried several distros over the past few months (Debian, EndeavourOS, OpenSuse Tumbleweed and currently MX Linux). ALL KDE Plasma.

My use is just very simple, browsing, listening to music, watching a video, reading PDF files. Nothing more really. I donā€™t do games. (Old man here)

My hardware is pretty standard, Intel, Intel Graphics (no Nvidia).

My question is about stability of Manjaro. How stable? Any specific issues or warnings?

By the way I prefer not to have AUR or Backports as I prioritize stability.

Your inputs and guidance on how to get the most stable experience will be highly appreciated.

Once I get your guidance I will install (KDE Plasma).

By the way, thanks for the wonderful distro I am enjoying in a live session!

inxi -Fxxx                                                                                    ī‚² āœ” 
System:
  Host: manjaro Kernel: 6.9.10-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 14.1.1 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.0.5 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Convertible System: HP product: HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13-ae0xx
    v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 31
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 83B9 v: 56.50 serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: 3DR36PA#UUF uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: AMI v: F.36
    date: 03/19/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 49.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 49.0/49.0 Wh (100.0%)
    volts: 12.5 min: 11.6 model: HP Primary type: Li-ion serial: N/A
    status: full
  Device-1: hid-0018:04F3:2597.0002-battery model: ELAN2514:00 04F3:2597
    serial: N/A charge: N/A status: N/A
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-8550U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    smt: enabled arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB
    L3: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 650 high: 800 min/max: 400/4000 cores: 1: 800 2: 400
    3: 400 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 400 bogomips: 32012
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1,
    HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP Wide Vision FHD Camera
    driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5:4
    chip-ID: 05c8:0815 class-ID: 0e02 serial: 200901010001
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.1
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa
    dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x1376 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60
    dpi: 166 size: 293x165mm (11.54x6.5") diag: 336mm (13.2") modes: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
    device: 1 drv: swrast surfaceless: drv: iris x11: drv: iris
    inactive: gbm,wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.1.3-manjaro1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL
    GT2) device-ID: 8086:5917
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.279 layers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0
    type: integrated-gpu driver: mesa intel device-ID: 8086:5917
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d71
    class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.9.10-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.1 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24fd class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: d4:25:8b:79:17:a1
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-7:5 chip-ID: 8087:0a2b
    class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 267.77 GiB used: 29.69 GiB (11.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLW256HEHP-000H1
    size: 238.47 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: S340NA0JA92579
    fw-rev: CXB73H1Q temp: 34.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Kingston model: DataTraveler 3.0 size: 29.3 GiB
    type: USB rev: 2.0 spd: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 tech: N/A
    serial: 5515971166628491248 fw-rev: 2.00 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C pch: 44.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 mobo: 11008
Info:
  Memory: total: 8 GiB note: est. available: 7.51 GiB used: 3.68 GiB (49.0%)
  Processes: 222 Power: uptime: 47m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 256 default: graphical
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1199 Compilers: N/A Shell: Zsh v: 5.9
    default: Bash v: 5.2.26 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.35
 ļŒ’ ī‚° ļ€• ~ ī‚°
2 Likes
2

Hi @oldtux, and welcome!

I think youā€™ll find Manjaro quite stable, Iā€™d say stick to the LTS kernels and you should be fine.
Also, keep an eye on the update Announcements for your branch. Whenever an update for the Stable Updates or a Testing Updates is released, there is an annoucement post regarding what the update contains. And the first reply to said thread contains all the gotchas that have been picked up along with any fixes for said gotchas.

Other than that, welcome and have fun!

5 Likes
3

if you tried Endeavour, its more or less in the same ballpark, with addition of giving you three levels of delayed package update delivery (the 3 branches stable/testing/unstable) and custom kernels supporting all current kernels and supported LTS ones.

5 Likes
4

Thanks for your prompt reply.
I feel I will be installing just in a few minutes.

As I mentioned, I care most about stability and donā€™t care about the ā€œlatestā€.
So I will stick to LTS and will bill follow only the stable updates.

Any specific guidance to get the most stable, minimalist and responsive system during installation? I donā€™t really need unnecessary stuff installed like games (or even Libreoffice) which I would prefer to install myself.

Any specific configurations/optionsā€¦ etc you recommend?

5

In that case, I recommend the Minimal Version, although I used the standard originally and have since modified it heavily. You have that kind of control.

1 Like
6

Iā€™ve been using Plasma on Manjaro for eight or nine years and for me itā€™s the best distro Iā€™ve used in several decades of Linux use (going back to Slackware 2.5).
Of course it hasnā€™t been 100% without problems - no distro is - but Iā€™ve never had a showstopper thatā€™s rendered my computer unusable after an update. Usually itā€™s been individual packages not working right (nearly always from AUR, which is to be expected to some extent as you have to take responsibility for maintaining those and keeping them up to date yourself).

I donā€™t think youā€™ll have any significant problems with Manjaro. Just take a few sensible precautions when an update arrives (all of which you should do with any distro).

  • Always take a full backup of your root filesystem before any significant upgrade (and make sure you have a good backup rĆ©gime anyway). And test your backups! If they fail silently you could be in trouble.
  • Make sure you know how to restore from your backups if the worst happens. Can you boot from a USB key or some other alternative if you canā€™t boot from your installed system? (Personally I like to have a rescue partition, created - and tested- from the last backup before an upgrade. I keep this on a separate physical disc ready for the day my primary disc dies).
  • Always install any significant upgrade from a TTY rather than the GUI. Personally Iā€™ve never had my desktop session crash during an upgrade, but Iā€™ve seen reports of it happening (usually with Gnome, I think) so itā€™s best to play it safe.
  • Always read the upgrade announcement on this forum as it will quite often have important information you might have to action. And from other usersā€™ replies to the announcement you might spot potential problems which may affect particular packages you use.

Iā€™m sure youā€™ll be happy with your new Manjaro system.

5 Likes
7

Downloading now and will install from it.

8

This is good news.
I will be using TimeShift just in case.

I hope no more issues with Grub (I remember the infamous issue with grub like a year ago where systems got unbootable).
This is the worst ever that can happen to me.

I hope and I think it is not anymore. Right?

9

If you donā€™t want to deal with Grub, there are other options, although Iā€™ve never used 'em.
Manjaro has, and uses its own customized flavour of Grub, but there is also reFind, systemd-boot , limine and others.

@linux-aarhus will better be able to give advice there, as I know heā€™s used others than just Grub, while Iā€™m quite happy with it.

1 Like
10

The Grub problem you refer to passed me by, so my guess is it must have only affected a limited number of systems. (Though I remember a horrible bug when I was using Ubuntu where every time a new version of Grub arrived it threw up an error saying it had failed - fortunately it never broke booting, but the fact that the bug I raised was ignored for years put me off Ubuntu).

Probably the worst that can happen (and at some point thereā€™s a good chance) is for your main HDD/SSD to die. Which is why I have a rescue SSD. (Itā€™s also useful if I want to experiment with something that might be risky - I can play on that image without risking my main installation).

2 Likes
11

Well, this sounds OK for me. It is Manjaro developers who are doing it!
this makes me think it will be OK and wonā€™t break, it is them developing the system and ā€œtheir ownā€ Grub.

So I expect no issues.
I prefer to just follow the defaults as much as possible.
See you in a few minutes in my new Manjaro install.
(you have to expect more questions and request for help from meā€¦ LOL)
See you soon in my Manjaro.

2 Likes
12

Well. I am back, but from my Manjaro system.
The first thing I do is to say thank you for all your guidance and help.
Thanks for the developers for the wonderful Manjaro.

3 Likes
13

refind works just fine with manjaro and windows and everything, i tested it installing from pamac.
The main difference with grub is it has drivers for more filesystems, and by default it scans everything every boot. That means if you change something, it will just work (and in grub you have to regenerate config) BUT it also means it adds considerable time to the boot - at least 5 seconds.

2 Likes
14

Yes, as I tried EndeavourOS they converted to systemd boot. which I found was really nice.

This might be the issue that was with Grub.
But I noticed (see How to Double Check I am on Most Stable System?) I have installed and uninstalled kernels and surprisingly everything went fine. I had to do nothing manually to update Grub.
It is clear Manjaro developers are doing a great job in this regards.

Generally, I prefer to stick to the defaults as much as I can. But at the same time I play a lot with my system! I hope I won;t break it.

1 Like
15

Grub is automatically updated whenever you install (or uninstall) a kernel.

2 Likes
16

ā€¦or update the system.

What i meant is installing another OS, removing partitions, etc.

p.s. we use the terms install, reinstall, reconfigure, update a bit loosely here. So yes, the reconfiguration of the menu it done automatically on update, for updating the first stage of the boot loader see what Mirdarthos wrote. Then really everything, except installing a new os, will be automated.

17

In addition to that, I just thought to mention this, install the install-grub package to automate reinstalling it when there are updates to the package:

pamac install install-grub
2 Likes
18

I see this is one of the beauties of Manjaro. I never saw this in other distros. I always had to do it manually!

19

Gosh! This is new to me. I thought Grub is already installed, if there is an update/upgrade an update/upgrade (by definition means installing the new version of the same software.

I will take your advice and install it though out of trust in you.

But I will appreciate if you briefly explain to me why do I need it? Doesnā€™t an update means installing?

Update:

 pamac install install-grub                                                                ī‚² INT āœ˜ 
Preparing...
Warning: install-grub-2.12-4 is up to date -- skipping
Nothing to do.
Transaction successfully finished.
 ļŒ’ ī‚° ļ€• ~ ī‚°

I donā€™t understand this. Sorry!

20

As I understand it, when thereā€™s an update, the GRUB package itself is updated, but not your installation of it. When you run the command to update it, such as when a kernel is installed, it just updates the settings and not the software.

Thatā€™s where the install-grub script comes in. It reinstalls grub should anything regarding it have changed.

Or thatā€™s how I have it anyway.

Edit:

I think itā€™s included now y default on the newer ISO images, which was released long after I installed Manjaroā€¦so it seems youā€™re good.