System/Software Updates

shaolin · #1 13th August 2009, 12:47 PM

Hey Everyone,
I just installed F11 on my laptop last night....the first thing I did was download Updates. Initially I wanted to focus on getting the critical updates installed only and while almost dozing off (Late night) I inadvertently ended up doing a bunch of other software updates.

I wanted to know peoples thoughts...about software and system updates...do many of you just update everything or select the most important to download and install. Is there a way to rollback from any updates you installed...I have plenty of HD space..but if I don't need it...I dont want to keep it installed...also how many of you really look at every update to find out what is? Or do you just let it ride and install everything?

Thanks

ryptyde · #2 13th August 2009, 03:12 PM

I normally install all updates on a regular basis. I have on occasion installed updates in increments when there are a large amount ie after a fresh install.

zackf · #3 13th August 2009, 03:59 PM

When updating from yum, you're pretty safe just to let it go. Keep in mind though when you see a kernel update there is a chance you might have to recomplie/install some of your drivers (namely wifi or video). However, recent releases have done a pretty good job of taking care of that - especially on the wifi end. The updates can also patch any exposed security issues. Additionally the updates only update packages you have installed, so doing yum update won't take up a great deal more HDD space.

Normally I do check and see what it is that's being updated, and then let it ride. I rarely, if ever, exclude updates.

stevea · #4 13th August 2009, 03:59 PM

If you are using the current Fedora and not getting updates - I'd have to question what you are thinking.

Fedora is all about change & updates are a big part of that. Yes they will occasionally break your system - then you can usually back-out the offending update and wait a bit.

If you want/need more stability and better tested updates, then Fedora is the wrong distro for you.

shaolin · #5 14th August 2009, 12:02 AM

Just to be clear....I have no problem updating Fedora 11, however I don't think updates such as Japanese font enhancement is a update I really need. Since the release of Fedora 11 there have been been over 280 updates (Enhancements and bug fixes). I have already done the critical updates which is fine...I just want to know what are general practices from more experienced Linux/Fedora users.

marko · #6 14th August 2009, 12:09 AM

you can install the yum-security plugin and limit your yum updates to just security flagged updates:

Quote:

yum install yum-security

See:
http://magazine.redhat.com/2008/01/1...-yum-security/

zackf · #7 14th August 2009, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko

you can install the yum-security plugin and limit your yum updates to just security flagged updates:

See:
http://magazine.redhat.com/2008/01/1...-yum-security/

Didn't know about that one, cool.

shaolin · #8 14th August 2009, 01:08 PM

Thanks for info...I was looking last night at some of the 280 updates available and I tried selecting what I thought was more important...which left only about 230 updates left....so at that rate I would never get done...have any of you just let everything update? Or have you been selective?

zackf · #9 14th August 2009, 02:57 PM

I let everything update, but there is a yum-presto plugin

Code:

yum install yum-presto

for F11 that may save you a lot of bandwidth (just learned about that one too). In some cases it prevents the need to download entire packages.

shaolin · #10 14th August 2009, 03:24 PM

Nice! Thanks for the info! I got this info from the fedoraproject.org site:

Quote:

Normally when you update a package in Fedora, you download an entire replacement package. Most of the time (especially for the larger packages), most of the actual data in the updated package is the same as the original package, but you still end up downloading the full package. Presto allows you to download the difference (called the delta) between the package you have installed and the one you want to update to. This can reduce the download size of updates by 60% - 80%. It is not enabled by default for this release. To make use of this feature you must install the yum-presto plugin: yum install yum-presto.

shaolin · #11 14th August 2009, 06:47 PM

I wonder if there is a presto equivalent to the GUI installer (Package Kit)

marko · #12 15th August 2009, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaolin

I wonder if there is a presto equivalent to the GUI installer (Package Kit)

presto is a fundamental change below the layer of the particular packaging tool. So if you install deltarpm and yum-presto, then any rpm based packaging too can be 'prestoized' to coin a term if they use it.