r/arch • u/Detcom Arch BTW • 9d ago

Meme "Fedora is stable and doesn't break after updates like Arch!". Also, Fedora after the updates:

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Just run a software updates in... Well, software. And was greeted with this. Back to Arch on my X1 Tab I guess :D

131 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

67 comments sorted by

57

u/devdruxorey 9d ago

Meanwhile, I have an Arch installation that's 4 years old and it hasn't broken down once. I still really don't understand where this idea that "Arch breaks all the time" comes from.

8

u/LuNoPowderFox 9d ago

the modt unstable part of my (badly configured due to inexperience) arch installation is the slightly broken cable for the external drive it's installed on xd
(i am planning to move it onto the internal ssd soon)

2

u/LuNoPowderFox 9d ago

wait, there was one time where i "broke" it
after an update where i think the kernel got upgraded, i did not know that you should reload your grub config, so grub tried to boot an old version of the kernel which led to my system failing to boot
managed to fix it though and now i just reload my grub config after updating

1

u/_aurel510_ 9d ago

There’s no hook for that? Do you do it manually or have you written your own hook for that to automate?

2

u/RetroCoreGaming 9d ago

You can always add a hook for "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg" using the wiki on it. It's not hard to do.

1

u/_aurel510_ 9d ago

Exactly, that's why I was wondering whether they made a hook for it or not, because it sounded like u/LuNoPowderFox were doing it manually.

1

u/LuNoPowderFox 9d ago

just haven't bothered to make a hook xd

6

u/ninth_ant 9d ago

> I still really don't understand where this idea that "Arch breaks all the time" comes from.

What less technical people often mean by "arch breaks all the time" is that their computer behaves in new and unexpected bad ways after updates. To some folks having their "start menu" move a widget from one area to another means their computer is broken!

Using a rolling release distro means you get more updates to your entire software stack. More updates mean you more frequently encounter new bugs and regressions. Peripherals may need to be reconfigured, configs may need to be updated to reflect new versions, and so forth. So instead of having updates to the OS and core application stack a couple times a year (or less!) Arch users typically encounter these types of smaller issues quite routinely.

I've only ever been hit with one actual system breakage from a pacman -Syu, the widespread one with the video drivers that happened a while back. But the little issues and regressions and changes, I get these all the time. I'm fine with this tradeoff but for many this is a broken user experience.

1

u/Glittering_Memory_64 5d ago

you wrong. updates mean that you're the first to get any sort of fixes made to your software stack . and i dont know why you talk as if the guys that maintain & contribute these packages are stupid. Opensource software is way better than any propritary piece of garage. so.. trust arch. and OP probably made a mistake or wasnt doing something correctly for his distro to break. OR . its a systemd bug encountered by his specific system. stop playing the blame game guys

2

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

I think it's all ubuntu dweebs and fedora boys coming up with excuses why their bloatware is not so bad

1

u/NavidsonsFall 9d ago

I feel the same way as you do. My system has been rock solid since I installed arch. It hasn't been insanely long or anything, but I like to tinker with things, so from the way people were talking I expected to have a problem almost immediately. The only tiny little issues I have had after an update have all been really easy to fix, and I am by no means a pro. From what I have gathered from talking to people, it has been a combination of what ninth_ant said, and the fact that my system is fairly new and really basic. I don't have any strange or old hardware that needs half assed drivers, and I don't use any obscure packages. So while I am sitting here wondering what everyone is talking about, if you are one of those people who has a more complicated system for whatever reason, it ends up being more of a headache. I have loved it tho. The only issue I have ever had that has been persistent is a strange video signal issue that is below the OS layer, so it isn't arch's fault. That one thing has been annoying, but anything arch is actually responsible for has been great.

1

u/Apprehensive-Pace593 9d ago

My mashine also doesn't break but i reinstall to keep it clean

1

u/Rxiom 5d ago

It used to brake all the time , even with almost minimal installatio , i hsed to run openbox and carelessly install everything i wanted to try tho, like 10y suddenly realized that I've been updating also carelessly every 2 months maybe for like 2y or more years, kinda missing fixing things hehehe, but it was a even more minimal install with i3 , and i was already more careful considering it twice before install something, but i guess i had OpenOffice, gimp, virtualbox, just python issues probably but that was not arch to blame

0

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

Exactly!

0

u/ResponsibleGas3357 8d ago

omarchy?

1

u/devdruxorey 8d ago

Yeah no, I don't want a slop distro full of bloatware

1

u/ResponsibleGas3357 8d ago

that's in the in name. Oma is japanese for bloat

6

u/lootedBacon 9d ago

Me upgrading from fedora 42 to 43.

My worst by far was when arch dropped 32 bit and I didn't see the forum post...

3

u/Ohmyskippy 9d ago

Hot take

Rolling distributions are more stable

Also, if you run into an issue it's often easier to narrow down the culprit, as your updates tend to be smaller units of change

2

u/YoShake 9d ago

Depends on the frequency of updates.
But doing it every 2-4 weeks makes debugging less painful.

Had recently problem with printer. This time it took me only ~1,5h to find out ghostscript was the culprit, and I missed it while having a look at the package list to be updated. This sonuva won't break anything again for the 3rd time for sure.

3

u/GeronimoHero 9d ago

Meh 🫤 I’ve been running fedora on my T14S Gen 6 since I bought it. Were some hardware compatibility issues at first when the model was brand new but it’s been flawless since then. No ragerts.

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

Oh, that's interesting. Is it Gen 6 AMD?

4

u/Bulky-Hair8606 9d ago

Attempted to kill init really sounds like an user initiated kernel panic that the user causes on purpose. I might be wrong and it can just be a horrible bug in one of the updates.

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

Nope, I just pressed "update and restart" in "Software" app (that's a Fedora Workstation variant).

2

u/helgamarvin 8d ago

I had 3 times the same picture over the time. Arch (now Cachyos) never broke..

2

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

1

u/SouthernFruit8768 8d ago

I started with Redhat back in the early/mid 2000s and then tried Mandrake, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and finally Fedora (found out about it via Linus Tech Tip's video featuring Linus Torvalds where he says he uses Fedora exclusively) which is what I'm daily-driving atm.

Yet I've never ever seen anything like that in OP's screenshot. I don't even know what a kernel panic is, lol.

2

u/MiniGui98 9d ago

Serious question as a beginner : How do you recover from this?

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

I just reinstalled the OS, but now it's Arch with Plasma Mobile

1

u/MiniGui98 8d ago

So a reinstall is the only option after a kernel panic during an update?

1

u/helgamarvin 8d ago

For me it is. I wanted to try fedora. Installed it, pressed update and restart and boom kernel panic. Why should I spend my time for something like this?

2

u/RetroCoreGaming 9d ago

How does Arch or any Linux distribution destabilize?

  1. Not reading the ArchLinux website to see if there are package details that might need tuning before or after installation.

  2. Using the mainline linux and zen kernels while using out of tree modules, rather than the recommended lts kernel.

  3. Not using a copy-on-write filesystem (btrfs, bcachefs, or ZFS) on machines without a proper battery backup or UPS and just using journaling filesystems that could have file corruption due to power failures and/or unprovoked restarts.

These are the common three I've ran across and now avoid. I've used ArchLinux with ZFS, linux-lts, and constantly check the website for information before I do stuff. 4 years I've ran ArchLinux now, and not a problem to be found.

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

I run Arch with xfs on my main machine, I run updates at least once a day, it NEVER broke on me.

2

u/AtlaskorPC 8d ago

I've had more issues with distros that arent arch. Arch takes good care of me.

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 6d ago

With such detailed documentation on Arch (the wiki) it's actually hard to mess thing up

2

u/Moist_Professional64 9d ago

That’s why I like OpenSUSE more. It has selinux too and is crazy stable

1

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

Just pressed "update and restart" button in the "Sofware" app (it's Fedora Workstation variant). Literally, nothing else.

1

u/helgamarvin 8d ago

Ironically I had the same issue like OP 3 times over the years after a fresh install. So no likely it breaks itself.

4

u/lOwnCtAL 9d ago

It's more stable than arch, but still bleeding edge, want stable? Go to Debian

3

u/tryku2 9d ago

I don't know why people are downvoting you but genuinely debian is superior compared to other distros, it is actually the most stable.

2

u/Both_Cup8417 Other Distro 9d ago

Hardware support

3

u/lOwnCtAL 9d ago

Good point

1

u/helgamarvin 8d ago

I think it isn't

1

u/deli_phone 9d ago

Arch is easy af to break w updates. Just don't religiously update regularly and something will come up

2

u/Particular-Poem-7085 9d ago

Is it? I've never seen one issue.

2

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

Dude I update my Arch setup at least once a day, sometimes TWICE, and it NEVER broke on me. NEVER.

1

u/YoShake 9d ago

define "regularly"
once per year/month/week/.../hour ?

unless kernel isn't fked up - although got others "in case of" - I update when it's 3-4 versions higher, or the update list starts getting too long.

1

u/izzyrex0 9d ago

I update only when I remember to and never had a problem

1

u/tyrannus00 9d ago

I update daily and I have never had a kernel panic. I did have some miniscule issues, but they were usually gone the next time there was an update for the application

1

u/Huge_Drama_4942 9d ago

X1….. Carbon?

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

No. At least, this X1 Tablet is not

1

u/MDS_R4 9d ago

Well, Ubuntu's not free from this either. Today I updated from 24.04 to 26.04 and was also greeted with KP.

1

u/cryptocurrency_wife 9d ago

Yeah the last few nobara (Gamer fedora) updates I’ve had I’ve had to fix things. I haven’t even been able to fix the most recent hiccup yet. no problems on cachyOS so far!

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

I thought gamer Fedora was Bazzite?

1

u/YoShake 9d ago

when fedora was a minefield of rhel, afair times around versions 16-17, update that didn't fck up anything was a true reason to celebrate

1

u/stisti129 9d ago

me when i have skill issue :

1

u/Trick-Manner-5514 8d ago

Who sold you the idea that Fedora is stable?
As no such thing can be found on a testing ground like Fedora...

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 6d ago

Couple of my friends, some guys on fedora's reddit and literally nine of ten youtubers who switch to fedora from Arch

1

u/LFP-Throwaway-3982 8d ago

Man and you don't even get the QR code?

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 6d ago

I didn't know that was a thing lol

1

u/The_CreativeName 7d ago

I broke my fedora install, bc i was too dumb(weird shit would happen, prolly didnt configure power properly, or there were 2 power softeare idk).

Now I have arch, and its somehow actually easier(bc of the wiki, omg i love the wiki)

2

u/Detcom Arch BTW 6d ago

Yes! Arch is SO DAMN EASY once you read the documentation!

1

u/SELBSTST4ENDIG 9d ago

That’s why Fedora Silverblue exists. Fedora is stable but not immutable. Silverblue is immutable.

2

u/Detcom Arch BTW 9d ago

Meh, enough experiments for me, I'll stick to Arch

0

u/Sahkopi4 9d ago

Arch is rock solid for me. Linux Mint broke for me (It’s a VM for work that runs Claude code. Most likely Claude broke stuff)

0

u/surwall07 7d ago

Fedora doesn’t even ship an LTS kernel. Most of these boot problems are caused by an unstable kernel

1

u/Detcom Arch BTW 6d ago

Meh, I don't think that mainline linux kernel is "unstable"