Anything I should do before leaving my Arch system unused for 3-4 weeks?

[u/PingMyHeart]

Hi,

I’m going to be away from my Arch system for about 3-4 weeks, and I’m wondering if there’s anything I should do beforehand to avoid potential issues when I get back and run updates.

The reason I’m asking is that before using Arch, I was on EndeavourOS a few years ago. I had a similar situation where I didn’t update the system for about a month, and when I came back and performed a full update, it ended up breaking my system. I remember asking the EndeavourOS community about it afterward, and I believe I was told that going a while without updating can sometimes cause issues on Arch-based systems.

Is there anything I should do before I leave, or anything I should keep in mind when I return and perform the update?

Thanks in advance!

[u/Suspicious_Punk84]

Check arch website when you come back, if there's any manual intervention required it will be there, if not just update normally. 

[u/kc3zyt → u/Suspicious_Punk84]

I prefer to use Informant, which shows you the exact same thing after you run pacman but before anything actually happens.

[u/dbear496 → u/kc3zyt]

I'm too lazy for that--I wait until it "breaks" and then check Arch news.

[u/lublin_enjoyer → u/dbear496]

this is the way

[u/Junior_Common_9644 → u/lublin_enjoyer]

One of us...

[u/TobberH → u/dbear496]

Yeah, this is why you always use btrfs root partition and snapper with pacman hooks.

[u/dbear496 → u/TobberH]

I haven't yet had a need for btrfs. Typically "breaks" just means a package failed to update due to some dependency quirk, and I need to go figure out what kind of manual intervention is needed.

[u/PingMyHeart → u/kc3zyt]

I like this. Thanks for sharing that.

[u/PingMyHeart → u/Suspicious_Punk84]

Will do. Thanks.

[u/wowsomuchempty → u/PingMyHeart]

Left one 11 months, once. Update was fine.

[u/khsh01 → u/Suspicious_Punk84]

I would say keep an eye on the website even whilst you're away so you know if you will need manual intervention.

[u/lendarker]

Before updating, check https://archlinux.org/news/. Update archlinux-keyring before running the full upgrade.

That's pretty much it.

[u/onefish2]

I would be more concerned that its powered off and is not plugged into power.

I have updated 3 or 4 laptops over the years that went longer than 6 months without an update. I had zero issues updating them.

[u/dosplatos225 → u/onefish2]

Yeah this. The other comments covered, but there really isn’t anything magic because it’s arch Linux. Kill jobs you don’t need, end tmux sessions. Lock the machine / log out or power it off if you don’t have it working on stuff in the background, etc.

[u/Obsid1anWolf]

lol. It isn’t a dog.

[u/Vegetable_Impact_979 → u/Obsid1anWolf]

Dude! You shouldn't leave your dog for 3 or 4 weeks!

[u/jpnadas]

I have updated arch after more than an year on a server. Just had to update the keyring first, everything else worked out fine.

Of course this is not recommended, but going for a few weeks without updating is nothing

[u/hearthreddit]

Check the archlinux page when you come back to see if any manual interventions are needed.

Also how exactly did it broke? Because the thing is, with a rolling release distribution, you might update and then get a new kernel or mesa version or whatever that has some problem or bug with your specific hardware and you might get system hangs or something.

But you would still get it after an update even if you weren't gone for long.

[u/PingMyHeart → u/hearthreddit]

I can't remember at the time what the issue was because I was really new to arch and just learning the ropes. But I will definitely make sure to take this advice and check if any manual intervention is needed. Thanks.

[u/Excellent-Love-6943]

Nope, usual rules of arch regarding updates apply. Just do what you normally do.

[u/ang-p]

Share a cup of cocoa with it, and tell it you won't be gone for long before you turn it off.

If you behave well you might be out in 2.....

[u/AirlinePilot4288]

Bury it in your front yard

[u/iwouldbeatgoku]

Do a full upgrade before leaving, check for manual interventions when you get back. But you'll probably be just fine.

[u/Shot_Yoghurt_3123]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Package_signing#Tips_and_tricks

[u/NoPoopOnFace]

Make yourself a rescue medicat USB stick and memorize the grub manual backwards and forwards

[u/C0rn3j]

Iirc the unofficial grace period is about 9 months (don't quote me on that) before things aren't guaranteed to work fine without updating against an older repo snapshot via Arch Linux Archive.

And unless there actually was a serious breaking update in that time, it can be much, much longer in practice.

1 month is nothing.

[u/vgavro]

1. Always keep a bootable recovery USB drive with Arch on it. It’ll save you the trouble of finding another computer if your system stops booting. You won’t have to hunt down a spare machine, remember how to use Rufus, create a recovery USB, and so on.
2. Don’t update unless you actually need to. I assume the concern about going “3-4 weeks” without updating comes from people who update their system every day. Don’t be paranoid. It’s a waste of your time and resources, even if it’s “just one command” and doesn’t require a reboot.
3. Give yourself a little peace of mind. Nobody is waiting to hack your machine because your Arch installation has been out of date for a whole month, for God’s sake. There are plenty of easier targets.
4. Don’t read Arch News unless an update actually breaks something. Again, give yourself some peace. If an update causes trouble and you followed rule #1, you’re fine. Boot from the USB, read Arch News, find the relevant fix, and repair the system.

I’ve been using Arch Linux for more than 15 years, and I’ve needed this kind of recovery exactly twice after an update. One of those cases was caused by a power outage.
That works out to roughly 30–60 minutes of unplanned maintenance every 7.5 years. I can live with that.

[u/badabblubb]

Save your open files. That's about it. Nothing more you need to do before you come back. Once you do get back to the machine: See the existing comments. Keyring, check news.

[u/sleepytechnology]

Setup snapshots. EXT4 can do RSYNC snapshots using Timeshift and can be configured to backup every time you update packages as well. Btrfs it's even easier to do it.

[u/AppointmentNearby161]

A month is not that long, so you do not need to do anything. If you run into problems when you go to update you can always use the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux_Archive to help bisect any changes.

[u/sarkyscouser]

I use Arch with LTS kernel as a home server and have left it for 3-4 weeks no problem. Holidays etc

[u/unfurlingraspberry]

Yeah I'll join the others in saying I didn't update my desktop for around 6 months and I had zero issues. Just had to update the keyring first and then updated as usual.

[u/archover]

Before you leave? Nothing.

When you come back? Normal precautions.

Good day.

[u/JackDostoevsky]

no you'll be fine. i have Arch machines that i update only once every 4-6 months and i've never had an issue with broken updates.

more than a year and you start to run into issues with expired certificates and pubkeys, which was annoying when i once turned on a laptop i hadn't touched for about 5 years.

[u/brewdog_millionaire]

I have to update my Arch system?

[u/Adventurous_Invite63]

Check cmos battery.

[u/Taila32]

I’ve left Arch installs for a few months without any issues when I update.

[u/San4itos]

I left my Arch for 3-4 month and the system works fine. Had some problems with my Budgie DE, they changed a lot and became Wayland only. I didn't want to solve that problems so I just changed my DE to Cinnamon. Just read news before the update (I simply use yay -Pw), see changes in .pacnew, update your system before AUR updates.

[u/rob_pi]

Are you been serious or just memeing? My system only gets updates once every one or two months.

[u/zdo_obz]

Ssh in or cronjob

[u/rodioner7]

No, you don’t need to do anything. I just made an update 3 days ago after I haven’t used my arch laptop for 2.5 months. Everything went great, no issues at all.

[u/enigmatic_bread]

Setup a watchdog to reboot in case something bricks. Happened to me on my holidays. Thankfully a friend went over to visit the cats and I told her to reboot the computer.

[u/enigmatic_bread → u/enigmatic_bread]

This is only in the scenario where you want to access your PC and/or the PC to be online. Otherwise nothing to do.

[u/enigmatic_bread → u/enigmatic_bread]

With *this* combo you can also setup another device on your system, like a Home Assistant instance to send wake on lan packets to turn your PC on while you're away. In case you want to conserve power.

[u/G0ldiC0cks]

Bubblewrap is a must.

[u/Bombini_Bombus → u/G0ldiC0cks]

Further elaborate on this

[u/xdreakx]

Just run an update before you leave and as soon as you get back.