[arch-general] coping with damaging updates

[Mick]

On Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:34:50 +0800
Oon-Ee Ng <ngoonee.talk at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> Am I the only one reading this thread who sees the inherent
> contradiction of wanting complete control over your system, wanting
> things not to break, yet wanting software to be (relatively
> frequently) updated?

All I'm asking for is a way to cope with the REGULAR breaking of a few
functions by updates. Unless I have missed something in the pacman docs
there is no way I can conveniently pick and choose which updates to
install, I can only install either all or none of the bundle that
pacman offers. Yes I know I can exclude packages via pacman.conf but
for that I need to be able to isolate the offending package(s).

My primary desire for updates is for:
1.) security fixes
2.) bug fixes

I don't need to update for new features unless its a feature I need,
in which case I am happy to chase it myself and expect problems.

The fact that these particular issues keep on occurring, not only to
me, and there seems to be no consistency in the solution suggest to me
that something needs to be done, maybe just clearer docs.

I did make a mistake when I chose Arch. I asked friends on yahoo chat
for suggestions for a replacement my then distro when it focused on
eye-candy to the detriment of function and several suggested Arch. It
was only when the problems I raised here struck the first time that I
found Arch made no pretensions to being fit for production. By that
time I had come to like most of what Arch is.

> To summarize, if your answer to 'what package broke it?' is simply 'I
> don't know, too many packages got updated at one time' then there's no
> real possible solution to this problem.
going back to the pacman log I could narrow it down to one of:
synchronizing package lists
starting full system upgrade
upgraded glib2 (2.28.8-1 -> 2.30.0-1)
upgraded gdl (3.0.2-1 -> 3.2.0-1) 
upgraded libsasl (2.1.23-7 -> 2.1.23-8)
upgraded libldap (2.4.26-3 -> 2.4.26-4)
upgraded coreutils (8.13-2 -> 8.14-1)
upgraded filesystem (2011.08-1 -> 2011.10-1)
upgraded dbus-core (1.4.14-1 -> 1.4.16-1)
upgraded dbus-glib (0.94-2 -> 0.98-1)
upgraded gconf (2.32.4-1 -> 3.2.0-1)
upgraded nettle (2.2-1 -> 2.4-1)
upgraded gnutls (3.0.3-1 -> 3.0.4-2)
upgraded gsettings-desktop-schemas (3.0.1-2 -> 3.2.0-1)
upgraded glib-networking (2.28.7-5 -> 2.30.0-1) 
upgraded libsoup (2.34.3-1 -> 2.36.0-1)
upgraded libwebkit3 (1.4.3-1 -> 1.6.1-1)
installed json-glib (0.14.0-1)
upgraded libgnome-keyring (3.0.3-1 -> 3.2.0-1)
upgraded libgda (4.2.9-1 -> 4.99.4-1)
upgraded vala (0.12.1-1 -> 0.14.0-1)
upgraded dbus (1.4.14-1 -> 1.4.16-1)
upgraded dconf (0.8.0-1 -> 0.10.0-1)
upgraded exiv2 (0.21.1-2 -> 0.22-1)
upgraded x264 (20110617-1 -> 20111001-1)
upgraded gobject-introspection (0.10.8-1 -> 1.30.0-1)
upgraded libpeas (1.0.0-1 -> 1.2.0-1)
installed pygobject-devel (3.0.1-1)
installed python2-gobject (3.0.1-1)
upgraded glibmm (2.28.2-1 -> 2.30.0-1)
installed libgdu (3.0.2-2)
installed libcap-ng (0.6.6-1)
upgraded python2-egg (2.25.3-10 -> 2.25.3-11)
upgraded python2-gksu2 (2.25.3-10 -> 2.25.3-11)
upgraded python2-gtkhtml2 (2.25.3-10 -> 2.25.3-11)
upgraded python2-gtkspell (2.25.3-10 -> 2.25.3-11)
upgraded gnome-python-extras (2.25.3-10 -> 2.25.3-11)
upgraded python2-bsddb (5.2.0-1 -> 5.2.0-2)
upgraded libsoup-gnome (2.34.3-1 -> 2.36.0-1)
upgraded gvfs (1.8.2-1 -> 1.10.0-2)
upgraded strigi (0.7.5-4 -> 0.7.6-1)
upgraded krb5 (1.9.1-3 -> 1.9.1-4)
installed libplist (1.4-1)
installed usbmuxd (1.0.7-2)
installed libimobiledevice (1.1.1-2)
upgraded upower (0.9.12-1 -> 0.9.14-1)
upgraded libcanberra (0.28-1 -> 0.28-2)
installed lib32-libffi (3.0.10-1)
upgraded lib32-glib2 (2.28.8-1 -> 2.30.0-1)
upgraded lib32-ncurses (5.7-6 -> 5.9-1)
upgraded lib32-openssl (1.0.0.e-1 -> 1.0.0.e-2)
upgraded libass (0.9.13-1 -> 0.10.0-1)
upgraded libburn (1.1.4-1 -> 1.1.6-1)
upgraded libgweather (3.0.2-1 -> 3.2.0-1)
upgraded libisofs (1.1.4-1 -> 1.1.6-1)
installed json-c (0.9-1)
upgraded libpulse (0.9.23-1 -> 1.0-3)
upgraded libwebkit (1.4.3-1 -> 1.6.1-1)
upgraded mkinitcpio (0.7.2-1 -> 0.7.4-1)
upgraded linux (3.0.4-1 -> 3.0.6-2)
upgraded mpfr (3.0.1.p4-2 -> 3.1.0.p1-1)
upgraded mtr (0.80-2 -> 0.81-1)
upgraded net-tools (1.60-18 -> 1.60.20110819cvs-1)
upgraded pygobject2-devel (2.28.6-1 -> 2.28.6-4)
upgraded python2-gobject2 (2.28.6-1 -> 2.28.6-4)
upgraded python2-pyenchant (1.6.3-5 -> 1.6.5-1)
upgraded python-nose (1.0.0-4 -> 1.1.2-2)
upgraded tumbler (0.1.22-1 -> 0.1.22-2)
upgraded xfce4-settings (4.8.2-1 -> 4.8.3-1)
upgraded xorg-xinit (1.3.0-3 -> 1.3.1-1)
upgraded xfce-utils (4.8.2-1 -> 4.8.3-1)
upgraded xfwm4 (4.8.1-1 -> 4.8.2-1)
 
the other 200ish packages I'm confident were not responsible. If anyone
can clear any of the remaining suspects please do.

The point I was trying to make when I started this thread was that
there are a small group of features frequently being broken for a not
insignificant number of users and if packages that could be doing the
damage where set to require a more assertive update process they could
be deferred until users have time to get it right life would be sweeter.

mick