I saw a similar post here recently, but this is slightly different.

I’m running MythTV on Arch which is working fine (of course), but when MythTv came out of the main packages and went to the AUR, it was just a little harder to maintain and had some compolation issues due to ffmpeg, etc - to the point: my last update was probably 3 years ago.

The (minor) issues I currently have are:

  • terminator won’t start 1st time, but starts fine 2nd time
  • shutdown’s take a few minutes due to a systemd issue
  • everything’s woefully out of date

So… considering all the changes with audio and video over the last few years do I just pacman -Syuv and crack on… or… start again from scratch?

(Yep, full backup 1st)

  • HelloRootEnglish
    11·
    8 days ago

    why not both?

    Set a time limit.

    Try an upgrade first, if the manual fixing surpasses the time you are willing to spend, then do a fresh install.

    • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      5·
      8 days ago

      Yeah, I could just see if Arch can handle upgrading a long term neglected system…

      Kinda feel it’s gonna lose track of which packages are replaced by others, but will be interesting to see

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        As an absent admin myself, I can assure you that the system can take a surprising amount of neglect and abuse. There were times when I feared the system was beyond repair, but I’ve been surprised time and again by how resilient it actually is. Nowadays, you can also use your least hated LLM to give you suggestions and help with interpreting logs.

        The thing is, you can neglect your system for long periods of time, run system updates blindfolded, but eventually, the tasks pile up and catch up with you. My latest misadventure involved finding out the hard way that lots of packages that used to be in core, were moved to extra. You know, reading those announcements might be a good idea… Anyway, I was unable to update my system, because about half of the packages were no longer available in core. Eventually, I figured it out, enabled extra, fixed some of the stupid mistakes I made along the way, and the system was back to normal. Yay! After about two hours of messing around, I can finally get back to neglecting my admin duties again.

        • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukOPEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          Thanks, from memory I think I have extra already enabled… maybe…

          It’s good to know that when (not if) I find time to do that update, there’s a good chance it’ll work