Fed up with non-rolling releases...

[deanr72]

Well, as stated in the title, I'm quite fed up with non-rolling releases and having to basically start from scratch every 2 years years that Debian decides to upgrade. For context, I've been a Linux convert for the past 9-10 years

I love 99.9% of what mx offers - the specific mx-tools such as snapshot (used many, many times to clone my specific set up onto my two desktops and one laptop), the bash config app, the Nvidia driver installer on my one Nvidia machine (my bad), the awesome package installer, Codecs installer, Quick System Info for forum help, etc., etc.

What's essential to my everyday workflow, however, is i3-wm, personalised rofi scripts, fonts, themes, double-commander - all of which take a LONG, LONG time to set up just as I need/want on an xfce4 base.

Initially, I was well impressed by the 'migration' instructions supplied for upgrading from mx-21 to mx-23, and thought again 'Wow, mx are the greatest!'. Unfortunately, and indeed as stated in the aforementioned instructions, "A clean install is highly recommended for most users". Despite waiting for a while for bugs to be ironed out, the latest upgrade instructions simply didn't work in my case. I'm now, despite following the 'migration' instructions strictly, stuck in a constant loop of needing to enter 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' which freezes indefinitely, leading me once again to looking at alternative rolling Debian releases.

I simply can't and don't want to imagine going back to MS systems or Linux distros that don't permit me to clone my personalised settings from one machine to another, but I am once again exploring rolling Debian releases such as Sparky and Void, and god forbid, Arch-based distros such as Manjaro and Endeavour. But they simply lack the finesse and stability I enjoy and require so much from Debian/mx.

I truly cannot begin to imagine the amount of work and extraordinary effort required to maintain a Linux distro such as mx, and I am infinitely grateful to have been a user of such an amazing distro for the last 4-5 years since migrating from Ubuntu Mate, Mint, Crunchbang++, to mx.

Perhaps this rant rant could be summed up by a simple, personally disliked acronym of TLDR, but would a rolling release of mx be out of the question to avoid such annoyances every few years to remain a devout mx user?

*No intention to offend, btw. But after having lost 3-4 hours in front of my main PC and having bought a new ssd for the long-awaited upgrade, having to revert back to mx-21 for the foreseeable is somewhat irksome.

[anticapitalista]

... but would a rolling release of mx be out of the question to avoid such annoyances every few years to remain a devout mx user?

Yes it is out of the question in its present state as you have discovered.

[uncle mark]

Despite waiting for a while for bugs to be ironed out, the latest upgrade instructions simply didn't work in my case. I'm now, despite following the 'migration' instructions strictly, stuck in a constant loop of needing to enter 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' which freezes indefinitely, leading me once again to looking at alternative rolling Debian releases.

Have you asked for help in resolving this issue?

[DeepDayze]

MX to me is more like a slowly rolling as possible because there's some packages in MX's repos that are newer than ones normally available. Did you read the release notes to be aware of any gotchas when upgrading?

[CharlesV]

I hear your frustration. However, having been burnt a few times on rolling releases, I devised a process to update to a new version which is fairly painless. It certainly does require some effort, but the other really nice thing is that it is 100% done in a VM, and then once that is setup and ready to go it can be rolled out and tested to verify little down time.

My 'down time' from 19 to 21 was less than 30 minutes, and while I probably put in more than 4 hrs of configuring ahead of that, it was pretty painless in a VM and I did it in between my regular work loads - on my big machine.

The new laptop I am bringing up I have done slightly differently, however it also has been worked through the process and is just a little over an hour at this time, with approx 90% operational.

The point.. it can be done, but as with most anything planning it out, and then working the plan is pretty important.

If your headed out, then good luck. if you with to know more about the way I do it, then just hit me up and I will lay it all out. (i dont do i3-wm , just lots of xfce tweaking :-) and VERY heavy in apps and configs.)

[mxxm]

Why cant you just localise all your critical dotfiles, save and restore them after re-installation? I mean you can pretty much retain most of your personal customization by preserving your home folder during re-installation..On KDE this works pretty well and there is also the new user-installed-packages-tool that provides another additional layer for an overall quicker process to get up to speed after the unfortunate re-installation.. I mean yes it is indeed still work that has to be done albeit considerably less than maintaining windows after an upgrade but surely its worth it, right

[Adrian]

... but would a rolling release of mx be out of the question to avoid such annoyances every few years to remain a devout mx user?

Yes it is out of the question in its present state as you have discovered.

We are not going to... wait for it... roll over for you.

[thinkpadx]

i am old and slow motion re: updating the newer versions when i do; however - using some notes and experience and also another laptop as a reference pont for settings etc. i can usually set it up in about 5 hrs. and i am picky and that sure beats 2 days or so in the past. MX is worth everything. as i said - 5 hrs max as such and i am good to go. seems very fair to me. 21 is still good for a year or more just in case. i use the XFCE version and i updated 4 laptops in a couple of days. and i f i used some of the toold offered and knew more about this all i bet it could install in 1 1/2 hrs - 2 hrs. so even at trutle speed 4-5 hrs is worth every penny to me to run MX. ask for help as others have noted. great group of people here and active particiapting developers are always there daily for help.

[Gabriel_M]

Maybe you should try Siduction.

[thinkpadx]

wanted to add that mx 21 may be good until 2026 but not sure about all of the security updates - the same LTS as debian Bullseye?