Best way to roll back from slackpkg updates?

enine · 03-07-2010, 03:05 PM

Like others here it seems I had problems with the latest -current. I can't startx, no sound, etc. I put back the video drivers and such from the 13 CD but now have a bunch of other issues, video will flash every now and then and sometimes go blank so I can only reboot as exiting xwindows and going back in its still blank. I tried booting from the 13 cd and reinstalling without formatting my root partition but that dies in the kde games for some reason and setup won't start again. I was trying to not format and loose all the updates just put back 13 but that doesn't seem to be working.

bgeddy · 03-07-2010, 05:26 PM

Personally I wouldn't advise mixing things from any stable version and current and I can't see any point in running a version of current that is not "current". I would just try and find out what was the problem in current (that's the point of running current after all) or revert to 13 stable in which case you can format your root directory again - hopefully you have /home on a separate partition which you can use to save stuff on should you wish. However,again mixing things from current and stable is not recommended so anything built on a current system should be rebuilt on the stable. Just install afresh and "slackpkg update && slackpkg install-new && slackpkg upgrade-all" to get any updates to 13 stable after adjusting your mirror version. At least this way you know your reverting to a clean system.

enine · 03-07-2010, 05:35 PM

looks like I'll have to reformat. My problem was there were multiple issues with the latest current. But I like to have some of the stuff up to date like kde.

grissiom · 03-07-2010, 11:22 PM

I don't think slackpkg and whatever other package managers can do "roll-back" because Slackware don't keep old packages. When they are removed from the remote server, they are gone forever. So you will have nowhere to found the packages you need. There are some slow mirrors will keep the old packages for some time but how about if you want to roll back to a year ago?

So, I think the solution is solute the problems you have encountered. If one want a solid system, go -stable.

samac · 03-08-2010, 02:27 AM

If you can boot to the command line just change the mirror in slackpkg to a 13.0 mirror, and run slackpkg. you will have to update, clean, install new and upgrade. but this should give you a cleanish install of Slackware 13.0.

samac

GazL · 03-08-2010, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grissiom

If one want a solid system, go -stable.

Or take plenty of backups.

Code:

root@nix:~# ls -l /mnt/BACKUPS/Slackware/2010-03-02/
total 1896736
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root       9763 2010-03-02 21:04 etc_lvm.cpio.bz2*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   19495122 2010-03-02 20:58 fsbkp.boot.cpio.bz2.aa*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root       9553 2010-03-02 20:57 fsbkp.boot.list*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  140170594 2010-03-02 21:01 fsbkp.home.cpio.bz2.aa*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      85089 2010-03-02 21:00 fsbkp.home.list*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root        139 2010-03-02 20:59 fsbkp.opt.cpio.bz2.aa*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root         15 2010-03-02 20:58 fsbkp.opt.list*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   46295545 2010-03-02 20:31 fsbkp.root.cpio.bz2*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     219477 2010-03-02 20:24 fsbkp.root.list*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   21556307 2010-03-02 21:02 fsbkp.tmp.cpio.bz2.aa*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root       1106 2010-03-02 21:01 fsbkp.tmp.list*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1690843300 2010-03-02 20:57 fsbkp.usr.cpio.bz2.aa*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   15244901 2010-03-02 20:32 fsbkp.usr.list*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    7929630 2010-03-02 20:59 fsbkp.var.cpio.bz2.aa*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     110092 2010-03-02 20:59 fsbkp.var.list*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root       3019 2010-03-02 21:03 rootvg.vgcfgbackup*

1.9GB well spent.

henkees · 03-08-2010, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grissiom

I don't think slackpkg and whatever other package managers can do "roll-back" because Slackware don't keep old packages. .

That is true, and : if you want a stable system, don't use current.
HOWEVER: if you are using current; and are using slackpkg for the task; then there's one thing you can do; so that you can make a 'step backwards':

Standard slackpkg will remove all downloaded files after upgrade; but if you edit /etc/slackpkg/slackpkg.conf this way:

Code:

...
# If DELALL is "on", all downloaded files will be removed after install.
DELALL=off
...

then the downloaded packages are still in /var/cache/packages.
When you move these packages after every update you make to a safe place, then you can always reinstall the versions before the last update. You can use this to make one step back and stay there till a new stable release is out, but don't mix older and newer versions from packages!

grissiom · 03-08-2010, 04:42 PM

@GazL

Great practice

I'm considering that the ultimate back up of a system is ZFS. Maybe btrfs in the future Linux.

enine · 03-08-2010, 04:54 PM

Thats what I should be doing then. I want the latest Firefox, Thunderbird and KDE4 that I installed in Feb without the broken Xorg, power management, etc in March.
Looks like some of the repos are pulling March's off, I'm back on 13 but can't even get the new firefox and thunderbird, every time I try slackpkg errors out with a not found even though the update list says they are there, been through like 10 different reps now.

GazL · 03-08-2010, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grissiom

@GazL

Great practice

I'm considering that the ultimate back up of a system is ZFS. Maybe btrfs in the future Linux.

ZFS and its like are great storage tools and i'm looking forward to playing with them too, but you can't beat the simplicity of a set of archive files as a safety net when the shit hits the fan.

enine · 03-08-2010, 06:05 PM

Ok, I see where the issue is. The install of 13 doesn't support txz's, I seem to remember that being in a -current update a while back. But it seems that its not in -current so anything slackpkg tries to install fails due to it not being a .tgz. So unless I can find the packagetools from earlier -current I can't install anything new.

MannyNix · 03-08-2010, 11:42 PM

enine, your system may be fubar already, not sure I follow you, but hoping it helps:
From slackware-13.0/UPGRADE.TXT

Quote:

1. Upgrade your package utilities and related tools:

upgradepkg /root/slackware/a/pkgtools-*.tgz
upgradepkg /root/slackware/a/tar-*.tgz
installpkg /root/slackware/a/xz-*.tgz
upgradepkg /root/slackware/a/findutils-*.txz

I find xz in the a series
slackware-13.0/slackware/a/xz-4.999.8beta-i486-1.tgz 08-Apr-2009 00:20 196K
slackware-current/slackware/a/xz-4.999.9beta-i486-1.tgz 01-Dec-2009 23:04 395K

Maybe worth trying?
Good luck