Use of Backports PPA?

[Frank616]

I usually stick with LTS releases. I like stability, as I use my machines for production work. The disadvantage is that it is what it is unless one moves on to the next 6 monthly release.

Are there potential problems enabling the backport PPA for 12.04?

If it remains enabled, does everything get updated to the latest and greatest, or can one select what to upgrade, and what not to other than by going through the update list one by one? For instance, are there categories of backports? System, video, Libre Office, etc.?

I hesitate to mix versions as I suspect the testing for an LTS is pretty thorough, and maybe not so much for the backports?

Comments anyone?

Frank.

[oshunluvr]

Only speaking from personal experience, my usage of backports hasn't resulted in any notable issues. Generally though, I update about a month after each new release on my desktop with the notable exception of 10.10 which had an unsolvable problem in Ubiquity. Therefore, when I was using 10.04 I had backports enabled so I could continue to get KDE upgrades. When 11.04 came out I switched to it.

I did use the backport ppa for several years on an 10.04 LTS server, but it's headless with no desktop so I enabled the backport to get newer kernels because I use btrfs filesystem and the update gave me some new tools I wouldn't have had otherwise. Since then, I upgraded the server to 12.04 and haven't found a need to enable backports for it yet.

While I agree the six month cycle is tedious, I generally find the draw of improved kernels and software too strong to resist. I usually delay until the new release is 3-4 weeks old then create a new install, thus preventing loss of a working computer and allowing me time to make my personal adjustments to the new release. Once everything is set up the way I need/like I migrate over to the new install and turn the old one into a backup.

In your case, if you're relying on your computer for income, I wouldn't upgrade or enable backports unless there was a compelling reason to. The parallel install to do up works better in this scenario IMO because you never are without a working install.

[Frank616]

oshunluvr:

Well spoken. Thank you.

I've never had serious problems with the 6 monthly updates. Canonical has been good that way. Far less cavalier than Fedora, which I used for about a year before switching to Kubuntu. I had troubles with 10.04 related to KDE 4.x in its early iterations, and I began a 6 montly upgrade cycle to get around that. It worked, other than 11.10, which caused minor issues, but nothing that I couldn't work around.

In any case, I'll give this some serious thought.

My machines at work continued with 8.04 until just recently. Only the 5 personal machines I administer (3 of mine, one of my wife's, and one belonging to my daughter) got the intervening upgrades, as they were not 'mission critical'. However, with that said, had KDE 4.x in 10.04 been better, I would not have gotten on to the 6 monthly upgrade treadmill at all.

Thanks again.

Frank.

[claydoh]

For 12.04, which has the extended LTS status, I would consider the kubuntu-backports ppa an experimental testbed. There may be the possibility that the KDE version there could eventually find its way to the standard Ubuntu repos. This would need longer term usage and upgrade testing.

The PPA will only upgrade the KDE/Kubuntu specific things, so kernels and drivers, xorg, Libreoffice, gimp, firefox, etc are not part of the upgrades offered there.

[benny_fletch]

I have had no issues using the backports repo with 12.04. Occasionally an update might need to be massaged a bit to install correctly (most notably the recent KDE 4.10 upgrade), but I have had no problems with any of the software once it is installed. I started with 12.04.1, enabled the backports PPA, and have been updating ever since (YMMV naturally).

Claydoh makes a great point, if you are looking for software outside of KDE/Kubuntu (i.e. gimp or libroffice for instance) you will need to enable different (unofficial) repos to get those upgrades. I am currently doing this with gimp and bluefish without any issues. As for libreoffice, I use their deb files when upgrading.

[Frank616]

Claydoh:

I would consider the kubuntu-backports ppa an experimental testbed.

That was my understanding as well. so good to have it confirmed. Thanks.

Benny:

As for libreoffice, I use their deb files when upgrading.

I have stuck with the repo version as it is integrated with KDE, and I get the extended dialogs rather than the sparse LO open / save dialogs. The KDE dialogs allow me to add 'favorites' or symlinks to directories that I work with often on the left side of the open / save dialogs. Last time I checked, this is not possible with the 'generic' LO updates. Is that still correct?

Thanks, all.

Frank.

[Detonate]

The only way to have the best of both worlds is to have at least two distros installed. This is what I do. At current my fallback, rock solid distro, the one I know is there when I must have reliability and the ability to get essential work done is Kubuntu 12.04 No backports.

And my other distro, the one where I can fool around with settings and not be concerned about breaking things at this time is Linux Mint 14. I will probably install something based on Raring Ringtail as soon as it gets to beta.

[Frank616]

Detonate:

The only way to have the best of both worlds is to have at least two distros installed.

I know. I have a removable hard drive bay and several extra drives on my desktop machine for experimenting.

The only reason I asked about backports was that I thought it might keep an 'old' LTS version more up to date, but not have to switch away to the 6 monthly interim releases. It appears that, for me, the risks are not worth the benefits. KDE4 is stable and feature rich enough at this point that I can function with it until the next LTS release.

Thanks

Frank.

[Jonas]

I read this topic earlier today and was thinking about posting my setup on my workstation. Which is 12.04 with backports enabled. I wouldn't say that the extra or 'bleeding edge' packages would have a positive effect on the work I do, but it sure adds a bit of joy to the workstation & work situation, and that's not negative. I never posted earlier and today (been away from the workstation work last couple of weeks) I found roughly 400 updates, KDE 4.10. made a cli 'upgrade' & 'dist-upgrade' and it totally wrecked my plasma-desktop.
I made the usual diagnostics, sorted dependencies and finally (re)moved my /home/user/.kde folder and all set to normal, i.e default KDE settings.

Had it been beyond saving, more then the interface, I have the setup Detonate describe, 2 OS partitions and one file partition + other HDs. I never save any real work on the OS partitions. So unless it's a hardware failure, work/data is quickly recovered. I guess this can depend on what kind of work you do and the time frame for your deadlines, but for me this is within 'safe'. With backports my upgrades have felt more 'rolling' and stable, as it's not that much to upgrade from one release to the next, this could also be because every release have been so much more solid in itself.

I always keep a USB-stick on my key chain (atm with Linux Mint 14 KDE with fully updated ClamAV) - always ready to rescue a borked machine (usually windows for friends) or just to simply promote Linux to friends

The only way to have the best of both worlds is to have at least two distros installed. This is what I do. At current my fallback, rock solid distro, the one I know is there when I must have reliability and the ability to get essential work done is Kubuntu 12.04 No backports.

And my other distro, the one where I can fool around with settings and not be concerned about breaking things at this time is Linux Mint 14. I will probably install something based on Raring Ringtail as soon as it gets to beta.

Yup - just waiting for that Beta to come, I'm curious on Netrunner, but never had any luck with that distro unfortunately.


B.R

Jonas

[Frank616]

Jonas:

I found roughly 400 updates, KDE 4.10. made a cli 'upgrade' & 'dist-upgrade' and it wrecked my plasma-desktop. Made the usual diagnostics, sorted dependencies and finally (re)moved my /home/user/.kde folder and all set to normal, i.e default KDE settings.

That confirms my sticking to what works.

Yeah, it can be fixed, but I don't need that.

Frank.

[sixonetonoffun]

Yeah the 4.10 update went fine for me but the Desktop indexing is broken. Since I just enabled it to see if it would work better it was no loss. But for your working install it would probably be more important. Especially since it seemed to work more or less before 4.10

But for the average home user so to speak Backports should be a great resource.

[Frank616]

sixonetoneoffun:

Yeah the 4.10 update went fine for me but the Desktop indexing is broken.

Desktop indexing I don't think has ever worked. Try Recoll. It is FAST and super easy to use. Even better than Google search was.

Frank.