Updating AcreetionOS Safely

AcreetionOS rolls: there are no version jumps to "upgrade" — you just stay updated.

The habit

sudo pacman -Syu        # repos
yay -Syu                # repos + AUR (if you use yay)

Weekly is plenty; monthly still fine. Avoid letting a machine sit un-updated for many months — the bigger the jump, the likelier manual attention is needed.

Before you update

  1. Plug in laptops (an update killing power mid-kernel-upgrade ruins days).

  2. Glance at changelog/news for flagged actions.

  3. Optionally snapshot: sudo timeshift --create --comments "pre-update" — see Timeshift.

During

Read the prompts. Two classics deserve respect:

Prompt Meaning

linux and linux-headers conflict; remove?

Normal during kernel bumps — answer yes.

.pacnew file notices

Config templates changed upstream; merge with sudo pacdiff afterwards.

Kernel got updated — reboot?

The running kernel stays in memory until reboot. New hardware modules load from disk, so mismatch bugs appear as weirdness after updates. Reboot soon after a kernel bump; reboot required style checks: compare uname -r with pacman -Q linux.

When an update misbehaves

  1. Still boots? Roll back packages: ls /var/cache/pacman/pkg | grep <pkg> then sudo pacman -U <cached-version>.

  2. Won’t boot? Boot the ISO or built-in recovery: Recovery Environment, then chroot and repeat pacman -Syu.

  3. Snapshot exists? Timeshift restore fixes everything non-/home in minutes.