i'm new to lede i've read alot of faq and how to, but i still have some doubt
as i've already done i've installed and i'm currently using lede, for the upgrade i read there is the sysupgrade file i should use instead of factory image, as the guide say (using luci web interface) the correct procedure is to backup the config, then uncheck "keep settings" then update the firmware with sysupgrade file bin and when it is done restore the backup we done before
my questions are:
is that right or i miss something?
this is right only for point release or is always good even if i will update from 17.1 to a future 19 or i should update every point or major release? or it depend release or routers?
So using the sysupgrade image if lede is already installed seems correct.
Keeping back-up copies of the old router's configuration seems like a good idea. (Personally, I always make a copy of the router's /overlay directory onto another computer before upgrading, as that will contain all files that where modified not only those that are specified for back-up, specifically it also back-ups installed opkg packes, allowing a complete roll-back to the old install in case the new version has issues).
I do not believe that "unchecking keep settings" is any more inferior to the proposed "backup configuration" and "restore configuration" approach, both will work just fine most of the times.
Over time some of the foundation parts of lede do change making older configurations either sub-optimal or even non-functional; for that reason, I would recommend to occasionally (if there are indications that after the update there are new issues) re-configure everything from scratch, that is run the first_boot command on the terminal the reboot and then start setting up the router completely. This is a bit inconvenient, as most likely this will disable the WLAN and will create a new ssh key for root, but it should make sure your configs do not carry old sub-optimal parts into "infinity".
about the 4th point
how can i know when is the moment to configure it again from scratch?
there is a kind of blog or newsletter to follow to know what is better to do or what?
i have another question but related to the last one
the latest version is 17.01.3, the 17 is for the year or is the major release version? because if is 17 about major and 01.3 is about point release i could immagine is better to config from scratch only between major release if no other info are avalaible from devs
my goal is to have an updated system without spend all my time configuring it or solve broken stuff, should be nice for lede to have use something like debian stable, with an autoupdate, where the system will update automatically every day with package and fix, and the manual upgrade needed only from a major release to another one
Well, all I can offer is a heuristic, as long as the observable behavior of the router stays invariant, I do not bother to configure from scratch. If an update brings behavioral changes I grumpily try firstboot and manual reconfiguration. (For which I use the GUI but I also compare the contents of my old saved files in /etc/config with the new templates and if the structure has not changed I just copy the old files over the new ones...).
As far as I understand 17 just denotes 2017, but we reached 1.4 just about now. I have no idea about stability guarantees in LEDE, but I believe your understanding to be reasonable.
Sure, except, I believe the devs try to keep the configuration files compatible and on most routers you really need to reflash to get the system updated, as the flash memory typically is too fickle to allow completely writable filesystems (flash only tolerates relatively few overwrite cycles and hence needs to be treated with care) and most often the router does not have enough space to allow all files to be overwritten in the writable overlay partition, in short the debian model works for desktops but does not seem to be suited to most embedded hardware. If intervention free updates you might want to look into the turris omnia, but they are a) still on an modified openwrt base (but intend to switch to a modified lede base) b) you will not be too happy with turrisOS if you want to make many changes below the GUIs (yes plural, they have two ).
thanks for your replies, i've saq turris router is really an interesting one, but quite expensive, i will stick with lede i like it, but i still hope some improvement for the update, maybe just an autoupdate for critical patch, i don't care to have the latest version, i just need security, let's see what they do
+1 The option to just apply security fixes would be really nifty.
But, having said that, I'm very happy with the state LEDE is in now. At least being able to update packages without breaking everything is a big improvement over OpenWRT. And splitting package updates up into enhancement and security fixes will require a lot more work from the package maintainers who are all doing it in their free time, so I can understand that this is probably not something coming very soon.
).