Stability of Debian

[Geo]

Hello, I recently joined the Debian communtity after installing the latest Debian (9-strech). Since I don't have an apparent problem, I list the question under this board.

Being not so much experienced, but having a lot of trouble in the past with other distros, I was wondering if one can verify the stability of Debian after installation.

The reason that I am asking is that, compared to e.g. Ubuntu there's no trademark appearing when I boot the OS or when I turn it off. Additionally I took a look at /var/log and for example, in "/var/log/messages" there are some errors, but looking them online hasn't payed off since there is no info available for them. On the other hand, the OS seems to work fine and I can't say that I have some problem with it up to now.

I would be gratefull if someone has something to propose.

Thank you.

[GarryRicketson]

Almost no need to quote, but any way,

Additionally I took a look at /var/log and for example, in "/var/log/messages" there are some errors, but looking them online hasn't payed off since there is no info available for them. On the other hand, the OS seems to work fine and I can't say that I have some problem with it up to now.

So what exactly is the problem ? You say: ""/var/log/messages" there are some errors, ",
But neglect to say what the errors are, or what the error messages say,
And "some problem", Don't you think it would help us, if we knew exactly what the "some problem" is ?
You might want to take a look at this: https://www.debian.org/intro/why_debian
and also https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebia
Advice For New Users On Not Breaking Their Debian System
Debian is reasonable stable, but how long it stays that way mostly depends on how well the system administrator manages the system.
I suppose , also a factor would be if the system administrator knows about syestemd , what it is , and how it effects the system. Systemd has been in use now for about 3 years now, but in relation to the older system V it is fairly new, there is some question as to how stable it really is, only time will show on that. It does seem stable, but for some of us "old school" I guess they would call it, any way, some system administrators do not trust systemd that much, most end users do not even notice or know the differences.

compared to e.g. Ubuntu there's no trademark appearing when I boot the OS or when I turn it off.

Trade mark , and graphic 'branding' and logos have nothing to do with stability or reliability, another example,look at MS windows, totally unstable, and unreliable, and as you said,

but having a lot of trouble in the past with other distros,

Ubuntu is another good example, the trade mark, does not make it any more stable, or reliable, and I certainly would not trust Ubuntu on something where stability , and reliability are concerned.

[bw123]

...
there's no trademark appearing when I boot the OS or when I turn it off
...

You can add these graphic 'branding' and logos by installing plymouth https://wiki.debian.org/plymouth

...
I was wondering if one can verify the stability of Debian after installation.

Use the system without rebooting for three weeks.

[Geo]

Thanks for the responses. I actually haven't posted any of the error messages because they are lengthy. What I was wondering is if the appearance of these messages signifies the instability of the OS or it is expected to some level, to have some errors (always depending on the errors-i.e. that do not indicate any major crash).

What helps if I don't reboot for three weeks?

Thank you.

[bw123]

...
What helps if I don't reboot for three weeks?

It's an arbitrary amount of time I use to find problems when I install. If you have no memory leaks, all hardware is working, system is happy and snapy after three weeks uptime, you're good to go.

Yeah the logs will be full of all kinds of stuff, errors, warnings, info, etc... I don't worry about it but I do look things up pretty often just for fun.

[Geo]

Ok thank you very much. Sorry for the following question, but just for clarification, by "do not reboot" you don't mean of course to don't shut it down...Just not reboot reboot or force a reboot right?

Thank you.

[llivv]

If something is spamming the log files you will see the available space change over time
keep your eye on used space.
du -sh /var

kernel opps or panic can sometimes spam the logs
systemd looks like it is a bit spammy too sometimes - probably trying to get some attention.

How long to run a machine is a personal thing
uptime
will show how long since last shutdown/reboot

years if the install is that good

[CwF]

The term stability is a little fuzzy. For some stability means continuous 24/7/365 operation. For some it means getting a job done without interruption and then turning it off.

If you care to get a little sophisticated, you can segregate with vm's and achieve both. My main machine is rebooted only for hardware changes and upgrades at most twice a year. The vm's running within are rebooted daily (hourly) up to never. Even hardware that mis-behaves can be tamed in a vm.

[Geo]

Thanks for the responses. The thing is that I need the laptop for working purposes and I have to be as sure as it gets that it is stable. Meaning that it doesn't have, at least apparently, any post-installation issues. That's what I am trying to figure out.

[stevepusser]

I don't think you can find anything more stable than Debian. You can install "stress" and see if it can find anything going wrong:

Description: tool to impose load on and stress test a computer system
'stress' is a tool that imposes a configurable amount of CPU, memory, I/O,
or disk stress on a POSIX-compliant operating system and reports any errors
it detects.
.
'stress' is not a benchmark. It is a tool used by system administrators to
evaluate how well their systems will scale, by kernel programmers to evaluate
perceived performance characteristics, and by systems programmers to expose
the classes of bugs which only or more frequently manifest themselves when
the system is under heavy load.

Though that is not testing the entire "stability" thing as described.

[llivv]

Thanks for the responses. The thing is that I need the laptop for working purposes and I have to be as sure as it gets that it is stable. Meaning that it doesn't have, at least apparently, any post-installation issues. That's what I am trying to figure out.

That is up to the user to learn how to make their linux more stable with time
instead of bogged down and frustrating.
The investment has to made to reap the rewards.

free and open source has no guarantee written into the licenses

and I don't see any free or open programs that show how well a distro is installed.
yet. Not sure
I'd necessarily believe one either.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

If by "stable" you mean "reliable" then Debian has been faultlessly reliable for the last four years under very heavy daily use for me and my family, it is the most reliable operating system I have ever used.

If "stable" refers to the state of flux in the package versioning (and the associated maintenance overhead) then I think CentOS and Slackware both better Debian in that respect, but only just

[kevinthefixer]

Let me also add: I've been running various Linux distros for a couple decades now, and there have always been error messages in the logs and boot messages. I've never seen a boot without at least a few. You haven't seen them in Windows or Ubuntu because they don't display them, not because they didn't happen. Worrying about them might give you ulcers but won't have any other effect. If it ain't broke... Debian, more than most other distros, sets system stability high on their priority list, way above supplying the latest version of whatever software. So it is intrinsically as stable a distro as it comes.

[NorthEast]

Geo wrote:

I took a look at /var/log and for example, in "/var/log/messages" there are some errors, but looking them online hasn't payed off since there is no info available for them.

Not all errors are relevant. For example, on this box, the following errors appear:

Code: Select all

[root@owl /var/log]# grep -i error messages
Dec  3 13:18:51 owl lightdm[506]: Could not enumerate user data directory /var/lib/lightdm/data: Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data': No such file or directory
Dec  3 13:18:56 owl lightdm[545]: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Dec  3 13:18:56 owl lightdm[506]: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Dec  3 13:19:07 owl lightdm[693]: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files


They look to be about lightdm, but it's not used on this box, though it's installed. The user logs in on the terminal, so these errors have no real bearing on functioning.

[llivv]

I'm not a fan of automation [sic] did I really say that?

After reading this and a few other unrelated threads in the forum, I found this.
https://lttng.org/
links to the available debs in the repos
https://lttng.org/docs/v2.10/#doc-debian
and this shows some other similar programs with descriptions
https://lttng.org/docs/v2.10/#doc-lttng-alternatives

It's probably never going to be used by a beginner
but since this thred is in General Questions

I think if someone wants to find out if the system has problems
this suite or one of the other programs listed on the alternatives
page might be able to find it.