apt-get upgrade works fine here, even with extras-devel enabled.

If you do feel the odd need to dist-upgrade on the N900, make sure you check what's being installed and, more importantly, what's being removed.

Never dist-upgrade with the SDK repository enabled!

Works fine here and there and over there and....BUM! Still why does apt-get update and upgrade update packages that app manager doesn't. if this is the case then I would say that it´s not regarded as safe as using officially supported app manager.

apt-get upgrade should be perfectly safe. Generally speaking, all that's not being automatically updated by App Manager are libraries - the newer versions are not required by any applications, so they don't get automatically updated. There should be minimal risk in updating these though (there's a small chance that the new version has dropped some functionality the app requires). apt will tell you exactly what it's doing, so just watch out for anything being removed/downgraded - otherwise you should be okay.

So to recap. apt-get update+upgrade should be generally/overall/normally/usually etc. safe BUT using app manager is safer?

Yes [ ]
No [ ]

Did you install PR1.2 using OTA or a full N900 reflash?

Well, that actually depends. Strictly speaking, the safest option is to run the same versions of everything as the author(s) of the packages (as that's what they've tested with). This is going to be pretty much impossible to actually do though, so you either install the latest versions (and trust that the library developers have maintained compatibility) or stick with the older versions (and trust that the authors of applications have actually checked that their software is compatible with the minimum versions they've put in the requirements). Either one carries a risk - generally the latter will be safer (in terms of compatibility), but the former will provide better performance and bug fixes.

Personally, I try to run the latest versions, and I've not seen any compatibility issues on the N900 yet.

Thank you. I wasn't interested in bugs/security/performance issues. Only the process itself and compatibility. App manager is safer and update/upgrade with apt-get is also regarded as quite safe.

Personal experiences give some hints but after all we are having here system that can run on so many different combinations of apps / settings that it´s better to be safe than sorry. I mean that if I recommended something that is not regarded as safe as official I would have to say it because if something happens then it´s also on my responsibility.

Flashed rootfs, leaving eMMC alone.
I didn't even wait for it to pop OTA

Have been using apt-get and dpkg almost everytime i need to install or upgrade someting. Much faster and if someting goes wrong it tells me what.. instead of no out put in the HAM.

I was on the Leaked PR1.2 and then did the OTA to the official.

well apt-get upgrade is "safe", meaning it is exactly as safe as the latest library in extras-devel.

Let's say hypothetically a new version of an essential library is sent to autobuilder, and due to some version differences or something, the version built by autobuilder ends up with an error that renders the library unusable. Presumably the uploader notices this and the packages is fixed and uploaded again. So this is only a problem for those unlucky enough to run apt-get upgrade before the new package was removed or fixed.

still, if you do regular backups you should be fine. It's really difficult to brick the device. Even if in some unfathomable way manage to mess up the bit that communicates with the flasher you can still (as far as I know) get your OS reinstalled in a service place that has one of those gadgets that the factory uses to install the OS originally. I forget what it's called. That will cost you a few though.

PS Brick means the device having the same functionality as a brick.