I have been running Arch for awhile with no major speedbumps...until this weekend. I usually run updates every few weeks to once a month or so. Ran an update on Saturday, and somehow my system locks up. I bite the bullet and reboot after awhile, start cleaning up the partial upgrade mess (yay chroot) etc. Things keep getting weird though. The system isn't very stable, so I keep digging, trying to figure out what I broke. I start to notice intensive r/w operations (unfortunately including pacman queries) cause problems. "It can't be hardware," I think, focused on the software effects I am seeing. "I must not be able to hack it with Arch." I start thinking about finding a compromise between Debian and Arch as I continue tinkering. Finally I'm put out of my misery as my SSD gives up the ghost. It WAS the goddamn hardware! #linux #arch