

1·
5 days ago“Meant to” and “do” are quite different.
I have, not once, ever had an issue caused by a update while the system was online. And if someone did, they could likely reboot to fix it.
I will stick to the online, instantaneous, and unobstructing updates.
I would like to see some real-world numbers and examples of problems that offline updates fix.
It can be done if you mess with the initramfs.
The kernel starts everything else by unpacking an archive containing a minimal environment to set stuff up for later. Such as loading needed kernel modules, decrypting your drive, etc. It then launches, by default, the /init program (mines a shell script).
That program is PID 1. If it dies, your kernel will panic.
After it finishes setup, it execs your actual /sbin/init. These means it dies, and that program (systemd, openrc, dinit, runit, etc) becomes PID 1. If an issue happens, both could fail to execute and the kernel will loop forever.