Debian install challenge...

[Randy Edwards]

Ken Ambrose wrote:
> How do I kick off the upgrade?  I assume I'll have to add something to
> /etc/apt/whatever-that-file-is

    Correct; you need to modify /etc/apt/sources.list.  Once modified, you can 
then just use apt-get to update things.  However, my strong preference is to 
use "dselect."

    Dselect gets a lot of (pretty much deserved) bad press because of its 
quirky interface.  However, in my experience, dselect is still nice.  I like 
to be able to easily search and read descriptions about packages I'm going to 
install, and dselect will also notify you about suggested packages.  For 
example, if you're going to install lprng dselect will suggest magicfilter and 
other assorted goodies to ensure you can get the most out of lprng -- that's nice.

    Be warned though: Debian ensures that upgrades from "stable release" to 
the "next stable release" are smooth.  But upgrades to/from various beta 
versions have no such guarantee.  They generally go well, but you may have to 
run apt-get or dselect two or three times to make sure everything 
resolves/installs properly.  Also, there's no option for "downgrading" a 
release.  If you move to unstable and don't like it, it's either (A) wait for 
the stable release to catch up with you, or (B) reinstall.  (Okay, you can do 
manual downgrades, but it's generally far easier to reinstall.)

    Here's a copy of my sources.list for Sid/unstable with various comments:

# Rem'ed out Woody/Stable stuff:
#
#deb http://security.debian.org woody/updates main contrib non-free
#
# Note that the security.debian.org site is just for stable security
# updates.  Testing/Unstable doesn't have the security updates since
# the updates would be applied immediately/quickly to the main
# Testing/Unstable releases (i.e., they're "unstable":-)
#
#deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free
#deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US woody/non-US main contrib non-free
#
# I could easily run the Sarge/Testing version by just replacing "woody" above
# with "sarge" or "testing".  I like using the release names.  On Debian's
# servers, the release name is a hard (real) directory.  The stable, testing
# and unstable "directories" are just symbolic links which change when a new
# release is cut -- a change that can surprise you!
#
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
# The above is the unstable stuff.  This has all the latest, greatest
# software in it, but of course it is unstable (both in terms of "changing"
# and in terms of potential "bugs").

# Uncomment if you want the apt-get source function to work
#deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable non-US
#
# Similarly the source links can have "stable" replaced with whatever...

-- 
  Regards, | <redwards at golgotha.net>   | Upgrade your old legacy
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