[oclug] Debian updating (Was: Good Point)

[Jon Earle]

But, unstable is where all the good stuff is!  :)  It seems the stable
branch, while perhaps being more well tested, lags behind the current
release of many applications.  How else would one get the latest and
greatest without using the unstable branch?

Jon

On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Michael P. Soulier wrote:

> 
>     Wow. I've had the occasional problem with Debian but they're nothing
> compared to the problems I had when I used to use RedHat or Mandrake.
> Upgrading to unstable is never recommended really, hence the name. My first
> Debian install was Debian 2.1, and I dist-upgrade'd to 2.2 with zero problems.
> I do regular upgrades from the security site with no problems, even had that
> internet worm BIND expoit patched before I knew about it. 
> 
>     You might consider posting this to the debian-user list. You can get more
> distribution-specific support there. 
> 
>     Mike
> 
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2001 at 12:52:02PM -0500, Jonathan Earle wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> > 
> > I've been trying to get my Debian system (the one I haven't wanted to fire
> > up in months. :) ) up and running and updated.  I've been playing with the
> > unstable branch as I'd rather have the latest and greatest vs server class
> > reliability on my home machine.
> > 
> > Recalling that the last time I did something like this (after a time of not
> > updating) caused me huge amounts of grief, I avoided dselect and instead ran
> > "apt-get update" to update the lists of packages.  Only complaint was for
> > the non-US stuff.  Fixed that, and no more complaints when I reran it.
> > (BTW, I'm including the ca.debian.org, helixgnome and non-us sites in my
> > sources.list.)  So, I was doing other things while the packages updated (I'm
> > on dialup), and fell asleep at the console.  I ended up running "apt-get
> > upgrade" the next day, at which point it told me that some of the packages
> > it tried to d/l didn't exist.  After it was done all that, I updated and
> > reran the upgrade.  Hmmm, that's odd, Gnome was not updated, neither was
> > Netscape, and those were only the two most obvious ones.  Okay, man apt-get
> > says the upgrade option is very careful... looks like I should use
> > dist-upgrade instead.  So, I use that instead.  It downloads about 140mb of
> > packages, but says it's holding back a few things like communicator.  Hmm..
> > odd.  When it finishes, it complained about a few packages not exisiting, so
> > apt-get update again and try the dist-upgrade once more.  Whoa!  Now, it
> > tells me that it wants to _remove_ about 90 odd packages, including minor
> > ones like GCC and G++ and the window managers and a whole host of others
> > that it just installed!  Back out of that, try dselect now.  After
> > satisfying it's dependency requirements, try to install and the same thing
> > happens!
> > 
> > I now remember why I didn't want to fire up this box. :)  I think Debian
> > hates me.
> > 
> > What have I done wrong now?  How can I get it to a sane state again where I
> > can use apt-get or dselect without the tools wanting to trash my system?
> > 
> > Cheers!
> > Jon
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Michael H. Collins [mailto:mhtexcollins at austin.rr.com]
> > > 
> > > Not just Debian.  I use it with an rpm based system.  
> > > Conectiva is its 
> > > name.  Just did it today and it upgraded my ssh stuff.
> > > 
> > > http://en.conectiva.com/
> > > 
> > > bbarnett at l8r.net wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > Erm, its called "debian" and apt-get.  Want to do a weekly 
> > > upgrade?  Type
> > > > 
> > > > "apt-get update"
> > _______________________________________________
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> > oclug at lists.oclug.on.ca
> > http://www.oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/oclug
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Michael P. Soulier <msoulier at storm.ca> 
> "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a
> good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be
> dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead." -- RFC 1925
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