Re: how do I get a Sid package on a Woody system?

[Derrik Pates <dpates@dsdk12.net>]

Sean Schertell wrote:
> On Saturday 31 July 2004 06:29 am, Eric D. Hedekar wrote:
>
> > I've been wanting to get AMSN messenger
> > (http://amsn.sourceforge.net/) running on my woody system however the
> > .deb package is only available throught the Sid package list.  I
> > don't know how to program or compile from source code and when I
> > attempt to install the package manually I get stuck in dependency
> > hell.  Is there any way to alter the apt-get package list so as to be
> > able to get this program?  Thanks.
>
>
>
> Sure, no sweat.  Just edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and wherever you 
> see the word "stable", change it to "unstable".  Then "apt-get update", 
> then "apt-get install the_package_you_want".  After your done, don't 
> forget to change your source.list back to the way it was and apt-get 
> update again.
>
> But I think there's an even easier way.  Try this before trying the 
> method above:
> apt-get install -t unstable the_package_you_want

If you want to keep your system running stable, that's probably not a 
good idea. Most sid packages depend on the newer libc, so you'll get 
that, and a bunch of other updated packages (X packages in particular, 
since the division of X into packages has changed substantially between 
woody and sarge), so even if you just ask for that one package, you'll 
probably have to install a signficant number of other packages. In that 
case, you might check www.apt-get.org, or just consider upgrading to 
sarge (it should be the new stable RSN).

--
Derrik Pates
dpates@dsdk12.net