Bug#310801: Failed: mips(el) (cobalt): no aptitude package in woody for mips(el)

[Ewen McNeill <ewen@naos.co.nz>]

reopen 310801
retitle 310801 Release Notes: mips(el): further notes on upgrade approach

In message <20050527104022.GA27387@yellowpig.yi.org>, allomber@math.u-bordeaux.f
r writes:
>Frans Pop has changed the release notes to follow your suggestions:
>[....]
>     # apt-get install aptitude
>
>aptitude will show you a list of the changes that will be made and ask you to c
>onfirm them. You should take a careful look at the proposed changes, especially
>packages that will be removed by the upgrade, before you confirm. 

I see from looking at:

http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/mips/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html

that this has been reworded further to remove the obvious mistake (ie,
it's not aptitude that shows the list of changes; it's apt-get).

You may also want to suggest: 

apt-get -s install aptitude

as a way of seeing exactly what will be done in a slightly easier to
follow list (the default apt-get display has a lot of categories of
things, some of which are info, and some of which are important, and 
may be mor confusing to people).

Also this approach (change to sarge in apt/sources.list; apt-get update; 
apt-get install aptitude) will bring in a new libc6.  These new
libc6s will require particular kernel versions depending on the
architecture (taken from libc6.preinst):

    i386:     2.4.24 or 2.6.0 or higher
    sparc:    2.4.21 or 2.2.0 or higher (depending on CPU type)
    parisc:   2.4.17 or higher
    parisc64: 2.4.19 or higher; 2.5.53 or higher
    mips:     2.4.22 or higher
    amd64:    2.6.0 or higher

It'd be useful to include the actual versions that are required in
the releaes notes, rather than just a generic "you should install a new
kernel first" note.  It's really important that the kernel be done
first if it's not new enough, but if it is new enough there seems little
point in doing the kernel update first (and a risk of module tools, etc,
being out of date).

Perhaps this note could be included as a preface to the 4.4.3
"Installing aptitude" section -- ie, "make sure your kernel is at least
this version, then...."

I'm trying this approach now (since I already have a 2.4.26 custom
kernel); I'll send an update on how it went when I'm done.

Ewen