Re: Updating the system - Debian newbie needs help
I recently switched from SuSE 6.1 to Debian potato and I'm really happy. I like my
Debian system more and more every day.
I applied this distribution-switch strategy: free up a partition from SuSE and take it
out from fstab to become your new root partition, download the install floppy image
and make a boot floppy, download
the base package plus what else you need to get you on the net and let you get the rest.
In my case they were the base package, data-dumper, dpkg-ftp, perl and drv1440.bin which you already
got when you made the floppy. I downloaded all these to a regular SuSE partition and
then booted off the floppy and chose 'install from HD".
Then I installed a minimal system by ftp and used BootMagic to let me boot both systems.
Maybe fixing LILO to boot both sytems would work too but I never tried it. Alternatively,
you could boot one of the systems from floppy. Finally, I started porting my configurations
from SuSE to Debian by temporarily mounting various SuSE partitions. Some might argue
that archiving /etc and various other parts is enough but I always seem to leave stuff
behind when I switch distros. Luckily, it looks like the days of switching are over :).
I think now that even better would be to get the apt stuff first and use apt as retrieval
method in dselect.
One final piece of advice: If you have your mind set on switching, uninstall all
non-essential packages from SuSE first and resize/combine as much as possible off your
SuSE partitions. Then start your new Debian system with all the partitions that you would
want already created and mounted. It took me quite a bit of juggling to go from a
one root partition Debian on /dev/hda 10 to my usual 4-5 partitions setup.
Good LucK ! and I'm sure you won't be dissapointed.
Stephan A Suerken [inf222@Fh-Worms.DE] wrote:
>
> Peter Ross <petdr@cs.mu.OZ.AU> writes:
>
> > --Dxnq1zWXvFF0Q93v
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >
> > On 01-Jul-1999, Carley, Jason Australia" <jason_carley@exchange.au.ml.com> wrote:
> > > Hi guys,
> > >
> > > I am considering switching over from SuSE 6.1 to Debian. I guess I am an
>
> Ok, but I hope you don't misunderstand that you can't upgrade your SuSE system
> directly with Debian, but have to install it from scratch, renewing or
> manually updating the configuration.
> Secondly, the recommended way for staying in touch with the latest stable
> version is rather like (exchange with your next debian mirror)
>
> ---/etc/apt/sources.list
> # Next online mirror
> deb ftp://ftp.de.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free non-US
> # Proposed updates
> deb ftp://ftp.de.debian.org/debian dists/proposed-updates/
> ---
>
> Using other sources means not having a stable debian version.
>
> Stephan
> --
> s-Stephan Suerken <suerken@fh-worms.de>
> s-Voice (+49) (6241) 92566-2 -- WWW http://www.fh-worms.de/~suerken
> s-Debian-related mail: <absurd@debian.org>
>
>
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>
--
D.Damian
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