Re: Newbieish question
Yes, I'm learning the "if it ain't broke" rule the hard way. ::Sighs:: I
think once I get this system back on its feet (the whole libc thing has
just shot it to hell, that I'll do a fresh reinstall from floppies to
potato, and upgrade only what's necessary for samba-tng.
Thanks for your suggestion.
On Mon, 16 Jul 2001, Andy Saxena wrote:
> Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 20:48:50 -0400
> From: Andy Saxena <ansaxena@engr.uconn.edu>
> To: Brian Ballsun-Stanton <brian@pax.ath.cx>
> Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Newbieish question
>
> Hi Brian,
>
> I recently went through two upgrade cycles - from stable (AKA Potato) to
> testing (AKA Woody), and then to unstable (AKA Sid).
>
> On Sid about a 100 or so packages are updated everyday. A few weeks ago, I
> had a severely disabled system when the PAM modules failed to function. In
> essence, I couldn't log into the system. It was a package dependency problem,
> and was fixed the next day during the next round of package updates. To
> ensure that my system is never disabled like this again, and to keep myself
> abreast with the latest software I am in the process of developing guidelines
> for myself about upgrading packages. Here are my guidelines. Hopefully, they
> will offer some help.
>
> 1)Updates to the Sid packages can be divided into the following categories:
> a) New upstream release.
> b) Critical bug-fixes with priorities other than low.
> c) Bug-fixes with priority "low".
> 2)"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Many will recommend that a cron job be
> run to update packages daily. I think this is wasteful for somebody trying to
> maintain stability in an otherwise "unstable" setup. I subscribe to the
> debian-devel-changes mailing list, and I filter the 100 or so messages that I
> receive everyday regarding updates based on the criteria in point (1). This
> leaves about five emails to peruse everyday and doesn't take more than five
> minutes.
> 3) More importantly, I don't try to upgrade a package unless I need a new
> feature, or a critical bug-fix is needed.
> 4) Some packages - like the libpam package - can break your sytem critically.
> Be very wary when upgrading these packages. It would be wise to download the
> package, and watch the mailing list for updates in the days following. Better
> still, wait a few days and watch the bug reports posted for that package.
> Once satisfied that the package is "stable", install it.
> 5) One may wish to have the latest features for a piece of software. When an
> upstream release occurs, wait a few days and follow the steps in point (3)
> before updating.
> 6) [Especially when multiple machines need to be updated]. Download the
> package on one machine. Update it, ensure that the system is not disabled in
> any manner. Use the same packages (share the download directory) and update
> the other systems.
>
>
> These guidelines are rather elementary, but so far they have proved
> worthwhile :-).
>
> -Andy
>
> On Sunday July 15 2001 15:11, Brian Ballsun-Stanton wrote:
> > Please take pity :)
> >
> > I'm an extreme newbie to debian (having installed it for the first time
> > about a week ago. I was assiged the task of setting up a 50 seat network,
> > and since we're an edcuational institution, we have a really tight
> > budget: the savings of not having to buy a $9 per person liscence are
> > quite hefty.
> >
> > Unfortuantly, we'll still be using w2k clients. Now, not having my head
> > completly buried in my ::cough:: I knew that samba could provide file
> > sharing. Little did I know that samba-tng would provide good w2k access.
> >
> > This is my dilemma: to run samba-tng, I have to upgrade to "unstable." My
> > mandate explictly states that downtime is *BAD*, very, very, very,
> > bad. How risky is running unstable? What shouldn't I do? Should I upgrade
> > to 2.4.6? (I'm running a home box as a testbed for this, so I'll be warned
> > slightly in advance, but...)
> >
> > I'd love any advice or assistance.
> >
> > If anyone wants to help, or discuss this over lunch, I live in LA, and
> > I'll be going to rochester, NY, for 3 days next week. I'd love to actually
> > discuss this with someone who knows what they're talking about.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > -Brian
>
Reply to: