How to upgrade stable -> testing today, avoiding the libdb.so.3 bug.

[tluxt <tluxt@yahoo.com>]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your great work!

I see you've got a very important bug marked closed:

libdb2 breakage when upgrading from potato to woody
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=107636&repeatmerged=yes

Would you kindly take a moment to give us the procedure of
how to upgrade stable -> testing today, avoiding the libdb.so.3 bug?
("today", so we are able to do this upgrade without
having to wait for updates to propagate from unstable to testing.)

Several list readers have been very helpful with replies on this topic
already.  
(See:
libdb.so.3 woody upgrade failure-bug - Please help. 
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2001/debian-user-200108/msg03557.html
Potato to woody problem 
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2001/debian-user-200108/msg03612.html
)

I'm greatful for their work monitoring the lists and answering questions
(Thanks!  :) ) and suspect they probably have the gist of it correct.
But, since there have been some, perhaps crucial, differences
in their suggestions, I think it could save many upgraders many hours
of some trial & error if you (someone who should be _certain_ about all
the details) would give us an exact procedure.  

Your help here would enable the Debian community to put more time into
progress rather than re-searching & some trial & error.

Judging from the # of bugs I've seen you've closed I'm sure you're
very busy.

Would you please take a moment, though, to provide a short, but _specific_, 
_complete_ procedure for accomplishing a s -> t upgrade, as of today?

(Something along the lines of:
1. Install a minimal Potato system (no packages selected from the
   automatic Tasksel that runs during install.  Merely the ~5 MB of
   debs the installer puts in on its own.  And don't put _anything_
   else in.)
2. Change /etc/sources.list: stable -> testing .
3. apt-get update
4.   - Now here's what I'm not sure _exactly_ what should come next.

   Do we need to ftp down some debs first?
   (And if so, put them where?
   /var/cache/apt/archives ?)

   Do we need to "dpkg -(something)" some specific packages?
   (What exact package names?)

   Do we need to "apt-get install"  some specific packages?
   (What exact package names?  libc6?  libdb2?  dpkg?)

   Or, would it be better to do an apt-get using preferences,
   similar to what is described in:
     http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/2001/debian-kde-200108/msg00156.html ?
   (And, if so, what are the exact steps & files to dl, configure, and install
    using which commands?)

   Do we then do an "apt-get dist-upgrade"

   Something else???
)

Thank you so much for your help.  :)


Also, when 
1. by time (as in days) and 

2. by process (perhaps as in "when the packages are automatically moved
   from unstable to testing")

should we be able to skip the procedure you provided above, 
and just do a straight "apt-get dist-upgrade" 
to successfully accomplish the upgrade?


Lastly, to provide some foundation for understanding as we do the
above installation steps:
In just a few sentences, what was the cause(s) of the bug?
(Perhaps something like: "Libs __ were moved from package _ to ___,
and some dependencies were overlooked when that was initially done.")

Thanks again for your time and great work!  :)


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