Re: Java Web Start on Debian Potato

[Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>]

Holger Rauch <Holger.Rauch@heitec.de> writes:
> Ok. What libc version do you suggest?

  Whatever is running on testing ;-). I doubt that you'll be able to
  update libc on potato without causing an update of the entire system.

> Is it "safe" to upgrade to testing (Woody) *now*? From what I've read
> there seem to be bugs creeping in now and then making important parts
> (such as XFree 4) unusable. What way of upgrading what you recommend in my
> case?

  That depends on you. If you are confident with your Debian/Linux
  skills, I'd would strongly recommend running testing since there is so
  much new and improved software there. It also allows you to run stuff
  in unstable too (more about this later).

  When I first made the switch a year or so ago, it was very painful
  because there were some packages with broken dependencies that had
  snuck into testing. The bugs in the scripts that copy packages into
  testing have seemed to have been fixed; I haven't seen any of these
  problems for quite some time.

  Problems I see now are not really problems. Sometimes a package is
  updated and the configuration procedure changes and you need to adapt.
  But by and large, my weekly updates (which can update as many as 30
  packages) proceed without a single debconf question. Painless. My
  XFree 4 has never been rendered unusable as the reports say, but I
  suppose your mileage may vary--I may have made some wise decisions and
  others may have made some poor decisions.

  Which is why I say, it depends on you ;-).

  If you do go testing, I would strongly suggest searching the
  debian-user mailing list for tips. Find and read the upgrade notes
  (not sure exactly where they are) and the new apt HOWTO. I believe the
  upgrade is as "simple" as updating your /etc/apt/sources.list to point
  to testing and:

      apt-get update
      apt-get dist-upgrade
      until there are no further problems; do apt-get install -f; done

  I believe I had to run "apt-get install -f" almost 9 times before all
  of the dependencies and errors had been resolved. You may also have to
  remove certain packages that are causing problems and reinstall them
  later when things are OK. But it's definitely worth the pain!

  Once you have testing installed, and are feeling like trying some of
  the stuff in unstable, you can add unstable lines to
  /etc/apt/sources.list and create a file called /etc/apt/preferences
  that looks like this:

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 600

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 80

  Then you can easily install stuff from unstable like this:

    apt-get -t unstable install galeon

  But again, please do a little research and ensure that my instructions
  above are correct. Viel gluck--und spass!

> Glad to hear that. Do they *really* support Linux as a platform
> (meaining that the Java technologies are tested to the same extent
> as they are on Win*)? I've heard that only the Blackdown team tests
> natively on Linux. Don't know whether this is true, however.

  Don't know the details; all I know is that even the Linux-only bugs
  have been fixed as well.

--
Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>  http://www.newt.com/wohler/  GnuPG ID:610BD9AD
Maintainer of comp.mail.mh FAQ and mh-e. Vote Libertarian!
If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.