Re: Should I try Etch?
On (07/10/05 07:50), Redefined Horizons wrote:
> I'm still rather new to Linux, and I've been running Debian Sarge for a
> couple of months. However, I am eager to try the new features in Gnome 2.12,
> and I remember someone on the list writing that it ships with Sebian Etch.
> So I thought I would try running Etch, and I had some questions:
> [1] What problems am I likely to encounter running Etch? Is it really
> something I should stay away from as a new user? (The box I want to install
> on is for experimentation, and isn't mission critical.)
> [2] Are there other advantages I'll get from running Etch, other than Gnome
> 2.12? Is Etch running OpenOffice 2.0?
> [3] I burned all 14 CDs of the Debian Sarge distro. Will I need to download
> all of the CDs for the Etch distribution, or can I reuse some of those
> package CDs?
> [4] Do they need more users to test Etch, or will my questions just be a
> pain in the neck for developers?
If you are going to run etch or sid, it is worth installing apt-listbugs
first and using aptitude to maintain your system.
[1] every now and again there will be broken packages displayed in
aptitude when you try to run an upgrade. You can 'hold' the affected
packages until whatever dependency problems have been resolved and only
upgrade those packages which are complete. When the upgraded packages
have been downloaded, apt-listbugs will report any outstanding bugs and
give you the option to abort the upgrade; you can either read the bug
reports and decide whether the bugs will be a problem for you (they may
not affect your architecture) or simply abort the installation. Then go
back to aptitude to hold the packages with open bugs.
[2] I run sid to get access to later versions of packages and to be part
of their testing. Packages in etch have been in sid already and so
should be less prone to bugs but when things break it usually takes
longer for the fixes to arrive in etch because they require c 10 days
bug free exposure in sid. But if you adhere to the process in [1], you
should be OK. I can't tell you offhand what versions are in which
release but this information is held here:
http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages
[3] It is better to upgrade using the net rather than CD's which
involves editing your /etc/apt/sources.list to include something like:
deb http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free
You will then be able to update at will.
[4] I can't speak for the developers but I suspect the more people who
get involved in testing and bug reporting the quicker we get to a
release. That said, bear in mind that nothing is guaranteed and if your
system breaks, it is at your own risk. An alternative is to keep to the
stable release and use backports which are later package versions
specifically compiled for the stable release:
http://www.backports.org/
Regards
Clive
--
www.clivemenzies.co.uk ...
...strategies for business
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