On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 09:04:11PM +0100, Robert Epprecht wrote: > Andrew Sackville-West <andrew@farwestbilliards.com> writes: > > > On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 03:21:07PM +0100, Robert Epprecht wrote: > > [snipped preamble about downgrading to etch from sid] > >> Or is there more involved? When is the best time to do the switch? > > > > just to say it, as others seem to have answered your questions. The > > best time to do the switch was about 2 months (?) ago before etch went > > into freeze. up 'til that point, etch was tracking along just a few > > days behind sid. If you had switched repositories at that time, and > > then waited a few days, you'd likely have had an etch system by > > natural progression of the packages. > > And if I try it now, will I run into major difficulties, > or is it still worth trying? > well I'm the wrong guy to ask because i always think all things are worth trying... that said, the longer you wait the more difficult it will be (assuming you upgrade regularly). If you're contemplating this with any seriousness, the first thing I'd do is *stop* all regular upgrade procedures to keep from moving farther away from your target. then I'd change the sources list, apt-get update and do a thorough reading of apt-cache policy <all packages> and see who's potentially getting downgraded. Probably it makes sense to remove any and all packages you can live without until the process is done -- the fewer things you have to downgrade, the fewer the problems. I;d be very concerned about packages changing formats of config files, but that's probably not so prevalent. I think the points are, as you know 1)downgrading is not supported, 2)by the time you've done all this, you're probably better off to have just reinstalled in terms of time and potential frustration. If you need the machine up as much as possible during this process, look at using debootstrap as an installation method, use the old dpkg --get-selections, --set-selections bit to set up the new system within the debootstrap chroot, fix up your bootloader and reboot the thing. Then you can tweak it without, hopefully, too much downtime. .02, grain of salt, ymmv, etc etc A
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