[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

RE: Dangers of "stable" in sources.list




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Sackville-West [mailto:andrew@farwestbilliards.com]
> Sent: May 3, 2007 11:54 AM
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Dangers of "stable" in sources.list
>
>
> On Thu, May 03, 2007 at 11:24:56AM -0400, Jan Sneep wrote:
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Andrew Sackville-West [mailto:andrew@farwestbilliards.com]
> > > Sent: May 3, 2007 10:44 AM
> > > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> > > Subject: Re: Dangers of "stable" in sources.list
> > >
> > > mildly humorous to think someone could be *surprised* by a debian
> > > release ;-O.
> >
> > Actually I was ... not sure if it was mentioned here on the
> list or not ?
>
> well, the list traffic certainly went through the roof when it
> happened including lots of "congratulations on the release" posts, but
> really, I was only making a lame joke about the snail's pace of debian
> releases. Something I fully get and appreciate, BTW.
>
> [...]
>
> > >
> > > just a guess, but maybe so that no matter when you install, that
> > > install disk will get you moving into stable. so you could use a
> > > really old installer and automatically move right up to
> stable with
> > > the next dist-upgrade.
> > >
> >
> > I had a NetInstall CD of Sarge that I made in January and
> when I did the
> > update last week I lost everything. I found I couldn't use
> that CD it get
> > Etch installed. It would crap-out because it was trying to
> replace the
> > kernel from the CD with the one from the mirror and kaboom! No go.
>
>
> hmm.. yeah, I guess that makes sense, now that I actually apply my
> brain to it. There are ways to work around it, but from the newbie
> perspective, they are less than ideal.
>
>
> >
> >
> > > also, ISTM, that if you are paying attention at all,
> you'd notice when
> > > the change happened. If you do a regular dist-upgrade, there will
> > > suddenly be a pile of upgrades instead of the usual trickle. THat
> > > should be enough to cause one to review what is happening
> and hold off
> > > on an upgrade if its necessary.
> > >
> >
> > Not really a, IMHO, very good way to make sure someone
> doesn't make the
> > mistake I made ... REALLY should have some check built in
> to ALL the various
> > methods one can use to do an update to FLAG that you are
> about to perform
> > and UPGRADE not just an UPDATE.
>
> with all due respect, and only the best of intentions, the Apt system
> always asks if you really want to do what you are about to do. (unless
> you're installing 1 and only 1 package). I will agree though
> that if one
> isn't up to speed yet, they'd not recognise that upgrading a couple
> hundred packages is not a normal situation for the stable
> distribution.
>
>  I hadn't done an update since I installed
> > Sarge back in January, because I didn't know how. Read some
> of the posts to
> > this list that in effect said that Aptitude was the way to
> go, so read what
> > I though I needed from the user guide and it's "marketing"
> message confirmed
> > that Aptitude was the next-best-thing-to-sliced-bread as it
> would manage all
> > the dependancies automatically that with other methods you
> would have to do
> > manually. So I with great confidence told it to go and
> update everything for
> > me! Well as you know I lost everything.
>
> are you refering here to your netowrk problem and your reinstalling?
> if so, its really not fair to blame that on the apt system :).
>
>
>  Had to get a new Etch NetInst CD and
> > start over again. The ONLY good side to this is that I'm
> getting pretty good
> > at running the NetInst CD and have almost all the prompts
> memorized ... :O)
>
> wait til you learn how to have it install everything automatically,
> including answering all the questions :)
>
> >
> > I guess if we're taking votes ... cast my newbie vote for
> using the name
> > rather than "stable" ...
>
> Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting one method over the other, just
> trying to point out how I think it works. you are free to use
> whichever method you choose.


I just check my sources.list file and interestingly the default when doing a
clean NetInst is to point to the Etch folders on the miror site, not
"stable".

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.6.2/785 - Release Date: 2007.05.02
2:16 PM



Reply to: