Re: Need newer software that included with stable (that isn't at backports.org)
Tim Hull wrote:
> I'm currently trying out both Debian and Ubuntu on my MacBook to see which
> one I prefer.
> Right now, I'm currently liking Debian better - the stability seems
> better, and it seems easier to customize
> - but I need to run software that's newer than what's in etch (not for a
> lust for bleeding-edge, but simply for the reason
> that my MacBook won't suspend or do proper power management in any kernel
> older than 2.6.22). I also want to be
> able to get updated packages such as the newest Firefox...er..Iceweasel
> (still hate that name, would prefer something
> less silly).
>
> I know the easy Debian solution is to run testing/unstable - it seems like
> most people do. However, then you lose the advantage of
> stability. I actually tried testing and unstable, but found a critical
> bug pertaining to my video card - my system likes to reboot on suspend
> with the
> new Xorg drivers (yes, dutifully reported it to BTS). For this reason, I
> figure I'll confine Lenny/Sid to a VM or chroot, and I've been looking
> into
> backports. However, backports.org doesn't seem to have what I need (it
> only has 2.6.21 kernel, doesn't have the new acpi-support, not to mention
> some
> extra gstreamer plugins I wanted). What would be the ideal solution for
> me? Is there a reliable way to roll my own backports using apt to pull in
> dependencies? Can I build from Sid sources on an as-needed basis? I've
> come across a tool called "apt-build" which pulls down dependencies and
> builds from source - is it what I need? What should I put in my
> sources.list ?
>
> On a side note, I will say that the one area I think FOSS lags behind
> Windows and Mac is in updating individual system components. I LIKE being
> able to update a few things without hackish solutions (i.e. build from
> source tarballs) or updating my whole system. You can do it easily on
> Mac/Windows, but it's quite difficult and unreliable on nearly every
> distribution. I think Debian really ought to look into making backports
> an official project and integrating it into the stable release as a way to
> get
> updates on an as-needed basis. It may even be an interesting idea to do
> point releases of stable with some backports included. Has this ever been
> discussed? It seems a lot better than simply speeding up the release
> cycle...
Hi Tim,
Have you looked at apt-pinning? I think this gives you exactly what you're
looking for. I personally don't find using testing loses me any stability
but that's just my opinion. There's a simple introduction to apt-pinning
that you can find here:
http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html
This may do the trick for you.
Cheers,
Jonathan
--
Registerd Linux user #445917 at http://counter.li.org/
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