Re: upgrade to Lenny stable (5.0.3) from Lenny TESTING MAY 15,2008
On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 12:21:28AM -0400, Tom Clark wrote:
> I have a dual boot system (windows on one drive for web development
> tools I owned) and LENNY on the other drive.
>
> I had a consultant do the initial system. For the last 6 months, I have
> been asking on how to upgrade to the stable version.
> Well, I give up waiting on him.
> This was done after ETCH. So it was the system in TESTING to make
> LENNY.
>
> How do I upgrade this system? Do I just follow the release notes for
> Lenny 5.0, ARM?
> DELL T3400, processor Q9300
>
> can email directly at tomc@tecunlimitedsoftware.com if you wish.
>
> thanks in advance
>
> Tom
Check your /etc/apt/sources.list.
If it says:
#
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main contrib non-free
deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main contrib non-free
or something like that - note lenny everywhere - then you're fine. Just
do a normal
aptitude update ; aptitude dist-upgrade
(or apt-get update ; apt-get dist-upgrade).
You will be updating somehting that's pinned to lenny as a release name.
If it says
#
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
note the word testing everywhere: stop at this point and carry on
reading :)
_If you've never updated in the last year and a bit_, you'll be fine.
Copy your /etc/apt/sources.list to something like
/etc/apt/sources.listBACKUP so that you can go back if need be.
Using a text editor, change your /etc/apt/sources.list and replace any
instances of the word testing to lenny, save and then aptitude update as
above.
If it has always said testing _AND YOU'VE UPDATED_ then you're no longer
running lenny, you're running the release that is currently Debian
testing (and will be released as squeeze).
Look at /etc/issue which is the file which pops up which version of
Debian you're currently running.
(more /etc/issue)
On a current Debian stable/Lenny machine, it should read something like
Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 \n \l
On a current Debian testing/Squeeze machine, it should read something
like
Debian GNU/Linux squeeze/sid \n \l
Release names vs. codenames
===========================
This is the cue for another argument over the use of release names
versus the use of release stability designators :) This is an argument
which occurs fairly regularly and where both sides are absolutely right.
"What's with all the codenames anyway - how do I remember them?" "Just
run stable, you'll be fine"
Release codenames came in when a third party distributor released a copy
of "Debian 1.0" which was actually from a pre-release (nominally 0.98 or
0.99??) a couple of months before we would have released. They got
bragging rights - but the code was broken - they hadn't waited for our
release. Debian had to skip 1.0 and instead release 1.1 or 1.2. Hence
codenames before release - so that developers can all talk about the
state of Lenny/Squeeze and not get hung up about precise numbers. When
it's released, it becomes Stable and (current) Stable now becomes
Oldstable ...
[Somebody somewhere flips a symbolic link or two and lenny -> testing
becomes lenny -> stable just after etch -> stable becomes
etch -> oldstable]
Anyone who has lenny in their sources.list doesn't notice any change:
anyone who has etch doesn't notice any change - except in the respective
reduced volumes of downloads they'll now get. Once etch drops off
oldstable support, any users still using it will _have_ to upgrade,
though.
If you pin to stability names - stable / testing / unstable - then a
user who installs on day 1 of a Stable release gets that release right
through and the number of updates is relatively tiny BUT the day that
Debian releases a new Stable, they suddenly lose stability and have a
huge download as all their software is outdated at once.
Both sides are right, both sides are wrong :)
If you've a Dell 9300 laptop, then you've almost certainly got an Intel
processor (which may not be 64 bit compatible), so you probably just
want the Debian i386 version.
A rather long post, but I hope this helps.
All the best,
AndyC
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