Re: Waking from the Dead

[Axel Freyn <axel-freyn@gmx.de>]

Hi Tom,
On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 12:43:22PM -0400, Tom Allison wrote:
> I have some computers here that haven't been turned on for what looks  
> like 2 years and 3 months.
>
> And so there are a few things I need refreshers on.  But I'll get to  
> those later.  Right now I am not sure where all my sources are or should 
> be.
>
> ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ has problems somewhere with the labels stable,  
> main, contrib, non-free.
Should work.
>
> is http://securty.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib
> still viable?
Yes -- if you add the "i" in security ;-)
>
> After I get through the updates from Debian something (not sure what  
> version I have) I'll start working on the rest.
Be carefull! It is NOT supported to perform an update which skips
versions -- then you really can kill the installation.  You should
identify your version (/etc/debian_version contains a good indication
:-)) and then first do the last updates on this version, then perform to
the next debian-generation, and so on.
The old versions are:
Sarge:	3.1
Etch:	4.0
Lenny:	5.0		("oldstable")
Squeeze: 6.0		("stable)

Lenny and squeeze are on the standard-servers, Sarge & Etch only on the
old archives, like
http://archive.debian.org/debian/

So, my proposal would be:
 - identify your version from /etc/debian_version
1) if it's sarge:
 - remove security.debian.org from sources.list, and only use
   http://archive.debian.org/debian/ sarge main contrib
 - make a full upgrade on this version
2) if it's etch:
 - remove security.debian.org from sources.list, and only use
   http://archive.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib
 - make a full upgrade on this version
3) if it's lenny:
 - use ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib
 - make a full upgrade on this version
4) now you come to squeeze
 - use ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib
   and http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib
 - make a full upgrade on this version

And after each upgrade, resolve all problems/errors that aptitude
reports ...

> Mostly right now I'm failing all over the place on Authentication.  
Most of the time, the problem for Authentication is the wrong keytable
for the keyboard -- try in box for the username whether all keystrokes
needed in your password give the right key...

Axel