Re: How recover from aborted dist-upgrade Stable to Testing (due to apt-listbug bug 585448)
On Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:31:04 -0700
Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com> wrote:
> nv wrote:
> > After so much time wasted researching and feeling out different
> > options, I decided that it was finally time for me to switch to
> > Wheezy (actually, testing).
>
> Fine.
>
Thank you, your response has helped tremendously! :) Now, I really
look forward to continuing my dist-upgrade shortly.
> > I did aptitude update, aptitude upgrade, then converted
> > my /etc/apt/sources.list to use 'stable' instead of 'squeeze.'
> > Again aptitude update, aptitude upgrade. I was clean.
>
> At this moment Squeeze is still Stable and so there is no difference
> between the two steps that you did above. No difference.
>
There is actually a real difference, in how updates are handled, in
that 'squeeze' would keep me on the Squeeze release even when Wheezy
becomes 'stable,' whereas 'stable' would update me to Wheezy when it
becomes 'stable.' I did the update/upgrade for 'squeeze,' then for
'stable,' with the expectation of no immediate difference, which is
what I presume you are telling me now. Good catch of my ambiguity that
might have tripped up someone else reading this. :)
Actually, there was some inconsequential package upgrade that showed up
when I changed the sources.list from 'squeeze' to 'stable,' but I don't
know if it just happened to become available at that moment. For some
fuzzy reason, I thought I remembered that updates were made available
at the same time each day, but that could have been just the cron
schedule for checking.
> > I moved /etc/apt/preferences to preferences.bak. Again, aptitude
> > update, aptitude upgrade shows clean. I installed apt-listbugs
> > SPECIFICALLY in preparation for a cautious dist-upgrade. I
> > converted my /etc/apt/sources.list to use 'testing' instead of
> > 'stable,' and did aptitude update, aptitude dist-upgrade.
>
> This is where you went wrong. You did not read the upgrade notes:
>
> http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/releasenotes
>
> Specifically you did not follow this step:
>
> http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#minimal-upgrade
>
> At this point you needed to do an 'upgrade' *before* doing a
> 'dist-upgrade'. That was the critical problem. The upgrade will
> prevent packages from being removed and will upgrade dpkg and apt
> before going further. Then you will have the new apt/dpkg for the
> subsequent dist-upgrade.
>
> But read the upgrade doc for other details.
>
Yes, you are correct. I misunderstood the timing for doing 'aptitude
upgrade' as specified in that step. I presumed I HAD done that step,
but now that you bring it to my attention in this way, I see that I
should do that AFTER changing my sources.list, but BEFORE doing
dist-upgrade. This is also why my dist-upgrade experience has always
included the undesirable effect of removing lots of wanted packages. I
am very happy to have this clarified! :)
> > When reading about all the people who hit this bug, everyone stated
> > that the solution is to uninstall apt-listbugs or patch it before
> > dist-upgrade. But, I found no one who described how to recover
> > from the hit.
> >
> > I suspect that I might be able to simply clear some flag to cleanly
> > abort the dist-upgrade, (which would, hopefully, clear out the
> > conflicts) but do not know where to look. But, I am open to any
> > ideas. Hopefully, the power doesn't go out, because I am not
> > confident of a successful boot at this point. :> Although, again,
> > it seems that NOTHING was actually installed yet. It is this
> > apparent fact which gives me great hope.
>
> I am not sure the best way to recover. No time to read about your
> problem further.
>
All of my poking and prodding, so far, indicates that changing my
sources.list back to 'stable' has safely and cleanly aborted the
dist-upgrade. Thank you for your advice. :)
> Bob
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