Patrick Bartek wrote: > Read somewhere that updating/upgrading from Wheezy Beta eventually > to Wheezy Stable using the "wheezy" named repos (not "testing" named > ones) has potential problems, and the best option is a clean install > of Wheezy Stable. True or false? I've read the Wheezy Beta install > docs, and the upgrading method is listed an "approved" option. This is one of those "is it possible?" questions. Is it possible? Yes. Software is a product of people and people can be very clever. Almost anything is possible when foolishly clever people are involved. Is it likely? No. Wheezy is currently in deep freeze mode and the only changes allowed to it are the ones that are reviewed and allowed specifically by the release manager team. It is very unlikely that they will allow any system breaking package into Wheezy at this late stage. Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? Vanishingly small. Mostly what I am seeing are packages that are not going to be fixed are being removed so that there won't be an orphaned, unmaintained package in the release. Removed so that there can't be a security upgrade for it. If there isn't an active maintainer then you can't support it with security releases. Mostly what I am seeing are people working through the release critical bug reports and making package upgrades to address those specific bugs. A small number of packages are going through somewhat more major changes. But those are being watched over more carefully. With more eyes on them I don't expect any of them to break things. I am recommending Stable Squeeze because I always recommend the Stable release. If you need newer kernels or drivers to support newer hardware then I recommend Stable + Backports. That way you get the Testing kernel but in a backport. However if you want to try Wheezy, espeically because it will install on newer hardware that is newer than Squeeze supports, then that seems okay to me. I think Wheezy is in pretty good shape right now. I don't see any problems installing it. It is likely that some more packages will be removed. If you install Wheezy then later when it is released as Stable I would double check what packages are installed and take inventory. The apt-show-versions program is useful for this. $ apt-show-versions If the package is up to date and available in the archive then it will say something like this: grep/wheezy uptodate 2.14-1 To look for things that are not in the archive and are no "uptodate". $ apt-show-versions | grep -v uptodate defoma 0.11.12 installed: No available version in archive That is an example of an obsolete package that was replaced. (I probably should remove it. It isn't needed anymore.) Should you remove all packages that are no longer installable? Not if you still want it. A judgement call is needed. For example I have: pdumpfs 1.3-3 installed: No available version in archive A tool that although orphaned is one that I am still using. But for the most part if it isn't installable then it could not have been installed if you were to do a fresh installation. After an upgrade it is always good to go through and prune the lint. Hope that helps, Bob
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature