Re: Wheezy to Jessie update problem: packages with bugs

[Bill Harris <bill_harris@facilitatedsystems.com>]

Bill Harris <bill_harris@facilitatedsystems.com> writes:

> - I have yet to do the `apt dist-upgrade` (I downloaded all the packages
>   and then quit), so I've got to do that at some time.
>
> - My question was whether I
>
>   - reinstall the packages first, and then do the dist-upgrade later, or
>
>   - do the dist-upgrade first, and then reinstall the packages later.
>
>   - I am guessing that I should reinstall the packages first.
>
> - No matter which order I use, it sounds like I have at least two
>   choices for the reinstall:
>
>   - `apt-get install <package> --reinstall`
>
>     Thanks; I had guessed the --reinstall would come before install.
>
>       Not that it matters, but, from a bit of reading, it sounds as if
>       `apt-get install <package>/wheezy` might work, too.  
>
>   - `aptitude reinstall <package>`
>
>     Which is, in a way, cleaner, although I seem to recall cautions
>     about mixing apt-get and aptitude, and this would be mixing them
>     closely.  (Yes, I know I'll be mixing them anyway, if I go back to
>     aptitude once Wheezy is fully installed.

Starting the first option (reinstall packages first), I did reinstall
emacs24, and it brought along a number of other packages.  I was going
to reinstall dbus, the next in the list I posted, but apt complained
that I lack libaudit1.  I started to install that, but apt said it would
upgrade 494, install 324 new, and /remove/ 1310 packages.  That seemed
risky.

In continuing experimentation, the list of packages with bugs I get when
runnign apt-get dist-upgrade changes--or at least the order
changes--each time I run it.  In addition, if I follow up on individual
bugs, sometimes I see mention of sid, which is not part of my
sources.list, and I've never run sid on this machine.

I know no one can know the answer to this, but what do you see as the
risk in just running `apt-get dist-upgrade` in my current state?  

- I /think/ it might be able to resolve things by itself, and the bugs
  might turn out to be cases I never see.  My other Jessie machine seems
  to be working fine, except that suspending broke on some update a
  month or so ago.

- In the worst case, I'd need to go to another machine, make a
  netinstall disk, and start over from scratch.  That's an obvious pain,
  but my /home should be okay (it's backed up, and it's on a separate
  partition, too).

Any suggestions?  If I should just keep trying reinstalling, I can do
that, but I figure that dist-upgrade might do a better job than me of
keeping dependencies in mind.  In other words, I get nervous when
installing one packages leads to deleting lots of packages.

Thanks,

Bill