The expired keys do complicate life but my understanding of the rationale is that the limited key lifetime serves as a sort of contract regarding the integrity of the files. Once a release has been archived it does not fall under that promise from the project any more and so the expired keys serve as a way to underscore that. Without the key expiry, users may think that Debian has promised to take care of the integrity of those files forever, but it hasn't. I'm trying to remember what I had to do. It may have been: # apt-get -o Acquire::Check-Valid-Until=false update but I admit it could also have been me manually downloading the .deb files from archive,debian.org and installing them with dpkg. Cheers, Andy
Andy,Thanks for the detailed message. My aim here is to document any steps needed for unfortunate or lazy users who are still with wheezy. People like you are the reason why I posted it so that each one will add a trickle to the solution. Hopefully, the next time someone does a search on the archives will find this and other related articles to help them get over upgrade hump. I feel happy that some of my goal is achieved and thank you very much for taking the time to respond.
My only wish is apt is updated to say something about the fact that this is unsupported and users are on their own, but still provide the download/install without we having to manually intervene. However, like I said before, this is free SW and whatever we get is a gift and no questions about that.
Best to you. Regards Ramesh