Re: unhappy upgrade
On Sunday 03 October 2021 07:48:38 pm Patrick Bartek wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Oct 2021 12:49:12 -0400
> "Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> wrote:
> > > Also, read and follow the Release Notes of dist-upgrade for each
> > > version.
> >
> > Where are these to be found?
>
> https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
> https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch/releasenotes
> https://www.debian.org/releases/buster/releasenotes
> https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/releasenotes (Bullseye)
Okay, looking the first one over it's not particularly pertinent since I'm not upgrading to jessie, but away from it. Looking over the next one, lots of stuff in there amd I can see where some of it doesn't apply to my situation here but out of the rest of it I'm not sure just what _does_ apply. I haven't looked over the last two yet, figuring that I'm not there yet and will worry about that a bit later...
> Here's the main document page:
>
> https://www.debian.org/doc/
Noted.
> > > Reboot after each version upgrade, then do an apt-get update/upgrade, etc.
> >
> > Are you suggesting that I go through that for all of the versions, one after another?
>
> Yes. You want to make sure that each version is fully up to date BEFORE dist-upgrading to the next.
How specifically do I do that?
> Also, check that the repo sources list is correct for each version.
I'm assuming that you refer to /etc/apt/sources.list? At the beginning of this process I edited it changing references to jessie to refer to stretch. I apparently messed up with not including the line to read the DVD, so I ended up downloading a *lot* of stuff that I already had on hand here. One thing that I found curious is that I saw the system also downloading some i386 packages, and am not sure why it did that since I'm only expecting to need the amd64 packages. I suppose I could find these and delete them to free up some disk space, but space isn't that much of a problem on the system in question at the moment. I appear to have in excess of 150GB free space at the moment...
> > > > For some reason, the software decided to remove virtualbox.
> > > > Which is a real problem, because it's inside a virtual machine
> > > > that I do all of my mail, so I couldn't get at my mail for a
> > > > while. In Synaptic Package Manager if I try to install it I get
> > > > the following error message:
> > > >
> > > > "Package virtualbox has no available version, but exists in the
> > > > database. This typically means that the package was mentioned in
> > > > a dependency and never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not
> > > > available with the contents of sources.list"
> > > >
> > > > I got temporarily past this by installing 8 on this laptop I'm
> > > > currently typimg on. Some things are decidedly less convenient.
> > >
> > > Complete the dist-upgrade for all versions, then reinstall
> > > VirtualBox. Be sure you saved all your VMs before the
> > > dist-upgrade(s). They may be deleted.
> >
> > Yes, I did save them and will do so again before I proceed, since
> > I'm modifying this one as I type here...
Still...
> > > I don't use the VB version in the Debian repos, but download and
> > > install the .deb directly from their web site. During the install
> > > the VB repo will be set up.
> >
> > I did do a download from their site. But it's not clear to me where
> > I need to put it and how to tell the package management software
> > about it.
>
> Did you download the .deb file of it?
Yes.
> You can use dpkg to install, but it won't automatically take care of dependencies. I use gdebi-core, a
> command line utility, that will install the .deb file correctly and
> install any dependencies. You must be root to install.
Is that another package that I should install?
> > > > Firefox is majorly different, apparently having gone from 68.9.0
> > > > --> 78.14.0esr. It no longer uses the font that I'm telling it
> > > > to, and for some odd reason won't play any youtube videos any
> > > > more. Instead I see a message on the screen that says "if video
> > > > doesn't start momentarily restart your device". Huh?
> > > >
> > > > Konqueror is also broken, I get "Could not start proess Unable to
> > > > create io-slave: klauncher said: Error loading 'kio_file'"...
> > > >
> > > > Trying to open a file with Okular gets me a similar message.
> > >
> > > Complete the entire dist-upgrade before trying to fix problems.
> > > The problems may fix themselves.
> >
> > For all of the versions, straight through to 11?
>
> More or less. Check the repos are the correct for that version,
> Update/upgrade, then reboot. The Release Notes gives full
> instructions.
In addition to the release notes, I have tabs open in firefox detailing the upgrade from each version to the next, and that's what I was using to do what I've done so far...
> > > > I don't see any way to back out of these changes, or any obvious
> > > > place to look for where the problems are. Suggestions welcomed.
> > >
> > > I avoid dist-upgrading, if I can because of such problems, and do a
> > > clean install of the newest version on a free partition keeping the
> > > old install as fallback in case something goes awry.
> >
> > I have done similar in the passt, with Slackware. Which isually
> > involves stickinng another hard drive in the machine. I don't have
> > one handy at present, though, and probably won't be getting one in
> > the near-term.
>
> You really only need enough free space on a single drive to install
> the new version. I share the swap partition to conserve space. So, I
> only need / and /home partitions for the new install. Some share
> the /home partition, too, but I never have. The installer should take
> care of setting up dual or multibooting as required.
Okay, now it sounds like you're talking about setting up another partition and doing a fresh install to that. Which isn't what I did, and I don't particularly plan to on that machine. I've already done the one upgrade here, it's somewhat broken, though partially functional, and I'd much rather spend my energies to fix that, rather than going that route...
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