Re: Issues after upgrading 11 -> 12
On Tue, 30 Jan 2024 21:50:01 +0100
Michael =?utf-8?B?S2rDtnJsaW5n?= <2695bd53d63c@ewoof.net> wrote:
> On 30 Jan 2024 10:14 -0800, from cgibbs@surfnaked.ca (Charlie Gibbs):
>
>> VirtualBox, which I use heavily, has disappeard, so I'm going to
>> have to re-install some packages anyway.
>
> I'm pretty sure VirtualBox has not been shipped by Debian for quite a
> while because of its licensing status, so I guess you're relying on a
> third party package for that? (Probably Oracle's.) That's another
> thing that can easily cause complications during an upgrade, which is
> why the release notes recommend to disable third-party repositories
> before upgrading between releases and holding off on upgrading those
> packages until after the main system has been upgraded successfully;
> another detail that doesn't seem to be mentioned on the wiki page.
No worries, I'm used to installing VirtualBox afterwards.
> Semi-unrelated, but you might want to consider switching to KVM
> virtualization instead; it's supported by the stock kernel, making
> things easier. AQEMU is a fairly VirtualBox-like GUI front-end for it,
> and VMs can be converted (though especially if you're virtualizing
> Windows, I'm not sure how it takes to the changes in virtualized
> hardware). I switched from VirtualBox to KVM a while ago and haven't
> looked back.
I did some reading on KVM vs. VirtualBox. For my application,
there didn't seem to be enough benefit to KVM to justify climbing
yet another learning curve. As it turns out, re-installing
VirtualBox is now just a matter of going to Oracle's web site,
which contains one line you can add to /etc/apt/sources.list.
At this point you can just type
sudo apt install VirtualBox-7.0 (new version!)
Since its .vdi files (etc.) were already in $HOME, it came right up.
I told it to load guest extensions, and my Windows XP VM was up and
running again, complete with network and USB bridges.
>> Once I get this mess sorted out, I have one more machine to
>> upgrade. I'll follow the release notes to the letter then,
>> and see whether I have better luck.
>
> For what it's worth, back when I upgraded my system from Bullseye to
> Bookworm (I think around the time 12.1 came out) closely following the
> release notes, the process was smooth, including Xfce and X11.
To be honest, most of my upgrades have gone smoothly too. Maybe
I was becoming complacent and got careless - and if things go wrong,
they can go _very_ wrong.
For now, though, my laptop is happily running 12.4. It occurs to
me that a full install from scratch isn't really that big a thing
if /home is intact. I'll be occasionally finding a package that
isn't installed, but that's a matter of 30 seconds to install it;
it'll find its old configuration files in $HOME and all will be well.
Thanks, everyone, for your help. Hopefully I'll remember some lessons
I can take to my next upgrade.
--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | They don't understand Microsoft
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | has stolen their car and parked
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | a taxi in their driveway.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Mayayana
Reply to: