[plug] Debian upgrade

[Anthony Jones]

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On Friday 30 November 2001 13:33, sol wrote:
> Being the impatient, inquisitive sort, I decided that I wanted to
> upgrade to Woody immediately rather than wait any longer. I've read
> available documentation from debian.org but I just have one nagging
> doubt - it just seems a little too easy.
> As I understand it, all I have to do is change my apt/sources.list to
> make all the sources point to unstable. eg:
> was: ftp.uwa.edu.au stable/main Release
> becomes: ftp.uwa.edu.au unstable/main Release

I had trouble with Sid (a.k.a. unstable).  I recommend Woody (a.k.a testing). 
 I'm using Woody and I really like it.  Things are constantly being updated 
so if you can handle that then you'll enjoy your Woody experience.

One thing I have found is that sometimes the iinet mirror (is this the only 
one in Perth?) is slow to get updated.  This can be a pain if it there ends 
up being a broken version of something on there.  On the main Debian site 
they usually fix anything that's wrong within a day or so.

This is how I've got mine set up anyways:

# The non-free package is left in the source so that if I need to install
# a non-free package then I can do it from source.
deb http://ftp.iinet.com.au/debian woody main contrib
deb ftp://ftp.iinet.com.au/debian/debian-non-US woody/non-US main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.iinet.com.au/debian woody main contrib non-free

deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian woody main contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US woody/non-US main contrib

If you want non-free then you need to add that to the end of each line.  You 
don't need a deb-src but I use it occasionally when I want the source of 
something (pine is best installed by apt-get source --compile pine && dpkg 
- --install pine*.deb for example).  Note that pine is non-free and therefore 
it's evil.

Having both Aussie and US sources takes a little longer to do the update but 
you don't have to wait an extra day or so to get those much needed new 
features.  You can of course just use the US sources but as I'm on iinet I 
get faster downloads from the local sources.

> Then it's just "apt-get update" followed by "apt-get dist-upgrade". Then
> go make a cup of coffee.
> Is that it? It seems just a little to simple to be believed. Or perhaps
> I've misunderstood something?

It really is that easy.  Perhaps you have unlocked the secret of why once you 
start using Debian you just can't go back.  Sssshhh!  Don't tell anyone or 
the servers will all be jammed with traffic.

Anthony Jones


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