Sometimes the updates of my Debian unstable system are... scary!
/home/alex# apt-get dist-upgrade Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done Calculating Upgrade... Done The following packages will be upgraded: apache2-common apache2-doc apache2-mpm-worker aptitude autoconf base-config base-passwd bash binutils binutils-doc bitlbee cdda2wav cdrecord console-data cpp-3.3 debconf debconf-i18n debconf-utils debianutils dictionaries-common dnsutils e2fslibs e2fsprogs exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light fetchmail g++-3.3 gcc-3.3 gcc-3.3-base gdk-imlib1 gdk-imlib1-dev gsfonts gv hdparm hotplug imagemagick imlib-base imlib-progs imlib1 initscripts inkscape kernel-image-2.4.27-1-386 kernel-image-2.6.8-1-k7 kernel-package kernel-source-2.6.8 kino libapr0 libblkid1 libcomerr2 libcupsys2-gnutls10 libdns11 libdps1 libgail-common libgail17 libgcc1 libgd-gd2-noxpm-perl libgdk-pixbuf-dev libgdk-pixbuf2 libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomevfs2-common libgnutls10 libgnutls11 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-bin libgtk2.0-common libice-dev libice6 libid3tag0 libimlib2 libisc7 libkpathsea-dev libkpathsea3 libkrb53 liblwres1 liblzo1 libmagick6 libnetpbm10 libnetpbm9 libnewt0.51 libobjc1 libperl-dev libperl5.8 libpth2 libqt3c102-mt libsdl1.2debian libsdl1.2debian-oss libsm-dev libsm6 libsmbclient libss2 libstdc++5 libstdc++5-3.3-dev libtidy0 libuuid1 libx11-6 libx11-dev libxaw6 libxaw6-dev libxaw7 libxext-dev libxext6 libxft1 libxi-dev libxi6 libxmu-dev libxmu6 libxmuu-dev libxmuu1 libxp-dev libxp6 libxpm-dev libxpm4 libxrandr-dev libxrandr2 libxt-dev libxt6 libxtrap-dev libxtrap6 libxtst-dev libxtst6 libxv-dev libxv1 login menu mkisofs modconf module-init-tools mp3c netpbm openoffice.org openoffice.org-bin openoffice.org-debian-files openoffice.org-l10n-de openoffice.org-l10n-en openoffice.org-mimelnk openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-us passwd perl perl-base perl-doc perl-modules perl-suid pm-dev po-debconf popularity-contest procmeter3 python python-doc python2.3 python2.3-doc reportbug shared-mime-info ssl-cert strace sysv-rc sysvinit tasksel tidy transfig ttf-freefont ttf-opensymbol udhcpc w3m wesnoth wesnoth-data wesnoth-music wget whiptail whois x-dev xbase-clients xfonts-100dpi xfonts-100dpi-transcoded xfonts-artwiz xfonts-base xfonts-base-transcoded xfonts-scalable xfree86-common xlibmesa-gl xlibmesa-gl-dev xlibmesa-glu xlibmesa-glu-dev xlibosmesa4 xlibs xlibs-data xlibs-dev xlibs-static-dev xserver-common xserver-xfree86 xutils zlib1g zlib1g-dev zsh zsh-doc 196 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 271MB of archives. After unpacking 2249kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
#Software
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Is it *safe* to do dist-upgrades of an unstable system? I just upgrade packages now and then. I once did a dist-upgrade and Gnome-terminal refused to launch. That was the end of that. 😄
These days, I stick to testing (and cheat a little for Gnome stuff).
– NoufalIbrahim 2004-09-20 06:25 UTC
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I had the vague impression that ordinary *upgrade* would not correctly install new dependencies. But maybe that was just bad luck? I no longer use testing because of the security consideration.
– Alex Schroeder 2004-09-20 07:52 UTC
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AFAIK it’s not. Or plain upgrades. I just pull stuff I need and *know* to be working.
Like apt-get install gnome-session to get just stuff needed for gnome. Have been burned too many times with dist-upgrades/upgrades 🙁
– AadityaSood 2004-09-20 07:54 UTC
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Hm. Do you read the Debian newsletter and update all packages with known security flaws, then? I know I don’t. The only time I had real trouble with apt-get was when I started mixing stable with testing, and later when I started mixing testing with unstable. Getting the right versions to install basically meant resolving conflicts manually. These days I sometimes get a broken system (eg. cdrecord won’t work), but these problems usually resolve themselves after a few days as fixed packages are being uploaded.
– Alex Schroeder 2004-09-20 08:58 UTC
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but these problems usually resolve themselves after a few days
Gotta love Debian. ;)
– NoufalIbrahim 2004-09-20 10:36 UTC
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Oh! apt-get dist-upgrade is the worst thing i have ever done to my debian machine. Have broken my machine over and over again, doing that.
So now i stick just to ’upgrade’ and does my gnome desktop installations from experimental :D
– AbdulBijur 2004-09-26 04:50 UTC
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Alex, why don’t you give Slackware a try, if you don’t have time to tend to Linux From Scratch?
i tried debian for awhile at work, but hated the massive apt-get activity. similarly, i don’t like using CPAN auto install. at home i use LFS or Slackware.
the time i lose on installing manually, i think is recovered in not dealing with problems occurring after automatic installations.
– GregScott 2004-10-27 19:51 UTC
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I originally started with SuSE and was disgusted by their failed online support (maybe it changed by now) – I was unable to install updates from their site and buying a new CD every half year was proving to be expensive. Compiling my own stuff is out of the question because I have a 600MHz 128MB machine at home that takes ages to compile major packages.
– Alex Schroeder 2004-10-28 09:15 UTC