[Solved] Running mixed stable/testing

[Aris Veresie]

Hi, I recently installed stable, added testing to the sources.list, and then aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade. I have read that it is not recommended to mix the releases but everything looks good so far. In contrast to this, I have seen cases that downgrading a package was a fix to a broken package or a dependency situation. Any comments please? The system is for testing purposes only, to see how testing and mixed upgrades work. Since I am still a new linux user (one year), when do you recommend to add sid in the sources.list? Another year?

[kedaha]

You don't say what you've read but I recommend you examine basic_precautions from the Debian Manual:

Warning

Do not install packages from random mixture of suites. It probably breaks the package consistency which requires deep system management knowledge, such as compiler ABI, library version, interpreter features, etc.

To enjoy the stability of Debian together with more recent packages you should combine it with the official Debian Backports service, i.e, with packages backported from testing.

Please also consult craigevil's informative topic:
How to get newer packages in Stable

[4D696B65]

I recently installed stable, added testing to the sources.list, and then aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade.

Now you are running testing.

I have read that it is not recommended to mix the releases but everything looks good so far.

Mixing stable with testing packages is a road to disaster.

In contrast to this, I have seen cases that downgrading a package was a fix to a broken package or a dependency situation. Any comments please?

This is for a testing/sid mixed system. See this link
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=15612

when do you recommend to add sid in the sources.list? Another year?

When you want to run a mixed testing sid system or pure sid.

[vbrummond]

Hi, I recently installed stable, added testing to the sources.list, and then aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade. I have read that it is not recommended to mix the releases but everything looks good so far. In contrast to this, I have seen cases that downgrading a package was a fix to a broken package or a dependency situation. Any comments please? The system is for testing purposes only, to see how testing and mixed upgrades work. Since I am still a new linux user (one year), when do you recommend to add sid in the sources.list? Another year?

You are now running Testing. Wheezy/Testing is currently so far from squeeze almost none of the packages are compatible. I never advise to mix stable with anything. If you really want a newer program just backport it yourself. Best option forward is to delete squeeze and run 'apt-get dist-upgrade' into testing to be sure everything is sorted.

Sid is not different from testing really. Rarely you might run into huge bugs but they are fixed quick. You just have to read bug reports and changelogs during upgrades. Well I advise this no matter what you are running.

Edit: Yes, a mixed testing/system is good. That is what I am running. I just pin everything to testing and sid only when I manually choose to. Contents of my pinning file: (/etc/apt/preferences.d/pinning)

Code: Select all

Package: *
Pin: release sid
Pin-Priority: 1

[Aris Veresie]

Thanks for your answers.
I believe I have read it in the forums and it is also mentioned in Debian reference chapter 2; I did not read that much and the links you have provided will be useful. I think it is strange considering the fact that it is possible to downgrade to a package to a previous release and keep a stable environment, or at least an environment without broken packages.
I wonder if the backports are needed for mixed system, probably not. For my main computer I will keep the stable version at least until I am overconfident with the mixed system.
/etc/debian_version shows that I am running wheezy/sid. So far I can only see frequent updates.
I am not too sure about pinning. I have tried it for some time with these settings and I deleted the sid lines quickly after some upgrades. I think no packages from testing were downloaded. The system is erased now and I cannot tell you much.

Code: Select all

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable, c=main, l=Debian, n=squeeze, o=Debian, v=6.0.3
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing, c=main, l=Debian, n=wheezy, o=Debian
Pin-Priority: 90

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable, c=main, l=Debian, n=sid, o=Debian
Pin-Priority: 80

I had also an apt.conf file setup from a sample file in the /usr directory and some extra options added from the man page.

Edit.
After aptitude safe-upgrade, I have runned "aptitude install gnome xfce4 lxde" and 13GB were used, not too much. Trying to find which gnome version I have,
aptitude show gnome
Package: gnome
State: not installed

Edit2. From system settings I found out that the version of Gnome is 3.4.2.
And uname -r shows the 2.6.32 kernel.