Howto: Set up and Maintain a Mixed Testing/Unstable System

[graysky]

Use debfoster, deborphan, orphaner, and dpkg --get-selections to find unneeded packages and libs.

Totally out in left field advice in terms of this thread. Pay no attention to it.

OK.. but can you answer my question

[rickh]

As far as I'm concerned, it's already been answered. I don't do "chat."

[bugsbunny]

@richk - I'd like to use vlc from the experimental repo. I used your method to get it and all is well. When I did an apt-show-versions | grep unstable I had a few extra packages installed that were not present prior to the vlc installation. Does aptitude mix and match from the lenny, unstable, and experimental repos as it goes? After issuing an aptitude remove vlc, I still had a few unstable libraries installed. I then attempted to remove them, but aptitude told me it would remove over 200 packages in the process including gnome. What am I doing wrong?

If you're installing a package from experimental (aptitude install <packagename>/experimental) then aptitude will pull any dependencies that can't resolved from testing/unstable from experimental. It will prefer the packages from testing/unstable.

If you install using "aptitude -t experimental <packagename>" then it will prefer experimental and will look there first for any dependencies it needs, that are not already installed.

The unstable libraries that you have installed that would pull over 200 packages probably (almost certainly) have versions in testing. You could always force a downgrade to the testing version. If you have a version from unstable installed then "aptitude install <packagename>/testing" will force a downgrade.

[graysky]

Thanks for the info, bugs!

[roooz]

Why is there not a synaptic like tool for aptitude? Or am I wrong?

[rickh]

Synaptic is for children and incompetent newbies. There is a GUI version of Aptitude that will probably move into Sid sometime after the Lenny freeze. Quick! Learn how to use Aptitude correctly (from the command line) before the confusion starts.

[roooz]

Synaptic is for children and incompetent newbies.

That's exactly why I'm interested.. nothing wrong with children and newbies btw

There is a GUI version of Aptitude that will probably move into Sid sometime after the Lenny freeze. Quick! Learn how to use Aptitude correctly (from the command line) before the confusion starts.

Ok, nice.

Besides that, ' they' say that apt is now also installing the recommended dependencies. Does this mean I can also use apt-get in a mixed system now? Are there still advantages for aptitude?

[rickh]

There are plenty of other threads discussing aptitude / apt-get / synaptic / etc. Don't clutter up this one.

[roooz]

I think the question, 'can I maintain a mixed system the way you describes with apt instead of aptitude now apt is also installing recommended dependencies?' belong in this thread...

thanks in advance

[roooz]

I've noticed that aptitude search doesn't find packages pretty often...

For example

Code: Select all

d@debianstudio32:~$ aptitude search apt-show-versions
d@debianstudio32:~$ apt-cache search apt-show-versions
apt-show-versions - lists available package versions with distribution
metche - configuration monitor to ease collective administration

no response from aptitude, apt-cache does...

EDIT: and file-bugs can't find the info:

Code: Select all

Retrieving bug reports... 0% Fail
 E: HTTP GET failed
Retry downloading bug information?[Y/n]? y

[roooz]

Could an app like apt-watch handy, to track available updates?

[El1iP3S01D]

Thanks for this how to because it works! My question is this, How do i run Sid and only Sid as opposed to Squeeze and Sid?

[didi]

having only sid repos in your sources.list?

[El1iP3S01D]

Look didi,

el1ip3s01d@Iehovah-0007:~$ sudo cat /etc/debian_version
squeeze/sid
el1ip3s01d@Iehovah-0007:~$

#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Sid_ - Official Snapshot amd64 xfce+lxde-CD Binary-1 20090302-08:13]/ sid main

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Sid_ - Official Snapshot amd64 xfce+lxde-CD Binary-1 20090302-08:13]/ sid main

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ sid/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ sid/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ experimental main contrib non-free


deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org experimental main


Does this helps didi?

[didi]

Looks fine to me, altough I don't think Debian security team provides updates for sid.
I've never run a sid only system, so I wouldn't know if debian_version would then only say sid as opposed to squeeze/sid
It could also be related to the cdrom entry in your sources.list.

[El1iP3S01D]

thanks for your response sweetie!!!

[cb474]

Would using this method be an okay way to upgrade from Lenny to testing? The installer for testing is broken right now (won't detect hard drives). Is there any reason to prefer to wait until the installer is fixed? Or should it be the same to install Lenny and then upgrade to testing, via this method? Thanks.

[Qew]

Surely you would just install Lenny, then change your sources.list file to either testing or squeeze, then do a dist-upgrade. This topic's method is more for those who want to have a mixed system, not upgrade to a another version.

So, install Lenny if you haven't already got it. Then change "/etc/apt/sources.list" so that all references to Lenny or Stable are now "squeeze" or "testing" (no quotes). Then do an "aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade", then after that, an "aptitude full-upgrade". You'll now have Squeeze/Testing on your machine, and you can use the method in this topic to make a mixed Testing/Unstable system, if you so desire.

[cb474]

Thanks for the super-fast response. I already have a mixed testing/unstable system, from following this guide a long time ago. But I'm having some totally weird problems and thinking maybe I've just got to reinstall (sadly a first for me with Debian).

[Morticia]

Thank you for this easy to follow and well explained how-to rickh.