Installing the latest debian distribution

[DashFischer]

Hi all,

linux newbie here.

I have a squeeze distrib.(1) installed on an old vaio(2) and I'd like to upgrade
it to the latest debian distrib, if that makes sense.

I've followed some online guidelines but without success.

Is there someone available to guide me through the steps?

If you need more info let me know.


(1) squeeze 6.0.10, kernel 2.6.32-5-686
(2) pentium m730 1.6GHz, 512 MB and 60 GB


Thanks

--Dash

[Bloom]

1. Backup your home directory.
2. Using a live usb stick, repartition your hard drive to use a separate /home partition.
3. Restore your home directory backup into that /home partition
4. Now you can do a fresh install of the latest Debian (using the aforementioned live usb stick) while retaining your current desktop configuration. You will need to install packages again if they're not part of the standard installation.

Location of current Debian Stable with non-free firmware and closed-source packages (usually needed for laptops): http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimag ... rent-live/
and pick the iso of the desktop environment you would like to have.

If you want to retain the /home partition with your current desktop configuration, you will need to use the same desktop environment as before. Furthermore: during the install, select manual partitioning of the hard drive as you need to specify you want to use the separate /home partition and it must NOT be formatted.

If you don't care about retaining your current desktop configuration, then just download the iso, copy it to a usb stick and go to town.

With just 512 MB of RAM, you need to use a very compact desktop environment like LXDE of something like that. Gnome won't run well with so little RAM.

[DashFischer]

1. Backup your home directory.
2. Using a live usb stick, repartition your hard drive to use a separate /home partition.
3. Restore your home directory backup into that /home partition
4. Now you can do a fresh install of the latest Debian (using the aforementioned live usb stick) while retaining your current desktop configuration. You will need to install packages again if they're not part of the standard installation.

Location of current Debian Stable with non-free firmware and closed-source packages (usually needed for laptops): http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimag ... rent-live/
and pick the iso of the desktop environment you would like to have.

If you want to retain the /home partition with your current desktop configuration, you will need to use the same desktop environment as before. Furthermore: during the install, select manual partitioning of the hard drive as you need to specify you want to use the separate /home partition and it must NOT be formatted.

If you don't care about retaining your current desktop configuration, then just download the iso, copy it to a usb stick and go to town.

With just 512 MB of RAM, you need to use a very compact desktop environment like LXDE of something like that. Gnome won't run well with so little RAM.

Thanks for the answer.

- I don't care about the current installed distribution. Should I had cared I wouldn't be able to follow you steps (backup etc) because as I said I'm newbie.
- the Vaio has a couple of USB ports _but_ it is not able (BIOS) to boot from them.
- The CD driver does not seem to work otherwise I'd have already done the installation by myself. (I tried with a buster on a CD-R)
- I can boot the current squeeze.

Is it possible to install buster via Synaptic or something like that?

By the way, I'm newbie so I need basic steps otherwise I cannot follow your guide.

Thank you

[dilberts_left_nut]

You can upgrade through each release without reinstalling.

See here https://www.debian.org/releases/ and follow the upgrade instructions in each releases Release Notes.

[Bloom]

That will take a LOT longer than backupping home and then doing a fresh install, but if OP cannot boot from usb and has no working cd-drive, he's out of options.

[DashFischer]

That will take a LOT longer than backupping home and then doing a fresh install, but if OP cannot boot from usb and has no working cd-drive, he's out of options.

Thanks bloom.
At least it (what dilberts_left_nut suggested) is something I can follow and in case I'm stuck I post here. Time is precious for everybody.

[arzgi]

- The CD driver does not seem to work otherwise I'd have already done the installation by myself. (I tried with a buster on a CD-R)

How did you come to this conclusion? When you burn CD- or DVD-image, you have to select bootable option from the program you use to burn optical media.

Then you should get to Vaio's BIOS, and change the boot order, CD-drive first.