Debian buster: are you testing?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

if you are an expert and if you are willing to spend some time and if you are real careful and if you know what you are doing, then it might be possible to go from unstable to testing and then to stable

Guide here: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... owngrading

But yes, as Bulkley notes, we were using the --simulate flag to get a handle on the errors without b0rking the box.

[None1975]

But yes, as Bulkley notes, we were using the --simulate flag to get a handle on the errors without b0rking the box.

Now I understood. Thanks for the explanation.

[Bulkley]

None of my PC's or laptops is younger than 10 years, besides the raspberries, and actual kernels and distributions work well on them.

This one has an odd BIOS that doesn't like live-USBs. For each one I have to manually set BIOS to the front of the boot cycle or it won't find it. It will run them begrudgingly but they have to be perfect. Anyway, I tried both of the Buster live-USBs on another machine and both reported not bootable. Curiously, I made a Devuan live-USB with the same tools and it booted easily. I have made live-Debian USBs for Stretch, Jessie, etc. The computer demons just don't want me to test Buster.

[xepan]

Ah, got you.
Some of mine don't even boot from USB

I first thought you thought about throwing it away (and my point was: perhaps ! it is still usable. You last comment seems to confirm that, but simply not with buster - right now).
You don't seem to have wanted that, throwing it away, at all, so ... well: my fault.

-
been a while, but: In the few cases where debian didn't boot, antiX often was a good shot for me. On some i couldn't even make that run.
but as said: been a while, and many things have changed. I got no CD's ...

[Bulkley]

In the few cases where debian didn't boot, antiX often was a good shot for me.

Yup. Antix boots. I spent a couple hours today on a MX live-USB trying to figure out the mechanics of how it differs from Debian. The Antix/MX crew is quite innovative. I tried FreeBSD but never got to a gui. You win some and lose some.

[xepan]

The trick is to point the sources to buster, run `apt update` then `apt-get -s dist-upgrade` then revert the sources back to stretch and `apt update` again to bring your box back to stable.

You can go from stable --> testing --> unstable. But the reverse direction is not "possible". Actually, if you are an expert and if you are willing to spend some time and if you are real careful and if you know what you are doing, then it might be possible to go from unstable to testing and then to stable. The installer scripts are not designed to do that. So in the process, your configuration files might be lost and...

No need for an expert here:
Set the sources.list to testing (codename) and then ... wait. wait a bit more, tired of waiting? wait a bit more. boom, back to stable.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

The transition freeze is today, there should be no more major upheavals in buster now.

EDIT: ran the `apt-get dist-upgrade` (from a running X session, ofc), everything went through just fine:

Code: Select all

|empty@shinken:~ $ cat /etc/os-release                                              
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
empty@shinken:~ $

Go Debian!