What to expect in Testing?

[hameau]

Hello,

I moved to Debian Testing towards the end of 2008, when Lenny was frozen and very stable, so I'm not sure quite what to expect now that Squeeze is bringing updates daily.

I have already seen several minor upsets, with small features broken. Mostly they are just inconvenient as some parts of GNOME are updated, leaving orphaned parts in its wake.

So, do I report every minor glitch as a bug or just wait a while until everything catches up? There seems to be little web traffic concerning breakages in Squeeze, so I don't have much to go on.

I never knew how much I'd miss automounting removable devices!

[reddeber]

wait any more info about this.

[Telemachus]

I have already seen several minor upsets, with small features broken. Mostly they are just inconvenient as some parts of GNOME are updated, leaving orphaned parts in its wake.

I never knew how much I'd miss automounting removable devices!

In my experience, Gnome tends to be particularly liable to temporary breakage in testing. The reason is that different pieces of a newer release move into testing at different times, and as a result things can break (like say automounting). In terms of mounting, I highly recommend pmount. It isn't automatic, but it's very easy to use from the terminal.

[gnudude]

... I highly recommend pmount. It isn't automatic, but it's very easy to use from the terminal.

It isn't?

[Lavene]

Hello,

I moved to Debian Testing towards the end of 2008, when Lenny was frozen and very stable, so I'm not sure quite what to expect now that Squeeze is bringing updates daily.

I have already seen several minor upsets, with small features broken. Mostly they are just inconvenient as some parts of GNOME are updated, leaving orphaned parts in its wake.

So, do I report every minor glitch as a bug or just wait a while until everything catches up? There seems to be little web traffic concerning breakages in Squeeze, so I don't have much to go on.

I never knew how much I'd miss automounting removable devices!

When running testing/ unstable it's often a good idea to subscribe mailing lists such as debian-devel-announce. There you sometimes get news like this and you can make more informed decision about whether or not to upgrade at that particular time. A package like apt-listbugs can also come in handy sometimes.

Breakage do occur in testing but often it's known beforehand that it will break. So in many cases it's just a matter of staying informed in order to avoid it.

[gnudude]

The first post is from MARCH!!!!

You can always keep a extra install and update it first and if things go smoothly update your main ride. That is a bit extra work though.

Keep a copy of your system in a folder, chroot in and run updates and see how it goes...then update your real system.

Create a livecd of your system, run it and do updates and see how it goes....then update your real system.

There are probably a million other ways...

[Telemachus]

... I highly recommend pmount. It isn't automatic, but it's very easy to use from the terminal.

It isn't?

Not for me, but perhaps that's only because I don't use Nautilis or Thunar. I use Openbox and pcmanfm-nohal. I hadn't thought of it before, but maybe it's automatic with other file managers. (I actually prefer not to automaticaly mount things, so I've never really tinkered with this or looked at the options too much.)

Bingo: the regular pcmanfm has this:

Code: Select all

* Support HAL for auto-mount handling on removable devices

Maybe that's why I chose the version I did, but I had forgotten that. Oops.

[gnudude]

sheesh....talk about old school

[Lavene]

The first post is from MARCH!!!!

But the second is from today

[hameau]

The first post is from MARCH!!!!

Well spotted, Batman! Definitely a slow burner.

As the OP, most of my fears have been allayed by other posts, most recently this one and I am a bit more circumspect these days about what goes in and what stays out of my installation.

It does seem a bit bizarre that quite fundamental elements of Gnome (for example) can be drawn from three different versions of upstream at the same time. That seems like an invitation for something to break, but hey, that's a whole boxful of pieces to keep.

[Bulkley]

Not for me, but perhaps that's only because I don't use Nautilis or Thunar. I use Openbox and pcmanfm-nohal.

Telemachus, thanks! I never heard of pcmanfm-nohal before. Since I also run Openbox I installed it and also the Tango icons to go with it. Pcman is one fast file manager. Nice.

BTW, since you are running Openbox, are you having any difficulty with Obmenu? Mine quit with Squeeze.

[Telemachus]

Telemachus, thanks! I never heard of pcmanfm-nohal before. Since I also run Openbox I installed it and also the Tango icons to go with it. Pcman is one fast file manager. Nice.

BTW, since you are running Openbox, are you having any difficulty with Obmenu? Mine quit with Squeeze.

I'm always glad to spread the Pcman love. It really is perfect for what it does. I can't say about Obmenu in Squeeze unfortunately. For a variety of reasons, I decided to wipe my two hard drives and reinstall about a month ago. Both my machines are currently running Lenny/Stable.

[Bulkley]

I'm always glad to spread the Pcman love. It really is perfect for what it does. I can't say about Obmenu in Squeeze unfortunately.

I took your advice and wiped Thunar. Pcman is so much better. It actually works well to have Dillo for pictures. Dillo is very limited but it is lightning fast. So, when I click on a thumbnail in Pcman, Dillo has that pic up faster than I can let go of the mouse.

Obmenu is written in Python 2.4; Squeeze defaults to 2.5. (It is curious that Obmenu is the only part of Openbox that is written in Python.) I think that's the catch. Fortunately, it is easy to hand edit Openbox menus. If Obmenu doesn't get upgraded soon, I will probably dump it.

[gnudude]

dillo? everyone who is anyone uses feh for image viewing

[Ook]

BTW, since you are running Openbox, are you having any difficulty with Obmenu? Mine quit with Squeeze.

I would think your experience closer to opposite that.

The lenny-backports version of openbox was not compatible with the lenny version of obmenu. In squeeze, they finally matched up for me. Although, if memory serves, I've sidestepped the very latest upgrades for a while.

[Bulkley]

dillo? everyone who is anyone uses feh for image viewing

I'll take a look. Most of the time I use Pornview. Hell of a name but a good viewer.

[Bulkley]

BTW, since you are running Openbox, are you having any difficulty with Obmenu? Mine quit with Squeeze.

I would think your experience closer to opposite that.

One would think so but Obmenu really did quit on me sometime after Testing became Squeeze.

[anticapitalista]

dillo? everyone who is anyone uses feh for image viewing

Agreed. qiv is also a great app. for (surprise, surprise) quick image viewing.