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What's the deal with a stable release?

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guido
Posts: 3
Joined: 2015-08-19 19:34

What's the deal with a stable release?

#1 Post by guido »

Hey everyone!

I've switched to GNU/linux just a few months ago and I am very pleased, but I have a big doubt. In this time I used first Wheezy, and now Jessie; and lately I've been having "issues". Nothing life threatening, but certainly annoying[1], and since I am using the stable release of a distro that's widely known for it's stability I feel quite confused.

Shouldn't my experience be completely trouble free? Maybe I'm wrong, and having little things that suddenly stop working is something normal. But doesn't sound right... xD

Cheers!

[1] For example just the other day Icedove stopped fetching new emails from the server after I updated the packages.

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GarryRicketson
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Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#2 Post by GarryRicketson »

Shouldn't my experience be completely trouble free? Maybe I'm wrong, and having little things that suddenly stop working is something normal. But doesn't sound right... xD
Welcome to the forum,
Don't know, a lot depends on the "driver" I guess, I am using Jessie, the current stable version, have been now for a couple of months, and have had no problems,what so ever,
so my guess is you did something , wrong, or did you let some one else "drive", maybe they did something when you were not looking.
If you upgraded form wheezy to Jessie, are you sure you did everything correctly ?
I did not upgrade, I like Wheezy, just like it is, so I installed Jessie on a separate
partition, most of the people I have seen here, that are having problems with Jessie, either do not have their sources.list file correct, also did not follow the instructions, when they upgraded, etc.
Windows users all ways seem to have lots of problems with any linux system, normally linux, and debian is very stable, ... I found years ago, though, even though linux can run a long side of windows, it seemed to me , like the "stability" gets lost.
About 5 or more years ago, I completely stopped using windows, removed it form my computer, and have never had problems with any of the linux distros, as far as "stability" goes, including now, with Jessie.
The few times I did have some problems, was because, I (me , the driver) made some mistakes, and installed garbage , that I should not have installed. And 1 time, some sort of nasty thing "root kit", some how got into my system, (like what happens when the driver buys "dirty" or watered down gasoline for the car), the "root kit" really messed things up.
Yes, your experience should be relatively trouble free, but there are things you , as the driver need to do, or learn to do, to keep your "journey" enjoyable, and trouble free.

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golinux
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Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#3 Post by golinux »

Your sources.list please.
May the FORK be with you!

spacex
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Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#4 Post by spacex »

Expecting stable to be 100% problem free for every kind of hardware and setup is a stretch. There will be the occasional bugs in stable also, and I hate to say it, but because of the big change where Debian is porting to systemd, initially there probably will be a little bit more issues than usual for a stable Debian release.

cronoik
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Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#5 Post by cronoik »

Stable means only that it will stay relatively unchanged until the next stable release is released. It doesn't mean that it is bug free. But due to the release policy a new stable won't be released with fatal bugs (serious, grave and critical see [1]).

[1] http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#severities
Have a nice day!

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dasein
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Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#6 Post by dasein »

guido wrote:Shouldn't my experience be completely trouble free?
No.

1) "No release-critical bugs" and "completely free of minor annoyances" are not identical sets.

2) A "Stable" release simply means that the constituent packages won't be updated for newness' sake. If someone chooses to track the latest FF/IW version, that's not the release's fault.

Hope that clarifies.

guido
Posts: 3
Joined: 2015-08-19 19:34

Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#7 Post by guido »

Don't know, a lot depends on the "driver" I guess, I am using Jessie, the current stable version, have been now for a couple of months, and have had no problems,what so ever,
so my guess is you did something , wrong, or did you let some one else "drive", maybe they did something when you were not looking.
The only one that has "driven" my computer besides me was a friend of my, who also is the one who initiated me in the Debian GNU/Linux world. A sort of chaman, or guru if you prefer. And he didn't do anything without my knowledge.

I know that if I mess up with things there's something that will most probably go wrong, but what baffles me is that I can't figure out what I did sometimes (which is a humble way of saying "I swear I did not touch anything!!" :roll: ). I'm not a guy who tends to play with stuff, and I don't do experiments with my sistem. I just use it for simple frontend user stuff (?).
Your sources.list please.
Gladly. How do I find it?
There will be the occasional bugs in stable also, and I hate to say it, but because of the big change where Debian is porting to systemd, initially there probably will be a little bit more issues than usual for a stable Debian release.
Ok, I wasn't aware of that detail. Thank you.
But due to the release policy a new stable won't be released with fatal bugs (serious, grave and critical see [1]).
.
1) "No release-critical bugs" and "completely free of minor annoyances" are not identical sets.
Ok, thank you for the clarification.

Thank you all for the quick responses, I'll be comming here more often. :D

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#8 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

guido wrote:
Your sources.list please.
Gladly. How do I find it?
Post the output of:

Code: Select all

cat /etc/apt/sources.list
ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d
Please use code tags when posting terminal output.
deadbang

guido
Posts: 3
Joined: 2015-08-19 19:34

Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#9 Post by guido »

Code: Select all

cat /etc/apt/sources.list
gave me the following output:

Code: Select all

# 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7 _Wheezy_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20150114-03:51]/ jessie main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7 _Wheezy_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20150114-03:51]/ jessie main

deb http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

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

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.ccc.uba.ar/pub/linux/debian/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
And the second line didn't return anything. :?

somebodyelse
Posts: 231
Joined: 2015-05-24 17:15

Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#10 Post by somebodyelse »

The second line is optional. It was in case you had files in there. Since you don't, it returned empty.

alderaan
Posts: 90
Joined: 2013-07-25 20:20

Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#11 Post by alderaan »

Your sources.list seems legitimate. Let's try to be more specific and look at each "issue" separately and see where that will get us.

Wheelerof4te
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Joined: 2015-08-30 20:14

Re: What's the deal with a stable release?

#12 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Expecting stable to be 100% problem free for every kind of hardware and setup is a stretch.
Nice pun there :D

@OP:

You didn't specify those ''issues'' that you have. In order for people to help you, you must identify each problem. Or you'll get nothing done.

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