Recent updates and upgrades

[cuckooflew]

It seems to me like there are a lot of posts in the last few days, they all have one thing in common, "after a recent update and upgrade",... this or that does not work any more.... I have not tried doing any updates or upgrades,since about a month ago, maybe it would be wise not to ? I wonder what the deal is, why so many are having problems ? Maybe it is just that there are many users that disregard the https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian wiki advice and have non Debian repos in their /etc/apt/sources.list ?

Debian Stable should not be combined with other releases. If you're trying to install software that isn't available in the current Debian Stable release, it's not a good idea to add repositories for other Debian releases. The problems might not happen right away, but the next time you install updates.

The reason things can break is because the software packaged for one Debian release is built to be compatible with the rest of the software for that release. For example, installing packages from bullseye on a buster system could also install newer versions of core libraries including libc6. This results in a system that is not testing or stable but a broken mix of the two.

Or:

From: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian>>>If you absolutely must have the proprietary closed-source drivers, do not download them directly from the manufacturer's website! Installing drivers this way only works for the current kernel, and after the next kernel update, your video drivers will not work until they are manually reinstalled again.

Fortunately there is a Debian way to install video card drivers using packages in the repository. Installing the drivers the Debian way will make sure that the drivers continue to work after kernel updates.

The above is probably the most common causes or problems when updating and upgrading, if Debian has become like Linix Mint and Ubuntu, and pushes packages that are not ready for the updates or upgrades, well that would be a problem as well, but to be honest,in the past they all ways have been pretty good about that, and updating/upgrades have been safe enough,...... Any one else care to share on this ?

[sgage]

Well, I can only say that I update every day, and have had no such issues. Perhaps it is due to dodgy repos being added to sources, or other customization. I try to stay as 'stock' as possible. I'm at an age now to where stability is far more important than shiny.

[RU55EL]

I also check for updates everyday. In order to make it easier from the command line I've added the following line to .bash_aliases.

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alias update='sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade'

Debian let's me know when there are updates, but it has become a habit of mine, when first turning on each of my computers, to start the VPN service and immediately afterward check for updates.

I try to keep a clean sources.list file.

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russel@debian.desktop:~$ inxi -r
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main
           2: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian buster main
           3: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main

[NFT5]

No problems here either.

I run Buster MATE and Buster KDE/Plasma on my desktop and it is updated whenever I see a notification. For the other machines and server updating is weekly.....about. I use Synaptic for almost all installations and updates and sources.list is:

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# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.2.0 _Buster_ - Unofficial amd64 NETINST with firmware 20191116-09:56]/ buster contrib main non-free

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.2.0 _Buster_ - Unofficial amd64 NETINST with firmware 20191116-09:56]/ buster contrib main non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster contrib non-free main

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

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free

I do use some firmware and a couple of applications that came from MX and third party (Virtualbox) but these were installed from deb packages so have no effect, nor does a flat pack that sits in /opt. I've run this way since Wheezy and never had a problem. From time to time I've had experimental installations and every single one of those that had repos outside of stable failed at some point.