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[SOLVED]Preparing upgrade to buster

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geoffkaniuk
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[SOLVED]Preparing upgrade to buster

#1 Post by geoffkaniuk »

I am working my way through the excellent https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... ing.en.htm. My system is very clean, and up to date. Looking at the output of the various status commands recommended in section 4.2.4, I notice that I have a large number of packages with architecture i386. My processor is 64 bit and my linux-image-4.9.0 is also amd64.

Should I remove all i386 packages before upgrade?

EDIT 1
Thanks for the i386 comments - I do use the wine package.

Section 4.4.3 suggests using popcon-largest-unused to check on space available. I have popularity-contest installed and I do have a number of files with names like /var/log/popularity-contest.d.gz.

I tried the following commands without success:

Code: Select all

~$ popcon-largest-unused
bash: popcon-largest-unused: command not found
 #
 # popcon-largest-unused
 # 
 # popcon-largest-unused>/home/geoff/popcon-large
 #
In tests 2 and 3 there was no output on the terminal, but an empty file popcon-large was produced. The manual does not mention any options or configuration.

What am I missing?

EDIT 2
After contacting the popularity-contest package maintainer, I was given the fix for a bug associated with an encrypted file /var/log/popularity-contest. Here is the fix:

Code: Select all

# cd /var/log
/var/log# mv popularity-contest popularity-contest.enc   Save, just in case
/var/log# cp popularity-contest.new popularity-contest   Overwrite with unencrypted
/var/log# popcon-largest-unused>unused-packages          Output to local file
The file unused-packages contains a listing of 185 files with file sizes in Kbyte. I was given the reference Bug #850568 fixed in the package popcon 1.65

Magic!
Last edited by geoffkaniuk on 2020-08-07 13:10, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#2 Post by ruwolf »

No, you should not. Debian will continue to support i386 architecture.

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#3 Post by CwF »

Prior to the upgrade you do want to remove all you don't use and all orphans. The cleaner you get it, the fewer potential resolutions it will offer - fewer is good! I did one a few weeks ago and aptitude offered 16 possible solutions...

You can safely change the sources.list, update, and review the situation without any changes. You can change back to the prior sources.list without issue and clean up potential issues before upgrading. Take note of packages in the obsolete category while on the buster listing. Determine what to do and do it under the stretch repositories. Some you should uninstall and reinstall when in buster, some you have to keep if you use them -so figure out what is not in buster you want to keep, most will be fine, some will carry over obsolete packages that will complicate the solutions offered.

Synaptic is easy to use in this way, it can toggle repositories, has an obsolete listing (all with 0B download), and you can create a custom filter for orphans. Much can be done in synaptic, but I advise you install aptitude and use it when you actually do the upgrade. It helps to log out any users in any DE and use tty1 logged on as root. In this way you are unlikely to see collisions with running processes. If you have many solutions offered, usually pick the minimal one - the one with no removals. Backup to the stretch repositories and remove complications. Update to current stretch while your at it before jumping. After the actual upgrade to buster, then log into your normal user and use synaptic to finish reinstalling and fixing the oddball issues. (if you have synaptic I guess)

I've done jessie to stretch to buster to bullseye many times. I've had hiccups, but never failed.

As far as I know the i386 packages are only for wine and steam maybe on an amd64 install, otherwise no reason to have them.

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#4 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

CwF wrote:I did one a few weeks ago and aptitude offered 16 possible solutions...
It is not recommended to use aptitude to upgrade between releases for exactly that reason — the dependency resolution algorithm gets confused because it has too many choices.

The official guides recommend to use

Code: Select all

# apt update
# apt upgrade
# apt full-upgrade
deadbang

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#5 Post by CwF »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote: It is not recommended to use aptitude to upgrade between releases for exactly that reason — the dependency resolution algorithm gets confused because it has too many choices.
Understand. It can get confused, I didn't, it worked out fine. full-upgrade does not circumvent the issues, it would often simply fail, or leave the shiny new system mysteriously missing things...

Using my path allows you to know exactly what is not going to work, explore solutions, and decide on the upgrade before it happens. If you followed the process, that final config did not have any choices once it was time to execute the upgrade, because they were solved already...it's also faster, fewer process collisions and config restarts.

'Clean' systems often are not, shown here on a regular basis.

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#6 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

CwF wrote:full-upgrade does not circumvent the issues, it would often simply fail, or leave the shiny new system mysteriously missing things...
No, it works just fine as long as the official guide is followed.

See also https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=411280
deadbang

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#7 Post by geoffkaniuk »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote: No, it works just fine as long as the official guide is followed. See also https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=411280
I shall be following this! However, having been through the detailed Release Notes for buster, I have one enduring mystery regarding popcon-largest-unused. On my stretch system, I have these files:

Code: Select all

/etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest 2015-07-13 application/x-shellscript
/usr/sbin/popcon-largest-unused    2015-09-15 application/x-shellscript 
/usr/sbin/popularity-contest       2015-09-15 application/x-perl
/var/log/popularity-contest.new    2020-07-31 text/plain
/var/log/popularity-contest        2020-07-31 application/pgp-encrypted
In addition , I have a manual page

Code: Select all

~$ man popcon-largest-unused
All hangs together, but when I run popcon-largest-unused I get no output. Very Ghostly!
Geoff

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#8 Post by emariz »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:It is not recommended to use aptitude to upgrade between releases for exactly that reason — the dependency resolution algorithm gets confused because it has too many choices.

The official guides recommend to use

Code: Select all

# apt update
# apt upgrade
# apt full-upgrade
It depends on how one wants to handle a release upgrade. Aptitude does it just fine, specially through its graphical interface. It is precisely because it offers you more options that one has more control and can choose what best suits their needs. Of course, if one cannot decide which solution is better, too many options is an issue and not a solution, but it all depends on what you want to do. The same applies to the Priority setting of the system installer.

In ten years, I have only used Apt-Get to install Aptitude, once per system installation, nothing more. And this is true only a couple of releases ago; before that, Aptitude had a higher "priority" and was installed even when no Task was chosen.

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#9 Post by geoffkaniuk »

emariz wrote: In ten years, I have only used Apt-Get to install Aptitude, once per system installation, nothing more.
I personally use the apt family all the time. I am the only user, so my system is probably simpler than most.

But what interests me more, is that I have presented considerable detail on the failure of popcon-largest-unused to produce any output. That is my real issue, and it would be interesting to see if anyone has an answer to it!
Geoff

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#10 Post by CwF »

geoffkaniuk wrote: failure of popcon-largest-unused to produce any output.
run as root. ?

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#11 Post by cuckooflew »

What about ?

Code: Select all

popularity-contest | grep '<OLD>' 
(as root, I would not expect that needs to be said, but..)Does that give you any out put ? Have you read thishttps://popcon.debian.org/README ?
For example,
popularity-contest | grep '<OLD>'
will show you a list of packages you haven't used in a while. Note that
this output isn't totally accurate: some packages appear "old" but you can't
remove them because other (non-old) packages depend on them. Shared library
packages are particularly bad this way because it's impossible to tell when
a library was last used.
Pay particular attention to the last part:
This package is being maintained in GIT on salsa.debian.org.
The project summary page is available from
<URL:https://salsa.debian.org/popularity-con ... ty-contest>
The project home page is at <URL:https://popcon.debian.org/>.

REPORTING BUGS
==============

Report bugs into the Debian Bug Tracking System. See
<URL:https://bugs.debian.org/> for instructions. If you want to get in
touch with the popularity contest maintainers, send an email to
debian-popcon@lists.debian.org.
That is my real issue, and it would be interesting to see if anyone has an answer to it!
The above gives you the information on who to ask about this, if the "readme" still does not answer your question.
I have not ever seen any of them here on this forum. I don't see a answer in the FAQ, so this is a unusual question.
As for this:
All hangs together, but when I run popcon-largest-unused I get no output. Very Ghostly!
Not really "ghostly" at all, probably , maybe there just is not anything that qualifies to give any out put, you do say you keep a "clean" system.
I would just not worry about it so much, make a good back up of the current working system, start the upgrade, pay attention to what it says, it will tell you if any packages are a problem , you can remove them or keep them, you all ways can remove them later if you change your mind, you can also all ways re-install them if any that get removed turn out to be something you need. I understand you want to be sure it goes smoothly, but use some logic, and also that is why they/we all ways say to make a good back up before doing it,..sometimes things do go wrong, you could have done your upgrade 5 or 6 times by now, and the only way to see how it goes, is to try it.
Please Read What we expect you have already Done
Search Engines know a lot, and
"If God had wanted computers to work all the time, He wouldn't have invented RESET buttons"
and
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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#12 Post by geoffkaniuk »

Regarding popcon-largest-unused failure:
CwF wrote: run as root. ?
Yes, tried that:

Code: Select all

/# popcon-largest-unused
/# ls /root .. nothing relevant
/# ls         ... nothing relevant
/# popcon-largest-unused>redundant
/# ls -lF re*rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug  5 13:59 redundant
/# 
It produces an empty file!
Geoff

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#13 Post by cuckooflew »

Mine does produce a lot of files, but that does not mean your would, Like I said, I think that is good, it does not produce anything, which means you have a very clean system and use everything you have .
Did you try this ?

Code: Select all

popularity-contest | grep '<OLD>' 
Please Read What we expect you have already Done
Search Engines know a lot, and
"If God had wanted computers to work all the time, He wouldn't have invented RESET buttons"
and
Just say NO to help vampires!

geoffkaniuk
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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#14 Post by geoffkaniuk »

cuckooflew wrote:Mine does produce a lot of files, but that does not mean your would, Like I said, I think that is good, it does not produce anything, which means you have a very clean system and use everything you have . Did you try this ?

Code: Select all

popularity-contest | grep '<OLD>' 
Yes I have run popularity-contest, and this produced a total of 1581 files. There are 653 marked <NOFILES>, and 188 marked <OLD>. There are no sizes in the listing.

How do I know which ones I do not use - which is what popcon-largest-unused is supposed to do?

Have you actually run

Code: Select all

 #  popcon-largest-unused 
It is a perl script, but I have not attempted to comprehend it!
Geoff

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#15 Post by cuckooflew »

Have you actually run

Code: Select all

popcon-largest-unused 
Yes I did run it,.
Post by cuckooflew » 2020-08-05 12:35
Mine does produce a lot of files, but that does not mean yours would,
The output :

Code: Select all

$ popcon-largest-unused
262954 linux-image-4.19.0-9-amd64
16106 locales
8916 libpython2.7-stdlib
4831 shared-mime-info
4392 discover-data
3735 python2.7-minimal
3202 xserver-xorg-video-intel
3036 tzdata
2848 bibletime
2781 libpython2.7-minimal
2569 iptables
2313 x11-apps
2216 nano
2183 libaspell15
1364 bash-completion
1344 vim-tiny
1220 pciutils
1072 libpam-runtime
1068 aspell
991 wamerican
948 xiphos
881 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
758 dictionaries-common
616 ncurses-bin
587 bsdmainutils
572 hunspell-en-us
534 python3-pkg-resources
506 byzanz
481 xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
454 lsof
442 xz-utils
424 aspell-en
421 console-setup
415 xfonts-utils
411 python3-chardet
407 geoclue-2.0
389 python3-urllib3
389 notification-daemon
385 xserver-xorg-video-ati
381 ca-certificates
377 python2.7
375 xdg-user-dirs
363 python3-reportbug
334 vim-common
301 python3-debian
301 libgtk-3-bin
300 python3-certifi
271 python3-idna
271 libjpeg-turbo-progs
264 xserver-xorg-video-qxl
248 xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu
247 reportbug
242 xserver-xorg-video-vmware
232 base-passwd
229 eject
223 python3-requests
218 x11-session-utils
196 bzip2
191 python3-pysimplesoap
190 python3-pycurl
188 xxd
163 telnet
154 traceroute
145 usb-modeswitch
144 python2-minimal
136 python2
136 netcat-traditional
119 python3-httplib2
111 libcap2-bin
110 dconf-service
94 bubblewrap
90 libmbim-proxy
90 discover
84 xinit
81 xauth
80 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-bin
68 python
68 firmware-linux-free
66 xdg-dbus-proxy
62 sensible-utils
62 emacsen-common
60 python3-six
58 enchant
54 hostname
50 python3-debianbts
46 liblockfile-bin
44 installation-report
43 python-minimal
31 libqmi-proxy
29 libwacom-bin
28 powermgmt-base
20 laptop-detect
18 python3-debconf
 
Also, it seems like maybe this is wrong:

Code: Select all

popularity-contest | grep '<OLD>'  
It should be :

Code: Select all

popularity-contest | grep 'OLD'  
(at least for me, with the < > it did not show anything.
Please Read What we expect you have already Done
Search Engines know a lot, and
"If God had wanted computers to work all the time, He wouldn't have invented RESET buttons"
and
Just say NO to help vampires!

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#16 Post by cuckooflew »

How do I know which ones I do not use - which is what popcon-largest-unused is supposed to do?
Yes, and it does,

Code: Select all

popcon-largest-unused(8)                              popcon-largest-unused(8)

NAME
       popcon-largest-unused - List size of unused packages

SYNTAX
       popcon-largest-unused

DESCRIPTION
       Based  on  the  list of unused packages reported by popularity-contest,
       this program extract the package size from the APT cache, and list  the
       unused packages sorted by size.

FILES
       /var/log/popularity-contest

AUTHORS
       Yann Dirson <dirson@debian.org>

SEE ALSO
       popularity-contest(8)

Yann Dirson                                           popcon-largest-unused(8)
 
Of course if you don't have any packages that you do not use, it would not return anything. I have chores to do, and now I am not sure what it is you expect, again I will repeat my suggestion, if you have questions about the popularity-contest package, the ones that could answer them best are the developers and maintainers.
Yes it is just a perl script, and a pretty basic one, but I don't see where that is relevant.
Please Read What we expect you have already Done
Search Engines know a lot, and
"If God had wanted computers to work all the time, He wouldn't have invented RESET buttons"
and
Just say NO to help vampires!

geoffkaniuk
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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#17 Post by geoffkaniuk »

geoffkaniuk wrote: Have you actually run popcon-largest-unused?
cuckooflew wrote: Yes I did run it, The output :

Code: Select all

$ popcon-largest-unused
262954 linux-image-4.19.0-9-amd64
16106 locales
8916 libpython2.7-stdlib
...
Great! This means my code (or config) is faulty. So now I will send a message to maintainer and later file a bug report. Thanks for all your effort here!
Geoff

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Re: Preparing upgrade to buster

#18 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

emariz wrote:It depends on how one wants to handle a release upgrade. Aptitude does it just fine
Not according to https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=411280 ← that's why the official guides don't recommend aptitude(8).
deadbang

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