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Debian SID questions and answers

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sunrat
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Re: Debian SID questions and answers

#21 Post by sunrat »

zoli62 wrote:This is also a strategy for running Debian Sid. https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-run-debi ... ely-safely
Ignore the bit about avoiding dist-upgrade (or apt full-upgrade). This will eventually break something if you don't do it regularly.
Also that article neglects to mention the most important advice - don't upgrade when a large number of removals are proposed.
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

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wizard10000
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Re: Debian SID questions and answers

#22 Post by wizard10000 »

Well, I might as well wade in too :)

I've run Sid for years. You've got a bunch of great advice here and it'd be wise to listen to it. I would take exception to TFA you linked, though. I can't think of any reason why I'd map an Ubuntu PPA to Debian and I think that's a horrible idea.

I do have a four or five non-Debian packages on my machine and what I do is download the .deb, extract it and read what package dependencies are; if I can meet those dependencies I install the package without editing apt sources. Alternatively you can just grab the .deb and try installing with gdebi (I never have learned to love aptitude). gdebi will tell you if dependencies are missing. I also avoid deb-multimedia as I had a package there break Sid almost a year after I installed it.

I will say that apt-listbugs has saved me a couple of times - IME the biggest problem I have with bugs is in chromium, which I believe needs a little more testing before being made available in Sid. apt-listbugs won't save you from a zero-day vulnerability but I do have it configured to report important and higher bugs instead of the default serious and higher. I get a little more information that way.

I also subscribe to a couple of Debian dev mailing lists and their bugtracker so I can see what's coming down the pipe, I get a couple hundred emails a day from the lists but usually all l have to do is read subject lines to find out what's going on. I use a mail rule to dump list mail into its own folder so it doesn't clutter up my email :)

Most important - understand what apt wants to do to your machine and if an upgrade doesn't look safe, don't upgrade. The problem will normally be fixed in a couple days or so :mrgreen:

cheers -
we see things not as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Debian SID questions and answers

#23 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

zoli62 wrote:This is also a strategy for running Debian Sid. https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-run-debi ... ely-safely
That's a piss-poor "guide", the author doesn't even know what a FrankenDebian is... :roll:
deadbang

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Re: Debian SID questions and answers

#24 Post by jwrober »

kedaha wrote:If I want any more up-to-date software, which is not often, I follow the recommendations given in Newer_Software_For_Debian_Stable. The stable distribution is what sets Debian apart from any other distro, something I think which isn't always fully appreciated. However, I take my hat off to anyone who wants to make either sid or testing their main operating system and who doesn't mind "the life of eternal updates", specially if they take the trouble to debug "broken functionalities" and submit bug reports and the like.
Thanks for sharing this link. I am running current testing thinking that was the best way to run on newer code. Seems there is an even better way.

Now for the big question - can I downgrade from testing to Buster or would I have to start all over?

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Re: Debian SID questions and answers

#25 Post by jwrober »

jwrober wrote:Can I downgrade from testing to Buster or would I have to start all over?
Good to answer your own question - answer is no -- https://wiki.debian.org/SystemDowngrade

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Re: Debian SID questions and answers

#26 Post by None1975 »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
zoli62 wrote:This is also a strategy for running Debian Sid.
That's a piss-poor "guide", the author doesn't even know what a FrankenDebian is... :roll:
Yes you are right.
Unfortunately there's a lot of bad advice on the Internet. Tutorials found on blogs, forums and other sites often include instructions that will break your system in subtle ways. Don't simply follow the first advice you find, or the tutorial that seems the easiest. Spend some time reading the documentation and compare the difference between tutorials.
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian ... bad_advice
OS: Debian 12.4 Bookworm / DE: Enlightenment
Debian Wiki | DontBreakDebian, My config files on github

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