Best way to upgrade from Sarge to Etch

kushalkoolwal · 04-14-2007, 05:22 AM

Hi,

I am using Debian Sarge(kernel 2.6.15) on two machines...one with minimal base install (just text based) and other with graphical installation. I was hoping I can simply upgrade my system with just:

Code:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

But after read this article from debian website it seems that I may have to use aptitude and will have to do some other things also.

http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/...radingpackages

Please tell me what is the best way to do in my scenario.

Thanks

Dutch Master · 04-14-2007, 07:13 AM

The safest option is switching back to init 1 and start the upgrade process with aptitude update && aptitude dist-upgrade It is advised, due to the XFree to Xorg conversion, to do the upgrade outside of the normal GUI. When done, start aptitude and check for the xorg packages being installed. As a precaution, you may want to install the ssh server, so you can log in remotely.

Before you start, backup your data on optical disk or another computer. Keep a Etch netinstall cd handy, just in case

mikieboy · 04-14-2007, 05:38 PM

I just did the upgrade yesterday and you should follow the release notes in so far as you should do a minimal upgrade first, then install the initrd-tools package and install a 2.6.18 kernel before the full dist-upgrade. I used aptitude but the upgrade stalled after downloading the packages with the warning that aptitude could not lock the cache. To get round this if it happens, try apt-get dist-upgrade instead. This worked for me. Oh yes, and definitely do it all from a virtual terminal (e.g init 1)as Dutch Master suggests.

kushalkoolwal · 04-15-2007, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikieboy

I just did the upgrade yesterday and you should follow the release notes in so far as you should do a minimal upgrade first, then install the initrd-tools package and install a 2.6.18 kernel before the full dist-upgrade. I used aptitude but the upgrade stalled after downloading the packages with the warning that aptitude could not lock the cache. To get round this if it happens, try apt-get dist-upgrade instead. This worked for me. Oh yes, and definitely do it all from a virtual terminal (e.g init 1)as Dutch Master suggests.

Thank you guys for your response. What is the best way to boot in init 1? Should I give "single" in my kernel boot parameters?

Dutch Master · 04-15-2007, 06:29 AM

Select the "single mode" entry in Grub when booting, or in a rootterminal issue the init 1 command.