I can't wait for the Stable Release of Debian Etch. While I would like to put it on my servers, I can't for fear of something not working that I need. After reading the press release from July 2006.. I know I should keep up on these things more. I have been using Debian for about 3 years now.

This is July's Press Release.

What is the general Debian Community Feeling on Etch. Anyone notice other good points? Might install etch if I can get my hands on a extra system that I don't have to worry about.

Super kewl.....running etch as server here for over 4 months now....no problems that were now solved within minutes of install....

All that is holding Etch back from going stable are a few bugs on the more exotic architectures that Debian supports. If you're talking about Etch on an x86 or 86_64 processor, it is finished and stable. I've moved some of the many stable servers at work to Etch, and they haven't had any problems.

That being said, some people have reported issues going from xfree86 to xorg. In my mind an x-window-system has no business being on a server. If you also run headless servers, the upgrade to Etch should be fine. I haven't seen any issues with the new apt, or the gcc compiler, and all of my servers have custom compiled software all over them.

Peace,
JimBass

Hey Jim, are those recent complaints? I remember that I had a hell of a time with even installing xorg in the early days (December/January?) but my recent reinstallations to my test mule have been flawless. I don't know about upgrading from Sarge to Etch, though.

It's not something I had a problem with personally, but I do remember seeing here plenty of posts with people having issues with that upgrade. It usually wasn't even a big deal, something like dpkg reconfigure fixed it, but the must have a gui to work people had major issues. It has quieted down recently, so maybe a newer upgrade fixed it.

Peace,
JimBass

Maybe that problem is fixed, but if it's at all convenient, I would do a fresh install of Etch, ... and there is absolutely no reason to wait.

Lots of Release Parties are being scheduled for Friday the 13th.

My servers that I run are AMD Arch but running i386 arch of sarge. One system is my OpenVPN system that is a 550 Mhz Pentium II. While upgrading to Etch would be nice, having to upgrade everything and then not having something work is always a concern.

I usually follow the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I understand that it would be quite easy. Just change my sources.lst file and then issue apt-get upgrade and viola I would be in process of upgrading but at the expense of something not working I think I will try to get my hands on a box and see if everything I use works in Etch prior to doing the upgrade.

My biggest thing is my OWL Database where I keep all my documentation for all my configurations, and other documentation. And the other thing is my VPN system. That I can't really touch because all my servers are located elsewhere at my Grandfathers house. I don't allow any services direct access to the net and everything I do is over the VPN. Well I guess the only thing I allow is SSH to the VPN system in case I need to get into it if something stops working. Just installed DenyHosts on the VPN and it is a god send in preventing SSH Brute Force Attacks.

BTW, any place that you guys know of where i can get more information on that secure apt feature..

In general, most issues regarding messed-up upgrades concern the XFree to Xorg conversion. As these machines are servers, you probably don't have X in the first place (really, you don't, haven't you!) so upgrading should be relatively straight-forward.

The credo you've mentioned is pretty good: don't fix a working computer! But however good that computer is working, the industry is moving forward at an alarmingly fast rate and so is insecurity. In I(C)T there is another, equally important credo: patch often, patch quick. In other words: fix the holes in your system as often as they occur, don't wait till tomorrow 'cause your system may already be compromised by then...

More on secure apt: http://www.google.org

Quite true on that credo. Everything "Should" go smoothly.. Will think about it... Mostly likely will do upgrade before end of next week we'll see.. Still trying to see if I get can logwatch to work using a external SMTP server... I posted that in Servers forum. Don't want to have to configure/install MTA if I don't need one.. Especially on multiple servers having each one have it's own MTA.

Hi.
I'd like to know if people who has downloaded Debian 10 days ago (has installed Debian Testing ETCH) has NOW still Debian testing ETCH or it's Debian Testing Lenny already???

I ask because now ETCH is stable, so what are the differences between last week testing and this week testing?

I believe that Debian ETCH STABLE IS NOT the Debian testing of last week, but probablely Debian Testing of MANY WEEKS AGO (maybe months). Am I right? Or maybe debian testing from 10 days ago is very different from debian testing of this week, since it has changed from etch to lenny, and then all I said above is wrong???

I'm interested because I've got Debian testing just one week before testing changed the name from ETCH to Lenny. So, I want to know if this new testing is just one week newer than mine with few changes, or if it has MANY CHANGES...

short answer: run 'cat /etc/debian_version'


It depends on what your sources.list looks like, and if you've done any updates. If you haven't installed any updates since installing Etch before it went stable, you're still running Etch, as it was defined when you installed it (depends on what CD you installed from, but it's more likely than not the testing snapshot you installed was not more than a week old when you installed it)

If your sources.list has entries like this (my emphasis, the specific URLs are not relevant):
then after you run 'aptitude update' and then 'aptitude dist-upgrade', you'll be running Etch/4.0/stable.


If your sources.list has entries like this (my emphasis):
and you run those same commands, you'll then be running Lenny/testing.

As to how much difference there is between Etch and Lenny at the moment I couldn't say for certain. I assume there are already a few new packages in testing, and that the degree of difference between the two will increase as time passes. I'd say it's a safe bet the testing snapshot you installed is very close to what now consititutes "Debian GNU/Linux 4.0" (Etch/stable).

I have the first one.

From what you've just said, it seems I'm running etch , the latest testing.

1 question: If I change my apt to something like the ones you have posted (secound ones), and then run the Udate Manager, then will it change to Lenny testing? (I don't want lenny UNSTABLE!!!)

2 question: Now that you have shown that I'm running etch, the main question still remains unanswered. That is: Are the differences between etch testing of the last week and Lenny testing first week big, or just a few packages?? For exemple: the stable version before etch had XFree but etch were running Xorg (that's a big difference!).

Change all references in the listing above from etch to testing and you'll allways have the latest Testing installed after each dist-upgrade.

At this moment Lenny is more or less a snapshot of Etch and differences aren't great. That will change over time when more and more packages from Unstable (Sid) trickle down into Lenny. If you're not into big changes, stick to Etch. And if you don't know how to repair a broken system, stick to Etch as well. But if you really want the latest and greatest in Linux-land, Debian might not be the distro for you. Ubuntu might be a better option in that case.

Just