I have installed Etch from a dvd and then downloaded the 2.5Gb update, the debian-update-4.0r4a-i386-DVD-1.iso and burned a dvd from the iso.
But I don't understand what to do with the dvd.
It does not boot, and it has no instructions on it, not even a README.
It's supposed to update my Etch r0 to r4 but how do I do that?

I have basic Etch desktop with KDE installed but the kde package manager does not seem to understand the update dvd.

I've searched but could not find any info how to use the disk.
Anyone know?

Ok, after i've put on my Slackware hat, I did some more digging and came to "apt-cdrom" which added that update dvd into sources and then I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.
Seems to have done a bunch of updates.
Is that what I was supposed to do?
Do I have all the security updates now?

I think so, for both. Here's the news page for it: http://www.debian.org/News/2008/20080726

But I think you could have done it all by just doing the normal update/upgrade sequence against the online repos.

From the above link:

4.0r4 is called etch and a half.. Plenty of docs out there

http://wiki.debian.org/EtchAndAHalf

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

http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/...ller/etchnhalf

Yeah, I had seen and read them all from beginning to end.
They only explain the full etchnhalf dvd, not the 2.5Gb update, that I happened to download.
The first two links explain what to do with the full bootable disk, the wiki doesn't even do that, it points to an online update.

Without knowing the apt-cdrom command or being aware of the add cdrom feature in Synaptic, it's pretty hopeless.
A one or two line README on the disk would save a lot of time and frustration probably to a lot of people.
Granted I am not a fluent Debian user, since I don't install and use Debian often enough, so I'm more on a level of a new user.
But the pain is still real except I'm used to it from prior Debian installs and from Slackware (although that is now just a suppressed memory but new Linux users would tend to run to Ubuntu when faced with this kind of experience.

Anyway thanks for trying.

One

Actually if the PC was connected to the net I wouldn't have bothered downloading the DVD.
I would have added the line for etchnhalf to the /etc/apt/sources.list and then updated the machine as outlined in the docs.

Downloading HUGE DVD iso images full of packages that are often out of date by the time you download them is a waste of bandwidth imho. Might be useful if I were updating multiple machines, or machines that are not connected to the net.

the iso was 2.5 GB but how many packages from it were actually installed on your machine during the update ? maybe 350-500 MB ? in which case I could update 5-7 machines over the net with the same amount of bandwidth..

and until you add the new line to your sources.list you won't get any new updates for those packages.. you are stuck with the versions on the DVD.

I'm also new in Debian environment. Same problem. Very difficult to find info, which DVD to take and install, some headers talk about r5, but data is r4, ... How to update ? ... Lot of install info, but update info ???

Important is apt source
/etc/apt/source.list

There you can see your "installed" DVD's and online sources.

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0r4a Update DVD 20080804: i386 DVD 1]/ etch contrib main non-free
deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r2 _Etch_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20080103-00:44]/ etch contrib main

- and also online servers for updates, ex. I live in Finland, so I use
mirror in Finland.
deb http://ftp.fi.debian.org/debian/ etch main
deb-src http://ftp.fi.debian.org/debian/ etch main

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib


How I added update DVD to the list ?
apt-cdrom add

So, if your server is not in the net (yes, there are still environments which are not on the Internet), you need this DVD. If you have Internet, then no need to use update DVD.

After you have sources on the list, then
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade


I don't know, is this good answer, but I think that my debian is now updated.

This page was most helpful even header is something error ...
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/errata.en.html

-jukka-