Lenny- should I or shouldn't I?

parent's_basement · 02-11-2009, 12:45 PM

Hi All,

Is lenny stable yet or still testing? Looked online but could determine...

If lenny is still testing but about to become stable, am I ok to install lenny testing right now? Will keeping my lines in sources.list as testing cause any problems during the switch? For example:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib restricted
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib restricted

Is there a good web link that informs about dealing with the migration?

Many Thanks,

pb

jailbait · 02-11-2009, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by parent's_basement

am I ok to install lenny testing right now?

Here is how to upgrade from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny. I did this on October 13, 2008 and have been running Lenny with no problems since:

Upgrading from Etch to Lenny:

1. Open a terminal and type sudo su
2. Now type cd /etc/apt/ && gedit sources.list
3. Replace all occurrences of etch with lenny and save the file
4. Back at the terminal type apt-get update
5. Once the update has finished type apt-get dist-upgrade (and follow any onscreen instructions)

If all goes well, once finished you should be able to reboot into your new Debian Lenny kernel.

-------------------------
Steve Stites

hitest · 02-11-2009, 01:06 PM

I've upgraded 5 Etch boxes to Lenny. I'm loving Lenny. Just in case I would back-up all of your data just prior to the upgrade in the unlikely event things go awry.
I would also download, burn a copy of the netinstall iso for Lenny. You can use that to do a clean install of Lenny if the upgrade doesn't work out and then copy over your backed-up data afterwards.
Have fun.

Lenny is stable.

parent's_basement · 02-11-2009, 01:49 PM

Whoops, I should have been a bit clearer. I'm running lenny now. When it moves to the stable branch, will I need to do anything in my sources.list or just cruise along as usual doing regular aptitude update and installs?

thanks Again

Dankles · 02-11-2009, 02:09 PM

So your sources.list is already setup for testing? Then you already have lenny setup. Cuz while lenny is still in its "testing" stage,

Code:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main == deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main

once lenny is officially released, then it will be its own package tree.

you can always keep track in distrowatch

farslayer · 02-11-2009, 02:40 PM

If you plan to stick with Lenny after it becomes stable, you need to change your sources list.. I would do it now..

if your sources list is set to testing when lenny becomes stable you will then be running Squeeze the new code name for the testing branch once lenny is the new stable, and etch becomes oldstable.

By changing your sources list from testing to lenny you will stick with Lenny no matter what else happens..

nx5000 · 02-11-2009, 02:48 PM

put lenny in your sources.list. If you have testing then you will get massive update of the packages waiting in unstable due to the freeze.will be funny here on lq as for every release

People having testing in their sources will have a big surprise as they will in fact be running the same as unstable.

parent's_basement · 02-11-2009, 02:53 PM

Thanks everyone for the info. Farslayer, this is exactly what I needed to understand:

"if your sources list is set to testing when lenny becomes stable you will then be running Squeeze the new code name for the testing branch once lenny is the new stable, and etch becomes oldstable.

By changing your sources list from testing to lenny you will stick with Lenny no matter what else happens.."

Thanks,

pb

parent's_basement · 02-11-2009, 02:54 PM

error

brianL · 02-11-2009, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nx5000

If you have testing then you will get massive update of the packages waiting in unstable due to the freeze.will be funny here on lq as for every release

People having testing in their sources will have a big surprise as they will in fact be running the same as unstable.

Yeah, I've got testing in my sources.list, and this morning (I hadn't booted into Debian for about a day) I got 47 updates. No problems though - so far.

parent's_basement · 02-11-2009, 08:02 PM

Whoa!

My sources are set to "testing" and lo and behold, I just got an alert that 220 packages are available. I'm going to flow with it and see what happens. Real life example of what you guys are talking about ROFL!

-pb

parent's_basement · 02-11-2009, 08:08 PM

never mind... I just had the unstable source uncommented in my sources.list. :-( Closed them, updated and I'm back to normal (12 updates).

-pb

jdkaye · 02-12-2009, 04:44 AM

As a more general answer, if you are a home user (as opposed to a sysadmin running servers for hundreds of clients) then you are quite safe tracking testing. I've been using testing since the "woody" days and never had a major problem, only really minor niggles. Debian is really quite conservative in this respect unlike certain other distros based on debian which can be a little more, shall we say, adventurous.

cheers,
jdk

rich_c · 02-12-2009, 04:57 AM

In my opinion, it's better to have your sources list pointing at Lenny rather than testing, for example, to avoid any confusion!

jdkaye · 02-12-2009, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rich_c

In my opinion, it's better to have your sources list pointing at Lenny rather than testing, for example, to avoid any confusion!

Sorry Rich, but what kind of confusion? sources pointing at Lenny and those pointing at testing mean two different things. In one case they mean "I want to follow testing"; in the other, "I want to follow Lenny". They may mean the same thing at the moment but they won't in a couple of weeks. Just like testing and Squeeze (Lenny's successor) won't always point to the same repos.
Cheers,
jdk