upgrading from stable to testing
 

Hi guys, currently i'm using Stable and i've made the decision i want to use Testing. I checked the Debian wiki but couldn't find the right page that would describe the steps on how, the only hint i could find was that it recommends for security reason, tracking wheezy instead of testing. Other websights have steps outlined but i have no idea how old or relevant these steps are today so i just wanted to confirm with you guys these steps to upgrade to testing.

How does this sound?

apt-get is the preferred, by Debian, tool to use in upgrading from one version to another since the release of Squeeze.

I would suggest;
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

I would recommend just changing the sources.list to "wheezy" rather than "testing". You can change either later but when Wheezy goes stable there will be a huge upgrade to the new testing if you have "testing" in there. Similar to what you will get doing this.

You might be better off to get a Wheezy install disk and install from there using your existing /home partition.

If you are installed on one partition you are probably better off with the upgrade.

If you are using Gnome right now things should go OK. There are some big changes coming to testing soon from Sid in Gnome.

You may need to run;
a few times to get things settled down. If errors persist, reboot to recovery and run it from there too.

Should straighten out.

Debian also recomend not mixing apt-get and aptitude; i have always used aptitude on this system so far, should i still use apt-get to do the upgrade? I do not have a separate home partiton, but instead a separate data partition which is where i store all my media ect and important config files which i make symlinks for into to my home folder.

+1 doing this may actually save alot of time, otherwise follow Widget's other suggestions and be prepared for some "tweaking" to get things how you like them.

Before you do actually change to Testing get yourself a LiveCD as it should contain Gnome 3 (Gnome-shell). The testing version is 3.0.2 where the Sid version is currently 3.2.1. Use it for a bit and decide for yourself if you can work with Gnome 3. If you can't work with Gnome 3, many people can't, add this to your sources list and you can have the familiar (although now renamed) Gnome 2.32 desktop environment and still have testing as your distro.

I use both. Haven't had any problem with it for a good while.

There was a problem some time back where the data bases for apt-get and aptitude would be a bit different and get confused. Haven't seen that. I think that the changes in apt-get have made it not only what Debian recommends for version upgrades, as I said before this was not the case before Squeeze they recommended aptitude before that, but also made the 2 tools more compatible.

I generally use apt-get, always have. Aptitude does have, however, some things that I would not want to be without. "aptitude why", "aptitude why-not" and "aptitude keep-all" are things I use it for the most. Would feel crippled without them.

I do not think that you will get much trouble using aptitude instead of apt-get to do your version upgrade. I have been using apt-get for version upgrades when aptitude was the recommended tool. Worked fine.

You will, if there is a problem, feel more at home with the tool you are most familiar with.

Be sure to read over your "man" page again before you start. Reviewing the dpkg man page would be a good idea too.

Checking with a Live CD would be a good idea too. I must say, however that I was not aware of a Wheezy Live CD. I thought all that Debian sanctioned was a Squeeze Live CD. You may have to hunt Wheezy up. Someone else may be putting one out. If so it is probably one of the Debian devs that works on the "live" project. I know one of them puts out (or did anyway) a Squeeze Live CD with the restricted stuff on it.

If you go with Wheezy with Gnome be sure to check out the "gnome fripperies" group of 6 extensions for Gnome Shell. Make sure you get the package for your version of GS. They will make your transition to GS much easier.

I switched to Xfce myself. I do not like, in the least, what they have done to Nautilus. I think the new version sucks.

You may just love it. The wonder of Linux. We do have choices.

Yup, found that post helpful.

Even posted your links on another forum that you may know of. That looks like a great OS.

Up even with the newest stuff from Ubuntu. Gee I wonder which is more stable?

The screen shot on the first link, I have to admit, sold me. Nothing to do with the OS. Just the background. Could be here in Montana. Love it.

Going to throw it up against my test platform and see if it sticks.

Thanks for all the help guys, i will not be using gnome3, i have tried it with fedora and i didn't like it, so thanks for the repo, i will probably use it. I personally have been using xfce lately with gnome panel, kwin and dolphin, Gee i dislike nautilus in gnome2; won't comment on it in gnome3 though.
I have limited bandwidth and i don't have the bandwidth at the current time to download another dvd iso. If i were to upgrade to testing/wheezy, how many mb, gb, would it roughly consume?

Probably about as much as CD worth of download, or at least half as much. Not a DVD worth for sure.

It may be quicker to go to a library with Public access, if you are anywhere close to such a place, and download from there.

There are many places to order CD/DVDs from also. Pretty cheap, fast service. I know. Less than 3 years ago I had (for 10 years) 4.4kb/sec dial up. Way out at the end of the phone line with close to 50 miles of wire to the server.

Mail was a lot quicker than downloading.

Normal update/upgrade chores were portioned out in synaptic so that I did a 6 to 8 hour bunch at a time. Run it all night, check in the morning and run some while doing chores (feeding cows, fix fence, etc) until lunch, do another bunch and check when I got in at night. Encourages the use a something pretty stable with few upgraded packages.

Stimulates business for CD/DVD burner folks too.

I'm basing this reply on the assumption you're referring to Cobber. The other forum was the first place to have it listed (in my sig).

It's stable but I'm not happy enough to release it just yet.

That's Uluru (Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory).

Thinking i might wait a few weeks until my internet data usage refreshes and i'll download the iso, so that way i can install and a different partition, try it out without affecting my main stable partition.

If you have more than 10gigs for an install do it on 2 partitions. This really is better.

Having 2 separate installs has advantages too. You always have a back up.

Debian Testing is going to be tricky with limited bandwidth. Because it is constantly "under construction," you should expect lots and lots of updates. Of course it depends on what you have installed; if it's just a basic command-line only server, the updates will be proportionately smaller than if you have a full desktop environment (Gnome, KDE, etc) and large GUI applications like LibreOffice.

ps I agree with the suggestion above to install Testing on a spare partition or computer. This will give you a nice Stable install for when you actually need to get work done. :)

Not at all, install debdelta and then
or
Doing this can save you up to 2/3 of your actual download.

Awesome tip; I will give it a try if I ever install Debian testing/unstable again.

My point stands, though: Debian Testing has lots more updates than Debian Stable.

Yes it does have more upgrades. It is important to take this into consideration.

Running update/upgrade cycles daily will keep them from be over whelming, particularly with the use of debdelta.