Debian Wheezy Headless Server: No Updates, Ever

jlacroix · 07-26-2013, 05:01 PM

Hello everyone. I have a headless server running Debian Wheezy. It does not have a GUI installed at all, and it is completely headless. I access it via SSH.

I usually try to stay current on all my updates, but I set up this server around the time when Wheezy came out, and since then, it's never had any updates:

Code:

jlacroix@Hermes:~$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
[sudo] password for jlacroix: 
Hit http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy Release.gpg
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy-updates Release.gpg [1,571 B]
Hit http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy Release                                        
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates Release.gpg
Get:2 http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy-updates Release [116 kB]        
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates Release                       
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main Sources                  
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main Translation-en
Hit http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy/main Sources        
Hit http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy/main Translation-en
Get:3 http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy-updates/main Sources [733 B]
Get:4 http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy-updates/main amd64 Packages [633 B]
Get:5 http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy-updates/main Translation-en [520 B]
Fetched 120 kB in 0s (161 kB/s)  
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

/etc/apt/sources.list:

Code:

# 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0.0 _Wheezy_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20130504-14:43]/ wheezy main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0.0 _Wheezy_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20130504-14:43]/ wheezy main

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main

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

# wheezy-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main

frankbell · 07-26-2013, 06:49 PM

I've had a few updates, but not many. Offhand, I cannot tell you how many are related to the GUI and GUI programs and I'm too lazy to look.

For comparison, here's my sources.list. I removed the repos that were remarked out from the list below:

Code:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-proposed-updates contrib non-free main

jlacroix · 07-26-2013, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

I've had a few updates, but not many. Offhand, I cannot tell you how many are related to the GUI and GUI programs and I'm too lazy to look.

For comparison, here's my sources.list. I removed the repos that were remarked out from the list below:

Code:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-proposed-updates contrib non-free main

I was just thinking, is it possible that updates have to be "enabled" somehow? For example, I know Ubuntu has the Software-Sources program and you can turn updates on and off from there (separate from sources.list) but I am unsure if Debian had something similar.

frankbell · 07-26-2013, 07:44 PM

Since I use Fluxbox for my window manager and haven't bothered to figure out how to make pop-up notifiers work in Fluxbox and really don't miss them, I usually use the command line as root:

Code:

apt-get update   <--updates the list
apt-get upgrade    <--installs the updates
apt-get autoclean   <--cleans up afterwards if necessary

You can substitute "aptitude" for "apt-get."

Sometimes I use Synaptic.

I check about once a week.

Afterthought: If you are running a headless server with no GUI, you will need to check manually. I should have caught that.