Re: How do I upgrade to sid?

On 2/10/08, Martin Mewes <macmewes@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Javier Vasquez schrieb:
>
> > Then the rest is kind of recipy for upgrading:
> > -- aptitude clean
> > -- aptitude update
> > -- aptitude safe-upgrade
> > -- aptitude full-upgrade
>
> If _I_ do this nearly the complete system would be erased when I
> _would_ answer "Y" in the end. Just my 2 cents ...
>
> bis dahin
>
> Martin Mewes

Well, aptitude is pretty good at managing upgrades. But I agree, most of the software will be replaced by saying yes to the 1st "safe-upgrade", however my experience is that if one is used to deal with dependency problems and the like, that should not be a reason to be scared. When "safe-upgrade" finds dependencies problems it won't upgrade, and
it'll leave the upgrade to "full-upgrade".

I suggest as well, having several iterations of "safe-upgrade" if you're using an old aptitude, before the "full-upgrade" until there's nothing else the "safe-upgrade" can deal with... I haven't found the iterations necessary anymore, but I use the latest version under unstable, :).

It might be useful to also remove (purge if necessary) big packages which dependencies are hard to deal with, and of course, it's better if everything is done under console (no X)...

Beyond that, and some research, only experience will tell...

My last suggestion (which I did NOT follow due to lack of time and disk space), make a separate partition, and try a n-boot (I can't say for sure dual for sure) system. Start the trial one with stable, then move to testing, and finally move to unstable with light environment (include X though, since along the way there are pertinent changes to be considered). At the end if everything goes OK, then whether remove the original partition after moving the date to the unstable one, or upgrade the original one with a bit more of experience, :). I said partition, but it might actually be a logical volume if you'd like...

Again, before such a move, I'd look at what seems to be wrong in the current version, to see if it's due to just a particular package version. If so, I'd rather use backPorts, or install from upstream the source and compile it myself, well that if I'm confortable with the current version I work under, and the movement souds too risky. There are always different alternatives to solve a single problem, :).

-- 
Javier


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