LMDE Users: Debian Squeeze Released

[koinsky67]

Hello!

I'm running LMDE on my main working PC so I've decided to stay with
"squeeze" instead of tracking "testing". My question is:
Should I disable the LinuxMint "debian" repository or leave it active?

In other words, should I comment out the first line in my current sources.list?
chaos> cat sources.list
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org squeeze main non-free

Thank you!

PS:
I guess I should because I'm already getting package conflicts.
Right now Opera wouldn't upgrade from 10 to 11 (unless I disable the
first repository) due to conflicts between "mint-flashplugin" (installed)
and flashplugin-nonfree" (required).

[FlyGAGuy]

Thanks for the update!!!

I wondered how the release of Squeeze would impact LMDE. I am a new user of LMDE 64 bit edition, information like this is invaluable...

[h2-1]

I thought debdelta rang a bell, that's a built in feature of smxi by some user's request:

smxi -! 40
runs the debdelta command prior to the upgrade itself.

Also tests for debdelta installed, and reports missing error if not installed.

smxi has so many odd little user requested features I tend to forget about the more obscure ones.

smxi -h
shows all standard user options. Everything listed by -h is usually safe and stable
-! 40 - Runs debdelta-upgrade prior to running system upgrade command (requires debdelta package).

smxi -H will list a few additional dev options which I take zero blame/credit for if they break your system or work perfectly.

[Beardedragon]

After a complete install (see: viewtopic.php?f=141&t=65749) I still needed to install debdelta to try this. Here are the results:

Code: Select all

Delta-upgrade statistics:                                                     
 total resulting debs size 0  time 0sec virtual speed: 0 /sec
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

The packages were installed without debdelta. So far, so good.

[KenWeiLL]

Is debdelta be used only on terminal?

As far as I understand, when upgrading from terminal, you are ignoring the safety level system of mintUpdate.

Is there a way to combine debdelta with mintUpdate?

[phubai]

To be sure everyone understands what debdelta does, if you're not already; please have a look at this site and the readme files and other information there:

http://debdelta.debian.net/

Basically, as a high-level, and somewhat, apologetically, pedantic explanation, let's say you found you needed to upgrade a package which is 4.5 MB in size. Currently, without using debdelta, the package that you have on your computer would be deleted, and replaced by the new package, necessitating a 4.5 MB download. Debdelta can be your friend, as it will do a comparison of what you have on your computer with what is contained in the new package, and only download the difference between the two packages. There may only be a 1 MB change from what you have, and that's all you would need to download. Debdelta does all of the comparisons (runs a diff routine) and then provides you with, ideally, the same result as if you had downloaded the entire 4.5 MB. Now, figure the savings in download time that could result if you are doing a large upgrade, with many packages. That's the beauty of debdelta. It saves both server time, and your download time; especially valuable for those who have slow connections.

...and, more on the actual topic...I apologize for that, but I thought it worth the explanation given the stabilization of Squeeze.

Now, assuming you've kept up to date, and basically have a completely updated Squeeze system at this point, but have elected to continue testing. As packages are updated and released, debdelta will, when evoked from the command line, compare what you have on your system, with what you will be replacing that with, and download and install only the difference.

That's my understanding of it, and I hope I've not misinterpreted anything, nor misled anybody. Please correct me if I have.

--phubai

[Mr Green]

What I would like to know is how to get the latest and greatest in LMDE?

Currently after installing as a guest in Virtualbox [and updating] I am running 2.6.32, in Ubuntu [host] I am at 2.6.35

Have I missed something? rolling release is one thing but I want bleeding edge

MrG

[Rifester]

Change your sources to Sid...

[MintLucius]

or compile a bleeding edge-kernel...

[cpatrick08]

What I would like to know is how to get the latest and greatest in LMDE?

Currently after installing as a guest in Virtualbox [and updating] I am running 2.6.32, in Ubuntu [host] I am at 2.6.35

Have I missed something? rolling release is one thing but I want bleeding edge

MrG

go with ubuntu pre-release natty

[h2-1]

Please do NOT change your sources to sid at this point in time, that is very poor advice, sid is going to be very unstable for the coming months as the backlog of packages in experimental is released.

Already 64 bit xorg (and in Debian, Xorg has exactly ONE maintainer) breaks completely in Sid, which means, heh, that we know the maintainer is running 32 bit.

The function of sid is not to deliver the latest and greatest to your desktop, it is to serve as a bug catching system for testing, that is, for the LMDE true base. Try to avoid confusing what some people and distros have said about the stability of using sid with reality, sid is not a pool for casual or average users, it's a debugging pool for testing.

Debian has fewer resources, fewer maintainers, which you can see by the increasing number of core packages maintained by only one person, and, remember, maintained for free, as a volunteer donation to the Debian project.

So I strongly urge LMDE users to NOT use sid until it settles back down, that process usually takes a few months after a new stable release.

There's other major breaks coming down the line in sid, ffmpeg I read is going to also fail, in 32 bit. So be happy you are running the testing pool, it's what Debian want's normal users who want rolling release to run, and it's the target for debugged packages in sid to go to. So enjoy this protection, it's rare that testing lags much more than a week or two behind sid, and really, who cares if you get a newer package in a week or two or now? Sometimes a major break can cost you hours of lost time, and at worst, can lose you days as you try to unravel the mess.

Just a friendly reminder, things are now officially unstable, as of yesterday. The 'stability' you may have believed was the case with sid pre freeze / release was an illusion caused by freezing the sid/testing pools, not by sid being stable. Now sid is back to its unruly and irregular self, and this is exactly as intended. Times like this expert users only should be doing frequent upgrades on sid. And then primarily to help find and report bugs to the proper debian maintainer.

[zerozero]

Tks h2-1 for the clear explanation.
I noticed the xorg breakage 2 days ago in my Debian sid install. For now of course i'm holding those updates.
I'm tracking sid here in this install and also in LMDE, but aware of the risks and because "living in the edge" is appealing.
Running Cooker almost one year leaves one addicted and Squeeze was getting boring
But i agree with your post, for an every day user, sid is now too unstable

[Mr Green]

Thanks for the heads up, I will go read up some more ..

[h2-1]

If someone can give me the list of the minimum xorg packages to hold maybe I can add a hold/unhold package list to smxi so upgrades can run safely, but until then I've added a red warning do not upgrade to smxi's warning system.

[c0nsaw]

just installed squeeze on my ps3

[thomasmc]

I had edited my sources file in January to point to squeeze, just in case there was a problem with the transition.
Yesterday, after reading here that nobody was having problems, I edited it back to testing, and the upgrade went flawlessly.
Well, ALMOST flawlessly. Previously I had Samba set up so I could access a windows computer here, but that disappeared.
Samba - and everything associated with it - had just vanished, I had to install it all over again.
Any ideas why something like that would be UNINSTALLED during an upgrade?

[KLonsdale]

Thanks for the heads up, right now I have set mintUpdate to accept only Level 1 and level 2 updates.

[msuggs]

Any ideas why something like that would be UNINSTALLED during an upgrade?

I'd imagine that this will be one of the many little bugs that will occur when staying with the testing repos.

[t3g]

Will there be a new respin released soon that contains everything in the full and final Debian 6.0 release? Would be nice for people grabbing LMDE in the near future and not having to download a lot of updates to get up to speed. They can just download the new respin based on 6.0 stable and go from there.

[Mr Green]

Interesting point, could the live mint debian not drag in up to dates packages during install? assuming you have a working network conection