LMDE updates rarely?

[schwim]

Hi there everyone,

I'm trying LMDE on one of my machines and am loving it. I just have one question.

Reading in mint's forum, I came across a thread in which someone asked if the debian install was right for him because he needed stability. More than one person told him that it was not because the type of install it was would have updates that might break his apps and he should look toward an LTS install. I took this to mean that I would see udpates in the same fashion as my short life installs. It's been three or four weeks and I've not seen an update yet. Running the update app, I don't see anything other than a mint search engine package that fails every time it tries to install.

I've not seen an udpate yet, including things like firefox and other 3rd party apps that have frequent updates. Is this the way it should be? I'm not complaining, I just want to make sure that I didn't miss setting up repos or something of the sort. I did read this thread in an attempt to get a better idea on what I can expect, but to be honest, it left me much more confused than I was before I read it.

Thanks for your time!

[zerozero]

i'm sorry that the FAQ confused you, that wasn't my intention;
to put things in a simpler way:
- yes, lmde updates rarely, everytime a new Update-Pack arrives (that can take one month, two, six)

[schwim]

Thank you very much for your response and no need to apologize, my confusion speaks more of my shortcomings than of any deficiency in your tutorial

[vrkalak]

LMDE is based on Debian's TESTING Branch.

Debian Testing is currently in the FREEZE stage of it's development - on it's way to a 'Stable release.
The current 'testing' is not getting any updates, except for security-updates until Wheezy goes stable, sometime in early 2013.

Once Debian 7 Wheezy (currently testing) goes 'stable' and a new Testing release comes out ... I expect the Mint Devs to release a new .iso verion of LMDE, again based on 'testing'.

[schwim]

Ok, now I'm confused again.

Are these points correct?

1) I won't receive any updates aside from critical until 2013

2) Instead of a one-time install type distro, I will be reinstalling once the new iso is released.

Or have I completely missed the plot again?

Thanks for your time!

[killer de bug]

1) You will receive an Update pack in 1 or 2 weeks when it will be ready.

2) Even if the team releases a new iso, you are not obliged to reinstall everything because you will already have the same system by updating.

[zerozero]

schwim,
as killer de bug says:
1- you're going to get very soon a load of updates with UP5;
2- the new isos are good for newcomers and if/when we break the system if your installed system is working they mean nothing to you: all they bring you already have either installed or available in the repo.

[schwim]

Thank you all very much for your assistance. I just have a quick question concerning this type of update cycle:

The recent Java vulnerability is a good example of what I'm wondering about. With so many applications that have the ability to ruin your day if they're left unpatched, is it wise to seek a method to update things like Firefox, java, flash, etc. outside of the cycle of the distro? The java included with lmde is currently at 1.6.0 and the latest vulnerability is 1.7.0_6 and lower. All my other OS installs already have the latest pushed to them through update channels but this seems to not be the case here.

Thanks a bunch for your time!

[GeneC]

schwim

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&p=623238
The problem appears to be in "Oracle Java 7" not in the " OpenJDK Java 6 or 7" that is default in Mint.

re: Oracle Java 7 vulnerable
by xenopeek on Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:02 pm

To summarize the above, if you are using Oracle Java 7 (not OpenJDK 7), you should disable the Java plugin in your web browser. To do so on Firefox, go to Tools > Add-ons, then Plugins.

On a default installation of Linux Mint 13 you would be using OpenJDK 6 and the IcedTea plugin. Unless you manually installed Oracle Java 7, you are not at risk.