Linux Mint Forums

I just did a fresh install of LMDE on my box and have had problems updating it, so late in the development cycle (700+ pkgs to update). MY ISP limits my bandwidth except between midnight and 6 am so I tried to do it with an "at" command using apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade with the -y option. Twice this resulted in an unbootable system so I tried the Mint Update utility and while it didn't bork anything, it didn't do the job either...lots of errors...never finished.

Going back to my past sidux experience, I thought of "smxi", the update script from H2 that was originally developed for the transition from Kanotix to sidux and has grown up since (http://www.smxi.org). It is a hands-on/command-line process with some decision making required as you go along but the result was just right...a fully updated system working great! CAUTION: It will work for LMDE but not for any Ubuntu based Mint distros!!! It isn't for the Linux noob but it doesn't require a geek to drive it either and the many options it offers are worth exploring. Smxi also includes the means to upgrade your graphics driver easily and even gives you a lot of options for kernel upgrades that I didn't pursue this time.

One of the many nice things smxi does is give you a lot of options for installing neat stuff...one of the best being "ceni", a command line utility for setting up your network cards (also developed originally for sidux). Ceni beats Network manager cold, giving you complete control over all your network parameters (or dhcp automation...your choice!) in a nice, text-mode graphics format.

I'm not using Sidux any more, but when I was I seem to remember that the Sidux/aptosid people considered smxi to be 'deprecated' and the very vocal members of their forum used to 'shout' at people that were foolish enough to admit to using it. Now I have no idea why they considered it 'deprecated' or didn't want people to use it any more, perhaps it is because it is not actively maintained? I just don't know. It obviously worked for you so it can't be that bad a script even now, but I just mention this as a word of caution in case there is some problem with it that you were lucky enough to dodge.

viking777, the sidux / aptosid guys are very fond of inventing rules and other matters, they then also enjoy forcing their users to follow those rules. As you can see in their huge drop in popularity and users, this isn't probably the best way to promote free/open software, but each to their own I guess.

I no longer consider any of their views as containing any truth value at all. In other words, they could be true, false, partly true, partly false, etc, the only way you could ever know would be to verify for yourself.

In general I question everything those guys ever stated as truths or facts, and I find that method is working much better long term for me and my system.

Basically they just like making up rules then following them, well, more accurately, they like having their leader make up rules, then following them, no matter how much they contradict the rules they used to state were true.

As they say, move along, nothing to see there except another FOSS project gone bad due to lack of open communications and a secret/private dev network. Kudos to real Debian by the way for not falling into these traps over the years, that's definitely to Debian's credit.