Is it safe to update LMDE

[scotthge]

Hi all, I was wondering if it is safe to update LMDE now? I have installed LMDE three different time with no problems but the minute that I update, everything breaks and I end up installing again. So the last time that I installed LMDE I changed the repositories to Debian Squeeze until the update got fixed. So I was just wondering if it might be alright to restore the original repositories and update LMDE now?

Thank you,
Scotty

[zerozero]

that would depend on a few things that you have to tell us:
- when you installed this system we are talking about? based on what iso?
- what updates [if any] you did?
- what are your your sources.list now?

[scotthge]

Thank you for your reply and sorry for not including enough information.

The iso that I used was LMDE 201109, Gnome 64 bit.

My source list now is ,
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org squeeze main non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian squeeze contrib non-free

The updates that I applied at the time of installation was only what mint update suggested. When the updates were done nothing worked, I couldn't even reboot. I had to unplug the laptop and re-insert the iso image again in order to get the machine to boot. I guess I wasn't smart enough to fix what had happened or to remove the updates that had caused the problems. I got pretty good at fixing Mint but the Debian edition was another story. I lost everything that I did have on the original installation so I played around trying to fix the next installation but couldn't do it, so I just settled for the iso with no updates at all. Then when I had everything working, I changed my sources.list to what it is now which is basically the Debian squeeze repositories.

Scotty

[TheOneLaw]

Thank you for your reply and sorry for not including enough information.

The iso that I used was LMDE 201109, Gnome 64 bit.

My source list now is ,
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org squeeze main non-free
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian squeeze contrib non-free
...Scotty

I have had some similar problems with LMDE 201109 XFCE 64bit and 32bit,
but the catch may be that you need to do something else first:
Each and every time I installed LMDE I needed to go back and dig through the blog to find
the quickly_forgotten_and_easily_overlooked_ UP3 instructions, found at

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?m=201109

My Fujitsu T580 had a nightmare of a time due to some convoluted M$-centric hardware
which could only be resolved by following the initial install with an immediate UP3 update.
From the first boot after install I go straight to change the repo list as recommended
and then immediately to the update manager - which suggests only itself first,
and then run the update manager again immediately after it updates itself .
My guess would be that by not changing the repositories before the update you are
picking up something from debian.org that clashes with the LMDE side - just a guess,
but the blog clearly says to change your repositories before the update.

After that the machine flies, but I am waiting UP4 so I can fix my touchscreen digitizer

[zerozero]

with that iso is fairly safe to update to UP3 but:
- i would do it in the terminal (after changing the repos according to this viewtopic.php?f=185&t=82346)
- i would be very careful about the errors shown in there (my best bet is that last time - all of them - your updates weren't finished because of the gstreamer error also shown in the link above)
- update in the terminal with apt update && apt dist-upgrade and repeat this a couple times (even after the update has failed on you with any error and you apply some kind of fix) >> don't reboot before you see the prompt error's clean (foomatic-db-engine might be held back, that one is normal and not to worry about)

after all this i think that you have a pretty good change to do it

[scotthge]

Thanks for your input and helpful solutions. I changed my repos. as instructed and in the terminal did a apt update && apt dist-upgrade and everything is ok but one error as follows,

E: Release file expired, ignoring http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/dist ... ng/Release (invalid since 208d 17h 19min 22s)

So I think that everything updated alright as far as I can tell. There were not any other errors. The only thing that i do notice is that there is no update info button. Something still may not be 100% perfect yet.

Am I right assuming this ?

Scotty

[zerozero]

hi Scotty,
sorry taking this long get back to this topic;

yes, your assumption is right, not everything is 100% right yet, the error you are facing is not very usual but we have reports of it (and its fix)
check this topic (go to the part known issues) viewtopic.php?f=187&t=76556&hilit=+incoming#p444658 >> after that do again the apt update && apt dist-upgrade

now all should be fine (but if not just shout and we'll see what's the problem )

[scotthge]

zerozero,
well I am back to square one. but I guess it is my own stupidity. I followed the directions from the post that directed me to and everything went smooth. Then I went to the terminal and typed in "sudo apt update && apt dist-upgrade and again everything went ok, except that I had six broken packages. So I opened the package manager and fixed the broken packages. Mint update then said that I had new updates, a lot of them but I minimized the window and checked for anything else that might had gone bad. But I could find nothing that was broken or not working. My wife and I were going out for dinner so I shut my computer off with out even thinking about the Mint Update. Well when I got back from dinner and I turned on the computer and it booted up but I had no menu and the screen was black with three folders on the left hand side of the screen which were my Home folder, Computer folder, and the virtual box icon. I can not get to the terminal or Mint update because I do not have a menu.

Is there some way of using the live cd to access the mint update or the terminal ? I have re-booted the machine a couple of times and I now notice that there is an error while it is booting. I can't read it all because it flashes by so fast but it say something about ' findfs: unresolved...........

Is there anyway of fixing this now or do I start over and re-install LMDE again? Sometimes I wish that I was born with half a brain instead of my good looks.

Thanks for your help and patience.
Scotty

[zerozero]

Scotty,
not a problem
breaking it and trying to fix it (or not and reinstall) is part of the learning curve i can't count the times i went through the same story (we just have to take it light, in the end we will learn something with it)

now, this particular situation:
- without knowing the exact pkgs that were broken;
- without knowing the errors;
- knowing that most probably you interrupted a update process without it been completed;
- knowing that that install is (i guess) fairly new hence without many personal tweaks;

i would suggest start fresh
- keep this thread under your eye;
- if you see anything abnormal, post and ask for confirmation;

good luck

[wayne128]

. I can not get to the terminal or Mint update because I do not have a menu.

Is there some way of using the live cd to access the mint update or the terminal ? I have re-booted the machine a couple of times and I now notice that there is an error while it is booting. I can't read it all because it flashes by so fast but it say something about ' findfs: unresolved...........

Is there anyway of fixing this now or do I start over and re-install LMDE again? Sometimes I wish that I was born with half a brain instead of my good looks.

Thanks for your help and patience.
Scotty

Running Debian based distros requires some kinds of 'rules', there are many posts on it, such as
1. do not mix repos. if you are in stable, stay in stable, if you are in testing, stay in testing..
if you are in SID stay in SID.

2. do not use ppa..

3. always buy insurance:: CLONE your distros
it costs you some hard disk space:
use it to clone your latest, want-to-keep debian based distros, update the clone as often as you could, especially when there are too many updates.

if during the updating, your distros cannot work, something broke, then you take from clone, and start there: it is some 10-20 minutes aways insteads of reinstall + update.( which can also break).

Well. your system is already bad.
You might just want to spend some time to play on how to recover.
In order to do that you must be able to get into terminal.
Try that from grub menu, when grub menu appear, move cursor, hit 'e' , append kernel line with init3 and hope that it can boot and run from terminal. onc e you get into terminal, just get into root, and apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade.

have fun..

[scotthge]

Ok I have installed a fresh install of LMDE and have attempted yet one more time to get it to update. Here is the status, hopefully someone can get thru this part..............Upon booting after a fresh install of LMDE I get an error while booting," Unable to enumerate usb device on Port 5". Everything seems to work fine even though I get this error. I then did a "sudo apt-get update && dist-upgrade. Things went smoothly all through the upgrade, after 1 hr and 27 mins of the process, it ended stating the following,
"Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad_0.10.22-3_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

So what are these errors and how do I go about fixing them.

Thank you for your patience,

Scotty

[GeneC]

Scotty

Let's give 'zz' a break on this one..

Run

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad_0.10.22-3_amd64.deb

See
viewtopic.php?f=141&t=67502&p=459740#p459733

[scotthge]

Hi GeneC,

Ya, I have already fixed the gstreamer problem, now I am working on the "can not enumerate usb device on Port 5". So far no luck.

Thanks for your help,

Scotty

[GeneC]

That doesn't appear to be a real problem.

Numerous bug reports filed.

https://www.google.com/search?ix=aca&so ... 933&ix=aca