Update packs and sources

[mark1mint]

Hi,please excuse me as I know this has been beaten to death (well,almost..),but still I can't wrap my head around the update mechanism of MintDebian:at first I assumed that,being classified as a semi-rolling release,it would update continuously,only to find out that Ubuntu Lucid is updating furiously in comparison.Then I've searched the forum and learned that being based on Debian testing,which is static at the moment,there are actually no updates to be expected as of now,not with the standard source, at least-furthermore,if I got it right,the update packs mechanism slows down things even more,concentrating updates in big chunks instead of a steady flow of small updates,is that correct?
But I've chosen to try this distro to find out what a rolling release is about,so,without tracking Debian Sid, is it still possible to point to different sources and get things moving,so to speak? Any example of sources that will bring in more frequent updates,hopefully while keeping the system reasonably stable?
On a side note, sticking to a browser version so behind the faster release cycle that Mozilla claimed to be essential for security and performance reasons would appear as a security hole,but if no updates are delivered and installing a ppa is not advisable,you get stuck in a paradoxical situation in which,whilst running what is supposed to be kind of a rolling release,you're actually using a decidedly outdated version of the web browser:is there any workaround for this specific issue?

[Sonsum]

Regarding firefox, there are many ways to upgrade to 14 from LMDE. You can download and install it manually from Mozilla, install it through apt-pinning, or following Mozilla's guide:

http://mozilla.debian.net/ - This way is easiest. NOTE: you will be installing iceweasel, not firefox. They're almost exactly the same thing, but iceweasel is Debian's version without the Firefox branding. Everything is compatible between the two releases. Make sure to choose testing and release for Iceweasel 14.

Regarding the UP philosophy, it is a semi-rolling release. The packages don't always come fast (you'll need Sid or pure Testing for that). BUT, they are carefully selected to not mess up your system and to provide solutions for potential problems that may arise. It is a very methodical upgrade choice, unlike Sid or Testing which allow packages in based on a limited criteria.

Personally, I prefer the large chunk to small update method. I'm running pure Testing on this machine (I really wanted the newest Gnome) and I get about a dozen updates a day. Sid has even more. There are almost always ways to get the packages you want from farther upstream (aka Testing, Sid, Experimental) from LMDE with a reduced threat of system borkage.

In the linux world, you have to make a choice between stability or the newest packages. Stable is one end of the spectrum, it is VERY stable, but you are rarely going to get non-security updates. Testing is much newer packages, but at a cost of stability. And Sid can be extremely unstable, but the packages are nearly cutting edge.

If you want to try, you could upgrade your system to pure testing. You'll get more frequent updates, but there is an increased chance that something will break.

[zerozero]

mark1mint,
most of your questions are answered (i think) here
regarding firefox/iceweasel (as Sonsum said) mozilla.debian.net is the easiest way to get up to iceweasel 16 if you want to

[mark1mint]

Thanks folks,that FAQ helps indeed to understand the inner workings of this interesting (although not so easy) distro As for Iceweasel,I take one has to first remove Firefox from the system,as trying to install it by adding that results in some error about broken packages and unmet dependencies.

[zerozero]

hi mark1mint,
it's not necessary to remove FF in order to install iceweasel, they can co-exist;
exactly what mozilla.debian repo you tried? what was the error exactly?

[mark1mint]

Something about an higher version number of xulrunner that was needed but not going to be installed,I got this message after trying to install either beta or aurora from the mozilla.debian repo,release would install but then it was pretty much pointless being the same version as the default Firefox installation.That was what got me thinking it was maybe a dependency conflict that could go away by removing Firefox-in the meantime I've switched sources pointing them at Update Pack 5 and the latest Firefox is there ,it would be good to know how to solve this issue nonetheless,just in case.

[zerozero]

mark1mint,
i just tried (now) with iceweasel 16 and there is a dep problem with libnspr4-0d and libnspr4
http://packages.debian.org/search?suite ... s=libnspr4
http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=libnspr4-0d
the versions on testing of those lib are too old for aurora

Code: Select all

zerozero@deb-kde ~ $ sudo apt-get install -s iceweasel
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 iceweasel : Depends: xulrunner-16.0 (>= 16.0~a2+20120727042008-1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
zerozero@deb-kde ~ $ sudo apt-get install -s iceweasel xulrunner-16.0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 xulrunner-16.0 : Depends: libmozjs16d (= 16.0~a2+20120727042008-1) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libnspr4 (>= 2:4.9.2) but 2:4.9.1-1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
zerozero@deb-kde ~ $ sudo apt-get install -s iceweasel xulrunner-16.0 libmozjs16d 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libmozjs16d : Depends: libnspr4 (>= 2:4.9.2) but 2:4.9.1-1 is to be installed
 xulrunner-16.0 : Depends: libnspr4 (>= 2:4.9.2) but 2:4.9.1-1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

you can see above that i went through he errors until i got the one that could mean something.
- the version that makes the new iceweasel install is in sid (won't come to testing until next fev i'm afraid)
4.9.1 doesn't work but 4.9.2 will

Code: Select all

zerozero@deb-kde ~/Downloads/odds $ sudo dpkg -i *deb
(Reading database ... 161962 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libnspr4-0d:amd64 2:4.9.1-1 (using libnspr4-0d_4.9.2-1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libnspr4-0d:amd64 ...
Preparing to replace libnspr4:amd64 2:4.9.1-1 (using libnspr4_4.9.2-1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libnspr4:amd64 ...
Setting up libnspr4:amd64 (2:4.9.2-1) ...
Setting up libnspr4-0d:amd64 (2:4.9.2-1) ...

this after manually d/ling the debs from
http://packages.debian.org/sid/libnspr4-0d
http://packages.debian.org/sid/libnspr4
i already managed to

Code: Select all

zerozero@deb-kde ~ $ sudo apt-get install -s iceweasel xulrunner-16.0 libmozjs16d libnspr4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
libnspr4 is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  aptdaemon-data gir1.2-vte-2.90 libvte-2.90-9 libvte-2.90-common
  python-aptdaemon.gtk3widgets software-properties-common
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
Suggested packages:
  mozplugger libgnomeui-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  iceweasel libevent-2.0-5 libmozjs16d xulrunner-16.0
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst libevent-2.0-5 (2.0.19-stable-3 Debian:testing [amd64])
Inst libmozjs16d (16.0~a2+20120727042008-1 Debian Mozilla Team:experimental [amd64])
Inst xulrunner-16.0 (16.0~a2+20120727042008-1 Debian Mozilla Team:experimental [amd64])
Inst iceweasel (16.0~a2+20120727042008-1 Debian Mozilla Team:experimental [amd64])
Conf libevent-2.0-5 (2.0.19-stable-3 Debian:testing [amd64])
Conf libmozjs16d (16.0~a2+20120727042008-1 Debian Mozilla Team:experimental [amd64])
Conf xulrunner-16.0 (16.0~a2+20120727042008-1 Debian Mozilla Team:experimental [amd64])
Conf iceweasel (16.0~a2+20120727042008-1 Debian Mozilla Team:experimental [amd64])