Re: How do I find out what version of ebian is on a machine?
I am cc-ing this back to debian-user because it contains information which will be useful to anyone considering an upgrade to hamm. On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Stan Brown wrote: On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Stan Brown wrote: All ths talk of libc5 to libc6 upgrades gotme thnking about upgarding. Since it matters at this point in time for upgradeing, how do I determine what version of Debian is on a given machine? cat /etc/debian_version great information. So since mne reports 1.2 what is the name of the version on my box? Since most people on this list only talk names, not numbers. debian 1.2 was code-named rex. And how hard is it going to be to upgrade this toe 2.0 ( hamm?). i have sucessfully run my autoupgrade script on a rex system...well, a system which was built as rex and upgraded out of bo while bo was still the unstable version. so the system was somewhere between rex and bo. Robert Hilliard is working on my script so that it fully supports an upgrade from rex. i think he said that he expects to have that done within a few days. when it's ready, he'll probably post his updated version to either debian-user or debian-devel or both. However, the script only does the potentially dangerous bits of the upgrade. i.e. libc6, libncurses, libreadline, bash and several other packages. if these packages are installed in the wrong order, then the system is likely to be extremely broken (bash wont work any more which makes it hard to fix). The script DOES successfully do that part of the upgrade. After it has run, it is still up to you to run dselect and upgrade the rest of the system. this is not an option - once you start upgrading to hamm, you really have to do a complete upgrade...there are too many incompatibilities between libc5 based bo (and rex) and the new libc6 based hamm. not completing the upgrade once you've started it will be a lot more trouble and a lot more work than just going ahead and doing it. depending on how many packages you have installed (and hence need to be upgraded) and whether you have a local mirror of debian or not, this could take half a day or a day to complete. if you've never done an upgrade to hamm before, set aside at least a day. if you've done it several times before, it'll be about half a day. Think carefully about whether you want to do this or whether you have the time to do this before you start. You'll end up with a much newer system with all the latest stuff (including bug fixes and security fixes) but it may cost you a day or more of anger, frustration, and hard work to get there...running the unstable release can be very rewarding but it has it's price too. If stability is more important to you than bleeding edge then DO NOT UPGRADE. if you decide to do the upgrade, remember the usual rules with dselect: 1. Go through the Update and Select phases. 2. Then Install. If any problems, choose Configure. 3. Then repeat the Install followed by Configure until dselect reports no problems. 4. Then Remove and finally Quit. the other thing to remember about dselect is that the error messages it prints usually look a lot more serious than they really are - don't panic, just repeat the Configure Install cycle as often as necessary. Occasionally you might have to shell out of dselect temporarily and use dpkg to install or remove a package or two by hand (this is more likely the longer you leave it between upgrades). if none of the above makes any sense to you then wait for hamm to be released as the new stable Debian 2.0 release. the upgrade will have been thoroughly tested(*) by then and will be a lot easier to get through. (*) from bo, at least. maybe not as an upgrade from rex. but you could always upgrade from rex to bo (which has been tested) and then immediately upgrade to hamm. craig -- craig sanders -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How do I find out what version of ebian is on a machine?
On Mon, Jan 19, 1998 at 08:44:03PM +1100, Craig Sanders wrote: 3. Then repeat the Install followed by Configure until dselect reports no problems. It might just be more, or it might just be dpkg-ftp, but I find that if I do install, then install again, it will download again all the packages I have already downloaded; I have to run a select phase in between to stop it doing this. (Just about to install buzz here Craig.) Hamish -- Hamish Moffatt, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Latest Debian packages at ftp://ftp.rising.com.au/pub/hamish. PGP#EFA6B9D5 CCs of replies from mailing lists are welcome. http://hamish.home.ml.org -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How do I find out what version of ebian is on a machine?
Craig Sanders [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote about upgrading to libc6: After it [Craig's fine upgrade script] has run, it is still up to you to run dselect and upgrade the rest of the system. this is not an option - once you start upgrading to hamm, you really have to do a complete upgrade...there are too many incompatibilities between libc5 based bo (and rex) and the new libc6 based hamm. not completing the upgrade once you've started it will be a lot more trouble and a lot more work than just going ahead and doing it. [..] if you've never done an upgrade to hamm before, set aside at least a day. You make me startle! I had the impression that one could slowly upgrade, starting with your script. Because I would like to run wine and dosemu, and I want to use my IDE CD-rewriteble, all of which are not or not well supported in the bo version, I decided to upgrade to libc6, expecting that I could later on, when I have time, pick up and install other debian packages that I seem to need. I ran your script and afterwards my computer seems to run as fine as it did before. What is the kind of trouble that I can expect if I only run your upgrade script without further upgrading? Regards, Paul Huygen [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
How do I find out what version of ebian is on a machine?
All ths talk of libc5 to libc6 upgrades gotme thnking about upgarding. Since it matters at this point in time for upgradeing, how do I determine what version of Debian is on a given machine? Thanks. -- Stan Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED]770-996-6955 Factory Automation Systems Atlanta Ga. -- Look, look, see Windows 95. Buy, lemmings, buy! Pay no attention to that cliff ahead...Henry Spencer (c) 1998 Stan Brown. Redistribution via the Microsoft Network is prohibited. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How do I find out what version of ebian is on a machine?
On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Stan Brown wrote: All ths talk of libc5 to libc6 upgrades gotme thnking about upgarding. Since it matters at this point in time for upgradeing, how do I determine what version of Debian is on a given machine? cat /etc/debian_version but IMO, it's worthless information. in fact, IMO the concept of a 'debian version' is essentially worthless...as soon as one package is upgraded, the debian_version is no longer valid. it's useful as a rough guide to tell you approximately what era a system was built in (and, by extrapolation/guesswork how difficult it might be to upgrade to the latest distribution release) the only versions numbers that really matter are the version numbers of the packages you have installed. type 'dpkg -l' to get a complete listing. pipe the output into less because it'll be several screenfuls long. type 'dpkg -l | grep ^ii' to get a listing of only the installed packages. BTW, i've been running hamm for months and this is what /etc/debian_version contains on my systems: $ cat /etc/debian_version 1.3 this isn't surprising, though, because debian 2.0 aka hamm hasn't been released yet. craig -- craig sanders -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How do I find out what version of ebian is on a machine?
On Sun, Jan 18, 1998 at 08:10:36AM -0500, Stan Brown wrote: All ths talk of libc5 to libc6 upgrades gotme thnking about upgarding. Since it matters at this point in time for upgradeing, how do I determine what version of Debian is on a given machine? There is probably no such thing like a debian version, because Debian consists of seperate packages, and each of them has an own version number. This gives finer graduation and makes it easier to fix parts of the system. Well, there are major stable releases, where we try to put together a stable system, where all packages fit nicely together. The last one was Debian 1.3.1, which some revisions that followed. You can get an idea of your version of Debian if you compare the version numbers of the essential packages. There is also a file /etc/debian_version, but this does not really reflect the version of the system as a whole. It says something like: Hey, the last major upgrade leaded to this version. Hope this helps, Marcus -- Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.Debian GNU/Linuxfinger brinkmd@ Marcus Brinkmann http://www.debian.orgmaster.debian.org [EMAIL PROTECTED]for public PGP Key http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/ PGP Key ID 36E7CD09 -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
