On Wed, Jun 07, 2006 at 10:20:56AM EDT, William O'Higgins Witteman wrote: > On Tue, Jun 06, 2006 at 09:51:48PM -0400, cga2000 wrote: > > >> I will assume that you, as a relatively new Debian user, are running > >> stable (sarge). > > > >Yes. But the main reason is that I am a new Debian user on a laptop :-( > > I have taken the middle path with Debian, and use testing. This gives > me newer software with security updates, without the rapid change and > general wobbliness of unstable. > > I wanted vim 7.0 though, and I got it from unstable - it works fine, and > I have been doing this for new software for 5 years without anything > upsetting happening. Here's what I did to get vim 7.0: > > # vim /etc/apt/sources.list > :%s/testing/unstable/g > :wq > # apt-get update > # apt-get install vim-full > # vim /etc/apt/sources.list > :%s/unstable/testing/g > :wq > # apt-get update > > I don't mess with pinning or anything tricky - I just let some packages > get a head start. Eventually they are included and upgraded in testing, > and then my regular updates pick them up and move them forward. > > Something to note with this approach is that it will overwrite your vim > 6.4 installation. That was the result I wanted, and so I am > unconcerned - I know that I can simply do an "apt-get remove > vim-full;apt-get install vim-full" with my usual setup (with testing as > my version) and I'll be back at 6.4 in a trice, with all of my configs > where I expect them. > > Now, to be clear, this doesn't work if you are tracking stable for > getting vim 7.0 - it is a bit too far behind unstable. For a laptop > (for my laptop, actually) I recommend running testing, because you can > keep more up to date but you are not working your expensive machine too > much with custom compiling or package churn. > > I understand your reticence about doing things you don't understand, and I > am not trying to pressure you into upgrading your OS :-) I just want > you (and others who may read the archives or lurk) to know how I > overcame my conflict between a stable system and the latest and > greatest vim. > -- > > yours, > > William
Thanks. Just for the record: I tried installing "etch" about three months ago but the installer was unable to detect my PC card. I fooled him by going back and forth in the menus, loading the relevant module manually and the first part of the installation completed successfully. But when I rebooted into the base system to complete the install - the second phase where you download whatever applications you plan to use - etch stubbornly refused to connect me. There was apparently a problem with DHCP - I was never able to obtain a lease. I spent about a month trying to get this to work and eventually abandoned the install. I just could not afford to spend more time with this. So I'll stick with stable for the foreseeable future.. maybe give it another shot some time later this year - see if the pcmcia-related problems have been fixed. Thanks, cga
