[Sussex] "pre-depend" error upgrading to Woody

[Steve Dobson]

Hi Gavin

On Tue, Mar 02, 2004 at 12:19:10AM +0000, Thomas Adam wrote:
>  --- Gavin Stevens <starshine at gavmusic.uklinux.net> wrote: 
> 
> > Feeling somewhat ill-prepared for upgrading to Woody as a result
> > of the error I encountered, I decided to do some reading &
> > increase my knowledge a little more & get better prepared in the
> > process.
> > 
> > I now have a good few pages of notes, mostly a mix of the Debian
> > docs for upgrading from a previous version & the most helpful
> > responses of Steve & Thomas.
> 
> Excellent :)

Thanks, it's so nice to be appricated.
 
> > My plan is (& thoughts are welcome on this) to upgrade using the
> > CDs, then activate the URLs afterwards & get security updates etc.
> > My thinking is that this will be more manageable from a time point
> > of view (ie - I won't suddenly find myself with a lengthy net
> > session when I don't expect it or can't do it at that time).
> 
> You could do it that way, but you'll want to keep syncing yourself with
> the security updates. Most people just install off the net since it is
> easier and saves you having to burn many ISOs.

Debian make itself available in a number of formats just so you can do 
think the way you want to.  But I tend to agree with Thomas, net installs
are just easier.

IIRC you have a modem link.  I assume (like me in the pre-broadband days)
that you are one one of BT's (or whoever's) surf packages so it is time
and not expensive that is the issue here.  I run Debian testing (sarge)
so much more stuff changes week to week (day to day mostly).  I use to
run my updates in dead time (overnight mostly).  Set them off and then
go to bed, shopping, whatever.  It works.  

I would think about getting broadband - it really is worth it.

> > One further question, if I may: I take heed of Steve & Thomas's
> > warning on dselect & I am planning on using apt-get. However, the
> > Debian docs strongly urge using dselect for upgrading in preference
> > to apt-get. I do not doubt the words of Steve & Thomas, but I would
> > be interested to know why dselect is so bad for upgrading - I presume
> > the warnings are based on bitter experience. What does it do wrong?
> 
> It's not that it is bad, just a real horrible interface and features that
> are now deprecated. In either case, apt-get (and aptitude, which will be
> dselect's replacement hopefully) do a far better job.
<snip>

If you read the release notes/docs/manpage (I can't remember where I 
did) you'll find that dselect was a first attempt by someone who, in 
his own words, couldn't design user interfaces.  It was never ment as
a "production" bit of software.  The problem was, for all its faults,
it worked, and was never rewritten.

Also, I admit it (and I think Thomas is too), a command line junkie.
There is real power there.

If you don't want to do a "net install" then think about doing it this
way.

Just before going to bed run the command:

  # apt-get -d dist-upgrade

This will pull on the packages you need from the net into the apt 
cache.  You can then go off line and upgrade later using 

  # apt-get dist-upgrade

Steve