[Sussex] Broadband at last

[Steven Dobson]

Gavin

On Wed, 2006-05-17 at 23:04 +0100, Gavin Stevens wrote:
> On Wed, 17 May 2006 06:57:14 +0100
> Steven Dobson <steve at dobson.org> wrote:
> > Well now is the time to do an "apt-get (dist-)upgrade" via the web.
> > The Debian home has some good stuff, but if you want any help just
> > shout.
> 
> Last night I downloaded the netinstall ISO for Debian Sarge (downloaded
> 111 MB in about 6 minutes) & I just need a pointer on the correct way to
> burn an ISO image onto a CD.

There is *NO* *NEED* to do a "install from scratch" just to switch over
to a network upgrade system.  The system doesn't even have to be running
the lastest version of stable either - this will work for earlier
versions of Debian so long as apt is installed).  You can switch over
your existing install thus:

  1). Login as root (to get a command line prompt).  There are
      graphical tools around but as I install servers mostly (with no X
      system running) I use the command line a lot for this.

  2). Issues the command: apt-setup

      This command updates the file /etc/apt/sources.list  which holds
      the configuration of where apt gets the package lists from.  You
      may want to move this file to a safe place so that apt-setup
      creates a "clean" sources.list file first:
         mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.safe

  3). Select one of the network methods (HTTP or FTP)
        I tend to use FTP unless I'm behind a company's firewall that is
        configured to stop outbound FTP.

  4). Select the flavor you want - probably stable.

  5). Select which mirror pool to use.  There is a "Britain (UK)" pool
      which is "close to you" Internet wise.

  6). Select which of the UK pools to use.  I believe that
      "ftp.uk.debian.org" is just a front for all the others.

  7). If you selected HTTP in step 3 you will be prompted for an
      HTTP proxy at this point.  As you are not sitting behind some 
      restrictive company firewall just hit return.

  8). Watch the system update the package sources as it pulls data from
      the remote server.  At the end of the process it report that there
      are 15409 packages (for stable) available to you.

      I selected "No" here to add another source.

  9). You are then prompted get get the "Security" updates.  You
      really should select "yes" to this.

 10). The security updates are only available in HTTP form so, if you
      selected FTP in step 3, you get the HTTP proxy question from
      step 7. 

 11). Configuration done; comand prompt back.  You are now ready to
      upgrade your installed packages.  Issue the command:
          apt-get dist-upgrade

      The system will list which packages are being upgrade, which are
      being installed (because of new dependancies in the upgraded
      packages), and which are being to be deleted (if any).  You are
      prompted before the system does it's magic.  I assume you will
      allow the upgrade.

 12). Lots of download and maybe some configuration questions for the
      new packages - this is very dependant on which packages you
      already have installed and what is being updated.

You only need to use apt-setup if you want to change where you get the
packages from (or add a new source).  You don't have to use apt-setup,
you can just edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list by hand.  I tend to do
it that way as it is quicker and eaiser for me.

Once you have apt configured then update regularly (at least once a
week).  For the stable releases this shouldn't be very much at all -
just bug fixes.  To upgrade a configured systems use:

    apt-get update
    apt-get dist-upgrade

The first command, "update", pulls the packages lists from the places
defined in sources.list and "dist-upgrade" upgrades and installs any
updated packages and installs any new packages the new versions require.

If you use stable you can use "apt-get upgrade".  This works much like
"dist-upgrade", except it will not install any new dependancies - so any
package that has been upgraded to depend upon a package not installed on
your system can not be upgraded and will be kept back.  Stable, as the
name suggests, is not updated with new packages, so this isn't an issue
there.  You only have to "dist-upgrade" when stable moves to a new
version.

Hope this helps and good luck.
Steve

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/sussex/attachments/20060518/838a47c3/attachment.pgp