Talk about a failure to communicate! I am wondering about my skills now you see? My original question was related to keeping a system up to date with minor updates, not a major Debian upgrade like say Debian 6 to Debian 7. Again, starting with Debian (the latest stable) that is working and up to date. Then keeping it up to date with normal updates that Debian wants to do.
My statement is Debian should do that OK, assuming it was setup in a Debian manner. My worries are multi fold for this friends system. He is having issues with both Windows and Linux on his flagship workstation now. I will have to fall back on simplification and basic troubleshooting to help him further along. Issues with some programs is another topic. Not to say my case was the same, but I had an issue years ago with a mail program crashing. I think it was from an old carried forward home directory. A quick test by creating a new user worked fine, (no crashes) so I ended up repairing my home directory by clearing out the dot config directory for the offending program and starting a fresh configuration. This must have got rid of an old configuration that was incompatible with the newer program. No more crashes. Mel On Thu, 2014-02-20 at 17:26 -0700, Terrell Larson wrote: > The last time I upgraded was quite a while ago - from Debian woody to > Sarge. This upgrade was a DISASTER. So much for promises. > > (I think there is a song about that) > > A process when it is shutting down much call wait() and this is when > system resouces are released. Until wait() is called the process goes > into a zombie state. I have firefox for instance die about once a week > since say about 2006. Oh it works... It just spews a few 100 zombies, > rns out of memory and the kernal kills it and cleans up the mess. > > Other than an annoyance this is not a big problem for me. I simply > restart it when its convient and go do something else while it > reloads... which it ususlly but not always does and if not then I do > have checkpoint files in the sessionstore.js files which in my case live > in: .mozilla/firefox/jfthz6j9.default> > > Its a library mismatch issue. Likely nothing more than that. So where > is the utility which can spin through the libraries and actually CONFIRM > that the proper versions are present. > > This is a very simple data base operation. All we need is a program to > walk the directory tree and confirm required files are present and this > is what apt has to do anyways. Well I would think eight (8) years > should be sufficent. > > So I am going back to the way I use to install an OS. I buy a new > computer and if I can't justify that I at least buy a new hard drive! > > I think this speaks to the comments below. > > What we need are very simple tools which can actually access a common > data base of dependancies which hopefully will run off the appropriate > mirrors. Then if a mistake is made it can be corrected and I would > suggest the next time said utility is run it should advise the client of > any other apps which might have a correction. And I'll speak (write) to > this next. > > Several years ago I was in a chat room and someone was trying to get a > CDBurner working. This was alas in Debian Sarge and I think the app was > k3b. I submitted the solution, perhaps to the wrong place. A year > later someone else on IRC was asking the same question. So I told him > where to go. A year later: No improvemnt. > > I conclude we have what Cool Hand Luke suggested is a failure to > communicate. > > ------------- > > Now I have a question: I'm about to install the latest version of > Debian. It will not be an upgrade. I'm not making that mistake again. > > The video in the machine in question is not what will be there down the > track. At this point I don't even know what card it is - but its good > enough for an install. Down the track I might put in two single monitor > cards - likely old decrepid ones, or I might try a 5 head card. > > These all required TOTALLY different drivers. > > How hard is it to switch video systems? If a card dies and there is no > spare how does one even get into a GUI to reconfigure a new card? > > I have NEVER liked GUI's for this simple reason. BUT - I believe it is > feasible to write a system tool which can run in "EITHER" command prompt > -or- GUI modes. Does anyone know if there is anything out there which > acutally does something like this? > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 03:55:43PM -0700, Mel Walters wrote: > > Linux. Debian (Stable) > > > > For the intense hobbyist only? > > Here is just a question: > > How much truth is in the statement 'Installing and maintaining modern > > Linux is a non issue for the potential user now. Lets move on.'? > > > > My recent experience was in helping a friend fix his upgrades after his > > GUI upgrade gave an unhelpful error code he was unable to overcome. > > The issues appeared to be authentication and the GUI hiding what was > > going on in the background. Others prefer the command line and ncursers > > like programs (aptitude) so they can see what is going on. With out my > > intermittent help he would be unable use Linux a lot of the time. > > Some of it is just computer user issues, but I'll bet that's not the > > whole picture. > > > > Thoughts? > > > > Mel > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > clug-talk mailing list > > clug-talk@clug.ca > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > **Please remove these lines when replying > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > clug-talk@clug.ca > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list clug-talk@clug.ca http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
