On Mon, Aug 23, 1999 at 03:06:10PM -0700, Seth R Arnold wrote: > hi all, > > I recently bought slink from cheapbytes ($12 for 4 CDs! wow! :) so I could > install it before I get to school... but, it seems to me that it comes with > ancient versions of some software (windowmaker 20.x I think...) so I would > like to upgrade to potato. > > Is there a nice easy way of doing this? I remember seeing a link on the > debian homepage that discussed what was involved in moving from 2.0.x to > 2.2.x (I did that manually with SuSE, an experience that .. I would rather > avoid again, but I did learn from it. :) -- but I haven't seen it lately. Install the APT package with dselect (last one you'll ever need to install :-). Add this to /etc/apt/sources.list (change the mirror if necessary): deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free #deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main #deb-src http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main You can uncomment the deb-src lines once you upgrade to the potato version of APT. It lets you download, modify, and rebuild packages with very little work. But that's off the subject :-)
After that, run 'apt-get update' to get a list of slink packages, and 'apt-get dist-upgrade' to grab everything. Once you've done that, and upgraded your APT, then you can uncomment the deb-src line and rerun 'apt-get update' to grab a source index too. Be sure to read man apt-get and apt-cache. APT can do lots of neat tricks :-) > > Without further suggestions, it seems that the way to do it is point dselect > to the potato directory of a nearby mirror and use that thing to upgrade all > my packages. Any caveats I should watch out for, or prepare against? > (Something about bash?) It seems a bit .. hitting the + key too often. I'm pretty sure that the bash/libreadline problem has been fixed. If you are really paranoid, download zsh or ash and run the APT install from that. > > And, wrt to the install process -- it tripped me a bit that i needed the > second bin cd first -- my fault, I just booted the CD and didn't even look > for a readme file (sitting there plain as day :) -- but it would be nice to > see documented in the setup. Also, asking questions during the install of > packages threw me off a bit. Maybe this should be brought up in > debian-devel, but... it would be nice for packages to ask their questions at > the beginning, or at the end. as for byte-compiling emacs code.... > (dangerous waters here...) vim doesn't have bytecode to compile. <duck> :) You can have my VIM when you pry it from my cold dead fingers :-) > > Thanks all. > > btw -- the reason why I decided to try debian was its users -- many of the > users evangelize debian, absolutely lauding it. So I had to try it. Agreed..debian is cool because of the people factor. I've been a RedHat convert since '96. > So far > it seems like the perfict fit for me. the users I have seen mention it > though didn't carry a holier-than-thou attitude with them -- users that like > their way of doing things, since many did things the other way before. You > all seem like a nice bunch of folks. If you keep it up, you will probably > keep getting more converts. :) (Heck, I liked the idea enough that *I* want > to be a debian developer -- just no clue what to develop. heh heh. :) I was a developer a couple of years ago, but stopped doing it. Right now, there's a major backlog, and the <unconfirmed> rumor is that they won't accept new ones until after potato's release in November. Check the debian-devel archives if you are interested. -- Stephen Pitts [EMAIL PROTECTED] webmaster - http://www.mschess.org
