I would argue that you CAN upgrade Debian from CD, it's just not as simple
as the installation for Slink. In fact, my procedure involves Slink itself.
1) Install Debian Slink from floppy or CD.
Do not use the computer "type" templates or dselect to choose your
packages. Instead, just install the base.
2) Buy a snapshot CD from one of the Debian CD providers (see the website).
3) Mount the CD.
4) Create a /etc/apt/sources.cd file with the line:
deb file:/mnt/cdrom debian main contrib
5) Link /etc/apt/sources.cd to /etc/apt/sources.list
6) Use apt-get to install the distribution upgrade.
7) Use apt-get to install individual packages (I would go with apt-console
first.) Or use dselect at this point to browse through your new
updated package list.
Snapshot CD's only cost around $10-15. If you're too cheap for that and you
are saavy enough to understand how 'cron' works, or perhaps an ftp site
mirroring package, download updates in the middle of the night or while you're
at work. You an interrupt apt-get at any time and start it up where you left
off, so having defined times for downloads is not such a big deal.
At work, we have a number of computers with Debian Linux installed. I simply
use Squid to be an ftp proxy. After the first fetch, subsequent fetches are
child's play. I really think the complaint that Debian is hard to upgrade
is really moot. If you're a little resourceful, you'll have no problems at
all.
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Chad Walstrom mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
a.k.a ^chewie, gunnarr http://wookimus.net/~chewie
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