On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 10:32:42AM EST, Jude DaShiell wrote: > I tried taking a friend's machine from lenny to squeeze and it turned > into a disaster. As a consequence of the attempt his entire package > update and repair systems are broken. apt-get -f install can't fix > anything and dpkg --configure -a can't fix anything anymore and as > a consequence of those two acts, it's impossible to update his > system. I can't even downgrade back to lenny! What I would like to > know is if emergency procedures exist that can clear the mess out that > these operations created and get the system back to some known state. > I wouldn't mind this so much if the upgrade had simply failed but > a system breaking like this where even though useable with the > squeeze kernel on it is there nothing can be installed or uninstalled > with apt-get and aptitude apparently got turned into a zombi placed > in not fully installed or uninstalled or deferred status. If I had > done this to my own computer that would be one thing, but this is > a computer of a friend and I don't appreciate these tools for having > ended up leaving this kind of damage.
Hey Jude, Sorry to hear about that. Whether upgrading your own system or your friend's, the correct upgrade procedure is as follows: 1. Clone your existing system to a new partition¹ 2. Update your booloader so you have access the clone 2. Read the release notes, etc. 3. From the clone, run the update, upgrade, dist-upgrade procedure 4. Test the resulting system for a couple of days. 5. Delete the old system if you need to reclaim the disk space In any case, there is _always_ a quick painless way to ‘downgrade back to lenny’.. such as restoring from the full backup you made prior to running the dist-upgrade. As others have said, booting off a rescue disc and backing up anything worth saving is still an option. Reinstalling and restoring the user data shouldn't be difficult. Cheers, cj -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
