On Thu 06 Apr 2017 at 18:02:22 (+0100), Joe wrote: > On Thu, 6 Apr 2017 10:45:23 -0500 > David Wright <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote: > > > On Thu 06 Apr 2017 at 11:50:56 (+0100), Joe wrote: > > > > > > > Granted, there have been more little niggles with each upgrade (this > > > machine started life as sarge), things get more complicated with > > > each version. > > > > I thought lenny→squeeze was the most complicated, because lenny's > > standard kernel was not compatible with the upgrade process and > > had to be upgraded in a preliminary step. That could then lead to > > knock-on effects with non-free firmware. And, for safety, udev > > had to be immediately upgraded because of the new kernel, then > > the system rebooted to bring them into operation before the > > upgrade. > > I don't remember that, though I must have gone through it. I wouldn't > dare try skipping a version. The only serious problem I had was when > exim4 jumped a version, and the new one didn't accept debconf > directives, and I hadn't noticed. Upgrading with the old configuration > file being kept turned out to be a big no-no, it got into a state where > even dpkg wouldn't uninstall the broken bits, and I had to resort to > deleting files manually. > > > > > > I'm not that bothered about downtime (within reason, the > > > Debian lists get very stroppy when their emails bounce) but some > > > people are. > > > > A few minutes later you posted: > > > > > If I was a paid admin looking after multiple servers, yes, that's > > > the obvious thing to do. But this isn't my job, and I can't afford > > > to buy a second set of hardware, so the only practical test is to > > > actually do it. > > > > How about getting those freeloading critics to fork out for > > a new drive so that you can build and test a second system > > (dual-bootable) during your scheduled downtimes. > > > > My what? It's a home server/firewall/mail server. There is no scheduled > downtime.
Sorry, I misunderstood your use of "some people". I thought they were the users that your MTA transfers emails to. > I migrated to a new hard drive a few months ago, and that > gave me some unscheduled downtime until I discovered what the BIOS was > doing with drive naming... it was one of those 'no, this *cannot* be > happening' moments where I copied /etc/fstab between the wrong pair of > drives, thereby breaking both old and new installations. > > It still seems to be unreasonably difficult to use a working > installation to install the correct grub information to another drive > which is intended to become the new working installation, still a matter > of messing around with chroot and a sequence of mounts and unmounts. You're not still using /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, are you? Cheers, David.
