On Sunday 07 October 2018 10:17:10 Richard Owlett wrote: > On 10/07/2018 08:52 AM, Reco wrote: > > Hi. > > > > On Sun, Oct 07, 2018 at 08:14:05AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote: > >> It was recommended that I update to Buster. > >> I started with Debian 9.1.0 installed from purchased DVD1. > >> [MATE desktop] > >> I edited sources.list to access online repository. > >> I then followed the instructions at > >> [linuxconfig.org/how-to-upgrade-debian-9-stretch-to-debian-10-buste > >>r] as it had everything conveniently shown. > > > > That guide misses so crucial details and so barebone that it even > > feels wrong. > > I mean, there's the obligatory "backup your system first"? > > *ROFL* I am a graduate of School of Hard Knocks, Slow Learner > division. I have a system on a flash drive backup. > I have TWO copies of my /home partition.
So am I Richard, a School of Hard Knocks (a division of Alderson-Broddus University in philippi WV) alumni, but I've never heard of the Slow Learner Division. :) Chuckle... > > Where's the warning like "do *NOT* upgrade your system from X > > session (VNC included)"? > > And last, but not least, "if you do it via ssh, using screen(1) or > > tmux(1) is a must. Or get yourself iLO/ILOM/BMC". > > > > But it seems that you've figured out last part already, isn't it ;)? > > > >> Everything appeared to go normally up to a point well into the > >> actual downloading of the Buster packages. > > > > That's harmless by itself, unless apt gone further and started > > installing the packages. > > > >> I temporarily lost my internet connection. After reconnecting > >> apt-get gave an error message suggesting I use "--fix-missing" > >> IIRC. > > > > Which seems to be the above case. > > > >> It appeared to work and boot correctly. > > > > They call Debian "The Universal OS". The part of this universality > > (sp?) is Debian's ability to provide you with bootable system even > > after numerous deliberate attempts to break it. > > Failed upgrade (and it's most likely failed) is one of those cases. > > > > In short, a bootable system proves nothing by itself. > > > >> However Gparted no longer appears in the System->Administration > >> menu although Synaptic shows it as installed. I blindly chose to > >> tell Synaptic to reinstall it. > > > > If synaptic worked for you, it's likely that not everything's lost, > > and the upgrade process can be completed. > > > >> I installed stretch to another partition which I'm using now. > >> Is the Buster install repairable? > > > > Depends. I'd start with chrooting into this "another partition" and > > doing like something like this: > > I've never used chroot - I wasn't clear on what happened on current > system and what went on in the system chrooted to. > > Are you saying to boot the "Buster" system and chroot into the known > good Stretch system? > > > dpkg --configure -a > > apt update > > apt upgrade -s > > > > Just to estimate the damage. > > > > Reco > > Will follow up this afternoon. > Thanks. -- Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
