Thanks Andy!
I did get them from Debian sources, so I should be good.
Per your advice, I will go through and read about changes, and see what
I need to be mindful of. Of course, I will backup everything first. =)
Thanks for clarifying the part about remove "non-debian source"
software, which I don't think I have anything (of value), that doesn't
come directly from Debian source repos =)
I like to keep things simple. I guess get started with the backup =)
Cheers.
On 26/12/2024 20:11, Andy Smith wrote:
Hi,
On Thu, Dec 26, 2024 at 07:39:23PM +0100, Thomas Anderson wrote:
I have been delayed with upgrading my debian distro, and want to upgrade to
12. According to the documentation, I should remove all non-debian
applications first, before upgrading. Almost all the applications I use are
non-debian (postfix, dovecot, apache, mysql, etc..), so it almost makes it
seem like I should just do a full new install??
The advice to "remove all non-Debian applications first" means to remove
things installed from non-Debian package repositories. It seems unlikely
that you have installed postfix, dovecot, apache, mysql, etc. from
outside of Debian, i.e. from third party repositories. If you have
installed them from the main Debian archive then that's fine.
Thinking out loud, I guess best bet would be to backup the systems most
important to me (outside of clonezilla), and just re-apply the configuration
files after a re-install of the required software systems?
Do you really need to remove any software? Most people don't need to.
"What is the difference between upgrading my system (after remove all
non-debian apps) and simply doing a brand new, clean install??"
"Is one better than the other??
If you have good backups of your configuration and user data and a good
understanding of what will change with the new versions of all your apps
then a reinstall can often make for a shorter downtime than an in-place
upgrade. Taken to the extreme, one can automate a reinstall a bit easier
than one can automate an upgrade, and have it done in a matter of
minutes.
The hardest part of any upgrade is when the new versions of the packages
are configured in different ways. You can go into it blind either with a
reinstall or an upgrade and who knows how long it will take for you to
work out what has changed, how it changed and how to make it work again.
Sometimes when the changes are extensive (like a whole restructuring of
config layout for example) then trying to change in place what you had
before to what is now required can be rather confusing, while looking
what the new default is and adjusting that to be how you want may be
easier.
It is still largely a matter of taste and I expect you will get replies
saying they have never reinstalled since Debian 0.90 and never had a
problem.
I upgrade in place a lot, sometimes even when I know it will probably
be faster/simpler to reinstall.
Thanks,
Andy
