edin.no-ip.com

This is a transformation of my other article for Fast and safe upgrade to Debian sid from stable or testing. The target is similar, but I will focus on upgrade your Debian setup from existing Etch install, or a new install with Lenny netinst CD.

So what is the different between using sid directly? Using sid is much risky than testing (well... that's for sure...), and for testing most packages dependency are more complete so daily upgrade can perform in more smooth style. Long story short, Debian testing is more suitable for lazy people as me :D

BTW some packages may still not available within testing tree, e.g. it can reuse stable package so no extra testing package is required; or your target package is just coming from unstable so its dependency packages are not yet ready for download in testing. Many other reason may brake your Debian testing install. So how to use Debian testing in a smart style? Combine APT source list with both stable/testing/unstable and ping them with suitable order.

Before start, I will assume you have a complete install of Debian Etch (stable) or a newly installed Lenny (testing). If you have any question, please refer to my previous guideline.

Oh here is some technical terms reference for newbie:

• Stable == Etch
• Testing == Lenny
• Unstable == Sid

I may mix the above terms within article. Stable/Testing/Unstable are naming from development stability point of view, where Etch/Lenny/Sid are talking about different release. For more information please refer to Wiki for Debian.

Configure APT with pinning

Again please refer to original guideline for sid, but we will coming with a bit tricky /etc/apt/preferences setup as below:

Therefore testing >> stable >> unstable. APT will keep focus on testing by default, then first searching for stable if dependency packages are not exists, and finally ask package from unstable if really required for.

Start upgrade to Lenny

You may also follow my legacy upgrade commands for your system upgrade, but there also coming with some up-to-date method:

Again some detail information for above commands. The main idea is using aptitude full-upgrade for system upgrade, but the pre-requirement is: this new command only available in aptitude with testing.

So we need to preform upgrade in 2 sections: first upgrade aptitude and its related core packages, then preform a full upgrade procedure with aptitude full-upgrade.

The upgrade path should be much simple than that for sid. After the complete upgrade, enjoy with your Debian Lenny :D