2.2 to 2.3 Upgrade

[nathan r. hruby]

On Thursday, September 26, 2002, at 10:11 AM, Stephen Reiach wrote:

> On Thu, 26 Sep 2002 00:00:53 -0400
> cbsled@ncia.net wrote:
>
> if you havn't, install apt-get.

Hehe..
yup install apt-get

Whee.. too much coffee this morning.

> edit your /etc/apt/sources.list so that all 2.2s become 2.3.
> apt-get update
> apt-get distro-upgrade
>

You mean apt-get dist-upgrade, right :)

Typically you may want to do something like:

# Purge current package cache
apt-get purge

#backup your important stuff, mounting and switching zipdisks as needed
export TODAY=`date -I`
tar -cv --file=/mnt/zipdisk/backups/$TODAY-etc /etc
tar -cv --file=/mnt/zipdisk/backups/$TODAY-home /home
# backup the apt stuff in case the upgrade fries your apt install, you 
can revert
tar -cv --file=/mnt/zipdisk/backups/$TODAY-/var-cache-apt /var/cache/apt

# edit your sources.list file - pick a fast mirror!
pico /etc/apt/source.list

# Now do the dirty work
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

The reason being is that make apt's job easier in calculating 
dependencies.  The first upgrade will upgrade all packages that you have 
on your system that do not require additional packages installed and 
holding back any that require additional installs.  The second one will 
upgrade the held packages and additionally install any required packages 
to resolve dependencies for those held packages as well as the newly 
installed packages.  apt-doesn't always get things right, so doing a 
2-step upgrade makes it easier to not screw things up.

Additionally, monitor the progress of apt, occasionally it will fail to 
install or update a package for some odd reasons, and you'll need to 
rerun the upgrade or dist-upgrade command.  apt will cache packages it 
downloads until you purge them, so re-running a install once you have 
the packages is an easy thing.

HTH!

-n
--
......
nathan hruby - nhruby@arches.uga.edu
computer services specialist
uga drama
http://www.drama.uga.edu/
......