Debian Lenny

This doesn't answer your question, but it's worth noting you can deploy etch, make the appropriate changes to /etc/apt/sources.list, and then use the standard upgrade procedure (basically apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade, but check the release notes for details. Really!)

Debian 5.0 (lenny) has officially been released.

I'm sure it will take a little time to get Lenny set up here on Linode. I'm sure they will want to do some testing before they release it for general use.

Jeff

@fos:

I'm sure it will take a little time to get Lenny set up here on Linode. I'm sure they will want to do some testing before they release it for general use.

Jeff Why should there be a need for additional testing? I think the Debian people did al lot of testing, and that the virtualization of Debian 5 is not different but Debian 4?

So just upgrade the Etch image. It's so minimal, it's perfectly suited to upgrading. It'll take two minutes.

> So just upgrade the Etch image. It's so minimal, it's perfectly suited to upgrading. It'll take two minutes.

Could anyone do a very quick outline sketch of an idiot guide for this, please?

Have read the link on the Lenny main page notice and suppose with a lot of head-scratching and dog-kicking I could do it, but a minimal two-minute route sounds more like my capability level.

I would have gone ahead before, with only my own play sites, but I now have users.

If I set up a new image on the control panel, does this just do the job or do I have to migrate databases over and suff?

Sorry to so obviously display my ignorance.

Any pointers would be good.

Very many thanks.

For most cases, you can use apt-get.

Change your repository at /etc/apt/sources (i.e. change "etch" to "lenny")

Then: apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade

saman007uk

Wow! Is it really that simple?

Thank you very much.

@Atomboy:

saman007uk

Wow! Is it really that simple?

Thank you very much.
Debian's package manager "apt" rocks, only one better IMO is Gentoo's portage. 90% of the quality of an OS rests on it's package manager IMO.

Cheers

marcus0263

Thank you for the endorsement of the advice.

Obviously, I have used apt-get for lots of things, but I have never upgraded a distro before and it is not something I am that interested in learning more than is necessary about at the moment.

Thanks to everyone's advice, I feel much more comfortable about this now.

I now think Linode rocks as well.

Many thanks.

If you're paranoid, you can add some extra disk space, clone your disk image(s), and then do the dist-upgrade. Once you're satisfied everything's fine, you can remove the backup copies and return the extra disk space for a pro-rated credit on your account. Cheap insurance. :-)

> …return the extra disk space for a pro-rated credit on your account. Cheap insurance.

Yes, I can see what you mean, but wouldn't Mr and Mrs Linode think that a bit rude?

I don't think they'll be mad. One thing I particularly like about Linode is that the staff are helpful and very understanding. I don't think they would mind you using a few extra GB's of storage for a short time.

@Atomboy:

Yes, I can see what you mean, but wouldn't Mr and Mrs Linode think that a bit rude?

The way I figure, The Caker would not have given us prorating if prorating were not meant to be used. This is, however, getting into theology a bit.

OK. This is going to be my last belt, braces and bicycle-clips check.

etc/apt/

sources.list

sources.liste

sources.list.d

list.d seems to be an empty directory, but sources.list and souces.liste each have several references to etch.

I am going to carefull replace each of these with lenny (all lowercase) and not change anything else.

I am then going to run the two apt-get commands as stated above by saman007uk.

I am then going to run - run like the wind - and never look back!

If anyone can tell me whether it is good, bad or indifferent to run those commands together or better separately, I would be grateful, otherwise I am no longer hysterical.

Very many thanks to everyone for their help.

sources.liste was a typo on your part when you saved the file one time. It's not any special file and should be removed. (Unless you've got something important to you in there.)

saman007uk's procedure is the basic process, but you really should read at least Chapter 4 of the release notes, which covers upgrading an existing system. Most of that chapter you can skip and/or ignore in order to do this quickly and easily. At minimum, after changing your /etc/apt/sources from etch to lenny, pick up here:

http://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/i3 … upgrade1st">http://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#aptupgrade1st