updating linux

[firebird]

To update linux, is the following all that's required:
aptitude update
aptitude safe-update

Also, how often should I update debian?


There's a scheduled task for apt at /etc/cron.daily/apt, does this mean debian updates automatically?

[trilarian]

To update linux, is the following all that's required:
aptitude update
aptitude safe-update

I'm still partial to apt-get, but the above should work if you change it to safe-upgrade. You can also make it a one liner:

aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade

Also, how often should I update debian?

Depends on which release you run. Stable doesn't push updates that fast and can usually be kept up-to-date running updates once a month. Testing gets them faster and weekly should be more in line. Unstable is a daily build and can be updated as such.

There's a scheduled task for apt at /etc/cron.daily/apt, does this mean debian updates automatically?

Personally I would advise against auto-updates. While very rare for stable (a bit more common in testing/unstable), sometimes an upgraded package breaks another and so one of two things occurs. 1) The updated package is installed and the broken one removed (occurs with full-upgrade, should not on safe). 2) Updated package is held back (behavior of safe).

Briefly looking over what packages are being installed, upgraded, removed, or held back can greatly help you reduce any down time from a botched upgrade. Just one of many examples, say you are running a raid array and an update causes a conflict with a dependency for mdadm and so it is removed when aptitude/apt-get is run. Taking the minute to read that and cancel the update can save you hours of trying to get your system able to read the array again. Alternatively for a web server, seeing that a security update on a package is being held back because it breaks a dependency for a package you rarely use, you may decide it is worth it to push thru.

[firebird]

Question about the kernel,

Debian Squeeze comes with kernel 2.6.32 by default. Does it always have a 1 to 1 mapping or does newer kernels have to be installed in a distro version?

Like, when the next version of Debian is released...will it use the next version of the kernel and that you shouldn't need to upgrade the kernel...just the distro?

[trilarian]

You don't have to wait for the next major release to hit to update the kernel. Debian should have a place holder package that points to newer kernels as they are pushed out. This will cause the kernel to act just like any other package, you'll see it updated with other packages. Alternatively, you can point to a specific one to prevent the auto-update.

Short version, kernel is independent of the release version.

[lugoteehalt]

Simplest thing is to have the Gnome desktop - which can be ponced up big time to stop it being dull - and then a red symbol appears every few days and clicking it upgrades the thing.

[trilarian]

Simplest thing is to have the Gnome desktop - which can be ponced up big time to stop it being dull - and then a red symbol appears every few days and clicking it upgrades the thing.

This is a front-end to aptitude/apt-get. Same update procedure, just moved from the CLI to a widget that auto runs the update portion. I'm not opposing the suggestion, just mentioning for firebird that this isn't a different update procedure so just a choice on semantics.

[firebird]

I had vmware workstation installed and because it doesn't use LSB headers in it's scripts (actually it does but the vm installer has a bug that it doesn't use the headers), therefore most app configure triggers fail under Debian.

I just installed a huge update from Debian (6.02 update) and at the end, it was processing the triggers. But because of vmware, one of the triggers failed and it said couldn't configure and one of the packages failed/missing etc.

I fixed the vmware scripts by adding the LSB headers and re-ran aptitude safe-upgrade, this time it processed all the triggers succesfully.

After restarting, I did aptitude update and aptitude safe-upgrade and it showed that there was nothing to upgrade.

Is there a way to verify if all the updates and their triggers were installed successfully? Is there a way to "rerun" the triggers? Or maybe even rerun the 6.02 update?

[trilarian]

I know with apt-get its

apt-get -f install

to verify proper install and/or rerun triggers for failed installs. Assuming aptitude has something similar.

[firebird]

Thanks, looks like it is also the same on aptitude (aptitude -f install). I ran it and it said no packages need to be installed or upgraded etc so it looks like everything installed and configured fine.

[teeitup]

Your current version if running stable can be found in the /etc/debian_version file.

$ cat /etc/debian_version
6.0.4 <- most current version is 6.04

If you're running testing the version is reported as "testing".

[peterr77]

you don't have to wait for the next major release to hit to update the kernel. Debian should have a place holder package that points to newer kernels as they are pushed out. This will cause the kernel to act just like any other package, you'll see it updated with other packages

[paulspignon]

I'm not sure whether my problem should come under this thread or somewhere else, open to suggestions. Anyway, I run Debian as guest in VMware Workstation 9 on a Windows 7 host, both 64-bit. I want to upgrade from Debian 5.0.10 (lenny) to squeeze, now at 6.0.5.
This fails miserably - the apt-get dist-upgrade of course tries to install 6.0.5, but then after log in no keyboard or mouse input gets
through to the guest. VMware support guy tells me "Workstation 9 is compatible with Debian version till 6.0.2. Since you are using 6.0.5, I would request you to downgrade and let me know. " That is really poor from VWware, which is btw not free, but also I don't know
how to (a) downgrade from a totally unresponsive 6.0.5, or (b) upgrade from 5.0.10 to 6.0.2, which is now out of date and for which I cannot find any package.
Any advice gratefully received.
/Paul