Forum OpenACS Q&A: Re: Debian stable or testing? apt-get or yum? etc.

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7: Re: Debian stable or testing? apt-get or yum? etc. (response to 1)
Posted by Andrew Piskorski on 02/24/04 12:49 AM
On Debian 3.0, when I add backports to my /etc/apt/sources.list, if no version of the backported package exists at all in Stable, as is he case for e.g.: 
deb http://www.backports.org/debian/ woody smartmontools
then the package does not show up when I do "dpkg -l packagename", but if I install it with "apt-get install packagename" it installs just fine.

On the other hand, if the same package does exist already in Stable, as is the case with Mozzilla, then nothing I do with apt-get and friends will install or upgrade the package! 

deb http://www.backports.org/debian woody mozilla
What am I missing here? How do I upgrade to backported packages like Mozilla 1.6?
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8: Re: Debian stable or testing? apt-get or yum? etc. (response to 7)
Posted by Dirk Gomez on 02/24/04 08:59 AM
You should ask this on the backports mailing list where you get a really quick reply.

Oh yes, you did an apt-get upgrade after chaning /etc/apt/sources.list, right?

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9: Re: Debian stable or testing? apt-get or yum? etc. (response to 8)
Posted by Andrew Piskorski on 02/24/04 02:49 PM
apt-get update and then upgrade and/or install, yes of course.
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10: Re: Debian stable or testing? apt-get or yum? etc. (response to 9)
Posted by Luigi Martini on 02/24/04 05:20 PM
I would like to switch to debian since long.
I'm afraid, though, of leaving my SuSE install: the fear is not being able to install debian, and loose SuSE. In which case I will be left with an unusable computer, a dead box and no connection to the internet (no advice, no help). I have just one computer, and I'm alone.
Also, I could not enable floppy/CD/CDwriter on my computer (linux is not so easy as they say), so that there is no way for me to backup any data (apart from sending a very few files to yahoo suitcase).

Joel --> be happy with unstable.
Roberto --> stable + backports.

Please Joel and Roberto, could you suggest which debian version will be my doom? Which will I try and install?
I've tried to install OpenACS for long, but it was far too difficult to me. Now that 5 is ready I will try again, with the hope that instructions are really step-by-step, maybe with examples, and plain English (not computer-jargon).

First I will (try to) install debian. Which one, stable or unstable?

P.S. The only debian experience that made me happy is knoppix. I've read of some knoppix/OACS thing. Would that be interesting to a basic user (me)? Or is it just a demo disk, nothing usable?

Thanks for your help.

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11: Re: Debian stable or testing? apt-get or yum? etc. (response to 10)
Posted by Joel Aufrecht on 02/24/04 05:42 PM
I think you should get a working knoppix disk.  That way, if you mess up your only computer, you can boot to knoppix and have a working computer again.

Since I've just spent most of two days trying to use debian to upgrade kde from 3.1 to 3.2, my advice today is to not use a computer.