On Wed, 2 Dec 1998, E.L. Meijer (Eric) wrote:
> > > > I see no upgrade notes for slink. > > That's right, it is not released yet. > > > For hamm, these upgrade notes reside in > > .../hamm/hamm/upgrade-i386/README-upgrade > > Usually, I just use dpkg to install whatever packages I want from the > > upgrade distribution. For example, I might install a newer gimp from slink. > > Since I wouldn't have upgraded the base packages, I learned that using > > dpkg prematurely can cause little problems. > > Upgrading from rex to bo: I EVENTUALLY HAD TO REINSTALL FROM SCRATCH. > > I did this, without problems, but only after bo had been released. > > > Upgrading from bo to hamm: I EVENTUALLY HAD TO REINSTALL FROM SCRATCH. > > I did this too, and had to fix some bugs in the upgrade script by > hand, but eventually succeeded. I agree that this upgrade procedure was > by no means easy for someone without more extensive debian/unix > knowledge. > I chose to install from scratch because I had a good idea of how Debian Linux worked and wanted to change some things; partitions mainly, moved HD to another computer. > > Upgrading from hamm to slink: WHAT CAN I EXPECT. > > If you had trouble upgrading before, and could not fix it yourself or > with help from this list THEN DONT TRY TO UPGRADE TO AN UNSTABLE/FROZEN > DISTRIBUTION. > I started to download the slink distribution and install parts as I downloaded them. There were some dependency problems, but mainly a problem with libstdc++2.* packages. I thought installing other packages would work, but it only made the matters worse. There are <many> other e-mails in this list about "libstdc++ : __register_frame_info" breaking many packages. Since I have Netscape that uses the old 2.8 libs, I installed both 2.8 and 2.9 packages. Both had problems. After ftp'ing older packages, I had to dpkg --install both since dselect was broken! Moral of the story... If you are new and can't work around problems, then wait until it becomes stable. Here are the broken packages: size broken Next "unbroken" release 93182 libstdc++2.8_2.90.29-1.deb ??? 95086 libstdc++2.9_2.91.58-5.deb libstdc++2.9_2.91.59-1.deb If you look on the bug list, there is a write-up from the maintainer. If you have a problem, check the bug list and see if it's been reported. If not, then report it. > > With no instructions, I certainly will not use raw dpkg to add packages > > from slink to my current hamm distribution -- > > unless of course "dependencies" prevent this (do they now?). dselect works fine for me, except when it doesn't work. Then I had to use dpkg. > > Dependencies do not protect you from broken packages. Slink has not > been announced as being stable, so it is known to contain broken > packages. In other words: upgrade now and be assured of getting some > broken packages (well, almost assured). I think if there is no real > compelling reason to upgrade, it is best to wait for slink to be > released, and then wait a little longer after that and watch this list > carefully to see what problems could be expected. And please don't > shout on this list, we're all fellow users and volunteers. > > HTH, > Eric, who is typing this on a bo system, since it is perfectly capable > of what he needs it for. > > > -- > E.L. Meijer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | tel. office +31 40 2472189 > Eindhoven Univ. of Technology | tel. lab. +31 40 2475032 > Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (TAK) | tel. fax +31 40 2455054 >