On Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:12:09 -0500 Francis Gerund <ranr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, Jochen. > > 1) You are correct. It should have been: > > >Then, I did: > > >sudo apt-get check > >sudo apt-get update > >sudo apt-get upgrade > >sudo clean > >sudo autoclean > >sudo autoremove > > My mistake. Sorry. > > > 2) Run dist-upgrades? No one mentioned that (to me), and I did not > know anything about that. > > Hopefully I can find some information on that. > > I thought that once I upgraded to testing, I would be much like stable > - just generally sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade, and check, > clean, autoclean, and autoremove from time to time. You should be running dist-upgrades in stable. apt-get upgrade only gets new package versions, leaving out upgrades which require new packages, old packages to be removed, dependency changes, etc. dist-upgrade is necessary if you want all the latest updates. Just do a quick apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade apt-get autoremove apt-get clean from time to time. > 3) No, I don't want to make it easy to break my system, but I do > want/need to track testing. Stable is just too stale. > > I don't feel like testing, unstable, etc. should be only for the > nobles, and denied to the mere peasants (like me). Somehow I, a Debian peasant (and I am neither a UNIX veteran nor a sysop or anything), have been able to figure out how to use testing very easily, and have done so on several occasions in the past. Editing /etc/apt/sources.list and replacing 'stable' with 'testing' is not some mythical feat which only the gods are capable of. > I have read/heard all the warnings about system breakage. I do back > up my data. And I can reinstall if necessary. > > I have begun to suspect that the Debian "powers that be" deliberately > don't make upgrading to testing/unstable/experimental clear and easy, > in order to discourage people from doing it. Speculating upon the > reasons that might be is left as an exercise for the reader . . . It's pretty clear, actually. No speculation required. Running testing, and especially unstable, can be extremely dangerous for someone not prepared. For those who are, editing an /etc/apt/sources.list should not be a problem. Also, top-posting.
