Re: Downgrading a system to a particular distribution
El mié, 28-09-2005 a las 10:10 -0400, Kevin B. McCarty escribió: Thanks for your help Kevin. The procedure you outlined (below) for downgrading just worked ok for me. I understood it and i think it makes sense. I did not know how to get a list of packages from each branch, like the one given by apt-show-versions. > Downgrading in general isn't supported by Debian. If you want to try > anyway, though, here are some guidelines. I've done this before to take > a computer with an old version of Sid down to Sarge. I did this before > the XFree86 -> Xorg transition happened; things will be more difficult now. > > - Remove all lines referencing sid or unstable from > /etc/apt/sources.list. If you want to downgrade all the way to stable, > also remove all lines referencing etch or testing. > > - Run apt-get update > > - Install the package apt-show-versions. Run the following command, and > it will tell you all the packages installed on your system that are > newer than the version in testing (or stable, depending on how far you > want to downgrade): > > apt-show-versions | grep 'newer than version in archive' > > - To downgrade something that shows up in this list, run "apt-get > install /stable". For instance, to downgrade the "tar" > package, you would do "apt-get install tar/stable". Note that you may > have to replace "stable" with "sarge" depending on which you refer to it > as in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. If you only want to downgrade to > testing, use "etch" or "testing" instead, of course. > > - Downgrade applications first, then libraries. In general, if package > A is an application depending on libraries B and C, and library B > depends on library C, then you want to downgrade them in the order > A,B,C. This is because an older application can use a newer library (so > long as the soname has not changed), but a newer application may not be > able to use a library older than the version against which it was compiled. > > - Sometimes you may have to downgrade several packages at once (e.g. > "apt-get install libgtk2.0-0/stable libgtk2.0-dev/stable") in order to > work around versioned dependencies. You'll know this is necessary if > APT wants to remove packages or complains about packages having unmet > dependencies. > > - Some packages may exist in sid but not in testing/stable. You can > find them with > > apt-show-versions | grep 'No available version in archive' > > If you don't want them, try "apt-get remove"ing them to see what > happens. If APT wants to remove a bunch of other things, let it -- keep > a list of what gets removed, then reinstall it from stable. > > - If at any point you run into a problem like maintainer scripts failing > in non-trivial ways, or segfaults, or something like that, back up all > your data and reinstall from scratch -- it's probably easier. > > Good luck, > > -- > Kevin B. McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Physics Department > WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/Princeton University > GPG: public key ID 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544 > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Downgrading a system to a particular distribution
"Kevin B. McCarty" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Alf wrote: Now my system is no very stable, and some applications crash now and then. Because of this, i'd like to return to a more stable state. Is there a way to uninstall all packages from unstable branch? I'd like to get my system back to testing, say, or stable. Downgrading in general isn't supported by Debian. Although if none of his installed non-sarge apps are 'essential', he should be able to just purge the packages from etc/sid, and then install them again from sarge. By guess is that his system got hit by the C++ transition, which would be a nightmare to downgrade from. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Downgrading a system to a particular distribution
Alf wrote: > Now my system is no very stable, and some applications crash now and > then. Because of this, i'd like to return to a more stable state. Is > there a way to uninstall all packages from unstable branch? I'd like to > get my system back to testing, say, or stable. Downgrading in general isn't supported by Debian. If you want to try anyway, though, here are some guidelines. I've done this before to take a computer with an old version of Sid down to Sarge. I did this before the XFree86 -> Xorg transition happened; things will be more difficult now. - Remove all lines referencing sid or unstable from /etc/apt/sources.list. If you want to downgrade all the way to stable, also remove all lines referencing etch or testing. - Run apt-get update - Install the package apt-show-versions. Run the following command, and it will tell you all the packages installed on your system that are newer than the version in testing (or stable, depending on how far you want to downgrade): apt-show-versions | grep 'newer than version in archive' - To downgrade something that shows up in this list, run "apt-get install /stable". For instance, to downgrade the "tar" package, you would do "apt-get install tar/stable". Note that you may have to replace "stable" with "sarge" depending on which you refer to it as in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. If you only want to downgrade to testing, use "etch" or "testing" instead, of course. - Downgrade applications first, then libraries. In general, if package A is an application depending on libraries B and C, and library B depends on library C, then you want to downgrade them in the order A,B,C. This is because an older application can use a newer library (so long as the soname has not changed), but a newer application may not be able to use a library older than the version against which it was compiled. - Sometimes you may have to downgrade several packages at once (e.g. "apt-get install libgtk2.0-0/stable libgtk2.0-dev/stable") in order to work around versioned dependencies. You'll know this is necessary if APT wants to remove packages or complains about packages having unmet dependencies. - Some packages may exist in sid but not in testing/stable. You can find them with apt-show-versions | grep 'No available version in archive' If you don't want them, try "apt-get remove"ing them to see what happens. If APT wants to remove a bunch of other things, let it -- keep a list of what gets removed, then reinstall it from stable. - If at any point you run into a problem like maintainer scripts failing in non-trivial ways, or segfaults, or something like that, back up all your data and reinstall from scratch -- it's probably easier. Good luck, -- Kevin B. McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Physics Department WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/Princeton University GPG: public key ID 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Downgrading a system to a particular distribution
Hi list, I started off from a stable Debian, and got to upgrade some packages like evolution (and its dependencies) to testing distribution (etch). Also, in order to install some packages that were only in unstable, i had to install some dependencies from unstable branch. Now my system is no very stable, and some applications crash now and then. Because of this, i'd like to return to a more stable state. Is there a way to uninstall all packages from unstable branch? I'd like to get my system back to testing, say, or stable. Any ideas would be appreciated. TIA -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
