[ltp] Re: Problems with Power-OFF

[Daniel Pittman]

On 15 Feb 2005, Dirk Deimeke wrote:
> Hi Bret,
>
>> Then make certain not to issue an 'upgrade' command to apt-get or synaptic
>> or aptitude while you have unstable in your sources list.  It will pull
>> everything down on you.
>
> hmm, I hope I will find an other way.
>
> "Upgrade" is one of the key features to choose Debian.

Hrm.  Assuming that you really want a newer kernel, there are three main
paths that I can suggest to you:

1.  Check in stable (r4, or whatever) for a newer kernel image

'apt-cache search kernel-image' will do that for you.  I don't hold a
great deal of hope for this getting something recent enough for you,
though.


2.  Check for a backport on http://backports.org/

If they provide one, this is probably your best path.  They compile
packages from testing/unstable against the current stable release, so
you can upgrade *only* a couple of packages.

I have used their packages regularly on production systems, but never
checked for a newer kernel there.  They may provide other required
packages, though, if you need them.


3.  Build your own kernel image

This will definitely get you a newer kernel, but the question is where
from:

A.  Build the kernel.org tree the Debian way

Grab the 'kernel-package', er, package, and use that to build a .deb
from a pristine source tree.  I do this for my laptop, since it lets me
get some features I really want.

B.  Build a Debian/unstable kernel from source

Go to http://packages.debian.org/, find the kernel-source package for
the version you want, then download it from there.

That can be installed with a traditional 'dpkg -i', and shouldn't depend
on anything much from unstable.

Then, build that like any other Debian source package.



Finally, there is option 4:  upgrade to unstable.

Debian/unstable, despite the name, isn't really unstable *most* of the
time.  I run that on my laptop and have no real problems. 

If you do decide to do that, I suggest this upgrade path:

  1.  add the unstable packages to your sources.list
  2.  apt-get update
  3.  apt-get install aptitude apt dpkg apt-listbugs apt-listchanges

That should pull in a bunch of stuff from unstable, which you want to
install before you do the rest of the upgrade process.

  4.  aptitude dist-upgrade

That will finish the job for you, and should give you a decent, usable
system.

Regards,
        Daniel

-- 
A large number of installed systems work by fiat.
That is, they work by being declared to work.
        -- Anatol Holt