[SOLVED] Updating packages question.

273 · 11-25-2017, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

I feel less incompetent this morning then.

Installing Debian 9.2.1 as I write this. I take that to be recent/stable.

I think so, yes.
To install Sid, if you wished to, you would install without adding any programs or drivers, change the sources.list then dist-upgrade with apt. The not installing anything is because dependency chnages can lead to unistallation of programs if conflicts occur.

business_kid · 11-25-2017, 08:27 AM

I have come to tolerate Debian heads giving me non-descriptive names e.g. Sid, Stretch, Jessie, which obviously mean something to them, but nothing whatsoever to me.
What the Hell is Sid? For that matter, What is 9.2.1?

273 · 11-25-2017, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

I have come to tolerate Debian heads giving me non-descriptive names e.g. Sid, Stretch, Jessie, which obviously mean something to them, but nothing whatsoever to me.
What the Hell is Sid? For that matter, What is 9.2.1?

Sid is the unstable branch and doesn't really have a version number.
The other names I don't pay any attention to -- when you download Debian you either download the current stable version or, I think, there is an option for testing. Either can be turned into Sid by modifying the sources.list to point to Sid repositories and dist-upgrading with apt.
The Debian website will tell you which number version is stable and which testing (testing will become the next stable once it's done) and only the major version number needs to be noted -- rather than making you install all the updates over the internet after installing Stable the Debian team produce a new image now and again with them built in and this is reflected in the minor version numbers.

snowday · 11-25-2017, 10:00 AM

Have you tried the "self-contained, portable" AppImage direct from the FreeCad website? It "should work on most modern 64 bit Linux distributions" according to the developer.

https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Download

business_kid · 11-25-2017, 10:32 AM

Got it on Sid. Does debian still take forever to move things to stable from testing?

May I ask a few Newbie Questions on the install?
1. It asked me for a root password; I gave it one; Then it asked for a name for root; I presumed it was some information logging thing, so I said tightass. Then I was asked to add a user, & I did so.

It now defaults to the name tightass, (tightass is the only login option when it boots) although no tightass user exists. It need the root passwd, so I presume it's an alias to root, which is less than ideal. How do I change that to be my user instead of root? As it is, I have to login as 'another user.'

2. I chose the debian desktop, which is lame indeed. How can I beat an honourable retreat and get to xfce?

3. It installed a lot of bloatware and bilge, including gnome stuff - a pet hate. Are they part of the debian DE? ?Is there a global command to blitz them, and all the crappy games that look like they were written in Basic?

273 · 11-25-2017, 11:30 AM

As far as I know it still does take ages to move things to stable -- I've been using Sid for ages though so can't be definitive.

1 Debian does not have Ubuntu's sudo fetish so you set a password for root then create a user account to log in as. If you want to use sudo then follow the simple tutorial on the Debian wiki after install (on my phone so can't find it fot you). It first asks for the "real name" then the "login name" of the user to create (as per the Linux user creation process) so just put business_kid for both, or whatever. There is an installer which asks you if you wish to disable root (the Ubuntu way of doing things) but I don't recall which one that is, sorry.
2 If you do an advanced install you can choose XFCE and just get that. If you wish to change after install it's the same process as any distrivbution -- install the desktop you want then as per 3, uninstall the stuff you don't want bearing in mind that some things Gnomey may be required by XFCE.

I'd actually recomend th advanced or expert or whatever it's called install and picking XFCE then there's less to trim.

business_kid · 11-26-2017, 04:48 AM

After readeing your post, I removed that VM and installed another Debian install with XFCE. I don't like the way XFCE lands, but I can fix that. Freecad reports version 0.16, so once someone tells me where exactly or how to hack /etc/apt/sources.list, which currently has me on
1. ftp.ie.debian.org/debian/ stretch main
2. ftp.security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
3. ftp.ie.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free

I can do a dist-upgrade as suggested and get going. Just swap sid for stretch? I have to go fiddling now to set up shared storage and copy/paste which is always an adventure, but usually settles.

273 · 11-26-2017, 05:03 AM

Sorry, I'm not at home to be able to checkl my sources.list but I think there's a thred in the Debian forum on here where I posted it way back which will still be valid.
A useful resource iws the Debian Package Search site -- if you search for that you should find it fairly easily. It allows one to search for packages and contents of packages in all the versions of Debian and can be useful for finding what to remove to, for example, get rid of some games you don't want.

273 · 11-26-2017, 07:11 AM

Sorry, was forgetting I have my laptop with me, sources.list on this looks like:

Code:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20170116-10:57]/ jessie contrib main non-free

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.7.1 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20170116-10:57]/ jessie contrib main non-free

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib

#deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
#deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

# jessie-backports, previously on backports.debian.org
#deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org/ sid main non-free

#deb http://deb.debian.org/debian experimental main

Notice that I updated from the version known as "Jessie" also that most lines are commented out with only the Sid and Sid source lines and the deb-multimedia (for DVD CSS) live.

business_kid · 11-26-2017, 11:29 AM

Thanks very much.

dist-upgrading as I write. Still got work to do, because of a catch-22 of running XFCE within XFCE. Having gone into the VM, I can't seem to get out of it. It traps the mouse (not intended), and Ctrl_F(1-4) switches me within the 4 windows of the VM. So to write this, I dodged into a console, opened chrome(because firefox was running here in instance 1) and replied there. You have the security updates commented out, but I decided to enable them. I also have to sort out that mouse setting, but that's done when the vm isn't on like it is now.

I suppose I should do similarly for Mint, if they have such.

EDIT: What's 'deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org/ sid main non-free' about?
EDIT2: Oh, I see it now

273 · 11-26-2017, 12:28 PM

A couple of things:
for the issue with VirtualBox you should make note of the key used to get focus back or change it to something more suitable to your setup.
The security repositories are commented out as Sid doesn't have any -- everything is updated as soon as it is made to work and if you check the security warnings or read about some issue on an IT news website hen you'll usually find that the dist-upgrade you just did* has fixed it.
*(I always dist-upgrade rather than upgrade wheb running Sid so that everything will move up a version if appropriate)

business_kid · 11-27-2017, 07:09 AM

Moved on a lot from here. Upgraded Debian to Sid, and all seems well there. The freeced is 0.16.0712 or some weird number but it reads 0.16 in 'about freecad.' The problem I was trying to beat is gone.

I still have a linux Mint install, and set about trying to find an upgrade option for that. Using firefox as an ftp client (because I can't lazily find any familiar linux ones) I decided to update to 'yackety' (What are those guys smoking??) wondering in amazement that whoever named a distro 'yackety' wasn't instantly removed to a home for the bewildered :-P. It kinda works, but isn't enough. Mint-18.3 seems to be codenamed 'Sylvia,' but I tried that with sylvia and it did nothing :-(. Is there a stable/testing thing I can upgrade to (like sid in debian) which stays latest release without being a 'bleeding edge/alpha/explodes shortly' kind of system? I gather Mint is now mainly on ubuntu sources with a few of it's own. Here's /etc/apt/sources.list from Mint.

Code:

##deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 18.1 _Serena_ - Release amd64 20161213]/ yackety contrib main non-free
deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu yackety main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu yackety-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu yackety-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ yackety-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ yackety partner

business_kid · 11-27-2017, 08:49 AM

Think I sorted this finally.
I realised I had 100% ubuntu in sources.list, along with someone else's half-assed release codenames

sources.list looks now like this

Code:

##deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 18.1 _Serena_ - Release amd64 20161213]/ artful contrib main non-free
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ sylvia  main upstream backport import 

deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu artful main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu artful-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu artful-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ artful-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ artful partner

Doing a dist-upgrade; and if this all falls apart horribly, it's only a vm.

Mint is significantly faster. Debian is fine, but slow. Anyhow, I don't think either of them will get out of a VM unless I get a brain transplant. They're cursed with grub, pulseaudio, lvm, systemd, probably networkmanager - all items on my 'love to hate' list.

EDIT: Actually, it did fall apart horribly. But who cares? Not me.

snowday · 11-27-2017, 09:08 PM

For what it's worth, I had some spare time this evening to play around with this on my Linux Mint 18 machine. I was easily able to download and execute the latest FreeCAD-0.16.6712.glibc2.17-x86_64.AppImage directly from: https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Download

business_kid · 11-28-2017, 03:39 AM

Thanks - I'll try that later. Restored a backup of it, and playing with apt-get in the background. So glad it's a vm.