Re: rsync

[John Seebach <jseebach@example.com>]

On Wed, Dec 06, 2000 at 11:10:25PM +0900, B0Ti wrote:

> I got a debian woody-i386 installer on my harddisk, but some of its
> files are missing or corrupted.

Well, they *do* call it "unstable". But my guess, if you're having
problems, is that you just downloaded the files you wanted via ftp
and stuck them on your hard disk? 

> What is the best way to upgrade to the latest woody and correct the
> missing/corrupt packages?

You might try this instead:

1) Download the stable (potato) installer (or borrow a CD from
someone), and use it to install the base system. Don't worry --
you'll be upgrading over it right away.

2) You'll be left with the bare bones of a working system.

3) Edit /etc/apt/sources.list so that it contains something the
following:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The canonical Woody distribution
deb http://http.jp.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

# Packages restricted by stupid US export laws 
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free

# Non-free packages, unless you have any moral objections
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable non-free

# Source packages, if you want them (Commented out for now to save
# you some downloading time) 
#deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4) Make sure you have a working net connection, and are logged in as
root.

5) Run 'apt-get update' and wait for the 

6) Run 'apt-get dist-upgrade'

7) Enjoy several hours of downloading fun. (You might be able to
avoid some of this by putting the debs that you've already downloaded
into /var/cache/apt/archives/partial, but I've never tried doing it
like this, and I can't guarantee that it will work). Debian should
automatically upgrade itself, hopefully with nary a hitch. Easy, ne?

Note: I've never done this exactly as written myself (although I have
done almost the same thing upgrading from slink to potato over an NFS
connection. Same basic principle. Apt is pretty darned nifty.), so no
guarantees that this will work exactly as described. I haven't
upgraded to woody because I'm stuck with a very slow and irregular
dial-in 56.6 connection right now.

Now, having said that, here's what I would do (actually, what I *am*
doing): 

Get the potato CDs, install that, and download, compile, and install
source packages from Woody when you want the latest and greatest
version of something else. It's a compromise and can be a bit of a
hassle, but if you're careful about what you upgrade, you'll have a
system that *feels* fairly up to date without the huge NTT bills and
occasional nasty breakages that come from living in Debian unstable.

Works for me, anyway.

Good luck,
john
-- 
john seebach           ~   "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were
jseebach@example.com  ~   a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
                       ~   -- Mark Twain
--