[Print this out and read it twice. I can't write a coherent tutorial to save my life]

I'm using my kid's box as the example here since I installed Debian on it according to my tutorial. It's a homemade box with an AMD processor, an abit board and a host of other goodies my spoiled-ass kids are lucky to have. Ahem! I also installed both KDE and Gnome on it. Upgrading this box to Etch took barely longer than the time to download 600 some-odd megabytes of updated files.

It's a good idea to stop the Gnome Display Manager gdm all together,

# /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Since udev is being upgraded and it needs a newer kernel I installed one. Like this:

First, change your /etc/apt/sources.list file to use the testing (etch) repositories:

# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

I changed my kid's to read:

deb http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/debian/ etch main contrib non-free 
deb-src http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/debian/ etch main contrib non-free 

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main 
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main 
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ etch main

You'll notice that the Marillat repositories are also changed now to etch as well.

After changing the sources.list file, and running

# apt-get update

I then searched out a newer kernel for their box. You should run

# uname -r (you were already root)

to find out which kernel you are currently using, then, you can search easily with apt like this

# apt-cache search linux-image

to see what your newer kernel should be. When you find the one that's right for your machine go ahead and install it and the linux-headers corresponding to it as well.

Next up I un-installed all my kernel module drivers like spca5xx and the nVIDIA driver binary. If you installed the same nvidia binary, for example by using my own nvidia driver install tutorial as a guide, then you'll have to uninstall it now as well. It's quick and easy:

# nvidia-installer --uninstall

For prep work that's really all that I did. If you've skimmed to here you'll have to update your kernel, remove any kernel drivers that you installed for your current one and then you'll be OK to upgrade.

For those worried about going from XFree86 to Xorg you can relax a little. You probably won't run into errors but if you do their fixes and the bugs reported thus far will be displayed for you in your terminal as you upgrade. Pay attention to any fixes and or errors that you may encounter. There were none on my kid's box. Again, abit NF7-S board, nvidia 6600gt card with an AMD Athlon 2700+ processor. When you goto reinstall your nVIDIA driver for Etch the procedure is a little different.

If you've finished your prep and installed a newer kernel now is the time you should reboot your machine into it. You won't have X when you log back in unless you've changed the reference to the nVIDIA driver in your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file. But you don't need X right now anyway.

Well, we're ready, so--

# apt-get update

# apt-get dist-upgrade

Ya -- that's it.

Lilo was installed on my kid's box during this upgrade because a file that was upgrading was conflicting with grub so grub was removed. I didn't note the "offending" file but it was important. I'm pretty sure it was udev. On my kid's machine the removal of grub and installation of lilo as the boot loader really didn't change anything. After I configured lilo and rebooted it was grub that presented me with boot options. Since grub was "removed" the new kernel that I installed was not listed in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file. So, I had to add it manually before I could boot into it, which was another simple procedure. [EDIT: First week August, 2006 - Lilo is since removed].

The reboot following this and the upgrade to Etch booted into new Gnome 2.14 desktop. There were no errors, no show-stoppers, no files for me to config. I simply had to reinstall any kernel drivers that I had on my kid's Sarge box. Being that the nvidia binary was the only driver installed on their machine that was the only one I had to reinstall.

This whole upgrade procedure really was painless and stoopid-easy, but don't get lazy or silly. A lot can go wrong. Have a plan, implement that plan and stick to that plan. Else, don't bother to upgrade yet, Sarge still does all that you need.

--machiner 3 Aug 06

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Comments (8)

 
4.5.2 devfs deprecated 
 
etch no longer provides support for devfs. It is recommended that 
users switch to udev for dynamic /dev management. Debian kernels 
no longer include support for devfs, so devfs users will need to 
manually convert their systems before upgrading to an etch kernel.  
 
If you see the string 'devfs' in /proc/mounts, you are likely using devfs. 
Any config files that reference devfs style names will need to be adjusted 
to use udev style names. Files that are most likely to refer to devfs style 
device names include /etc/fstab, /etc/lilo.conf, /boot/grub/menu.lst, etc.