Debian 2.2 Potato Is Stable

batsman was among the countless folks to announce that Potato is now Stable... i.e., Debian 2.2 has been released. The ISO is available, but I'm not linking (not because I'm an elitist (although I am) but to at least try to let the mirrors do their thing). No official word outside of mailing lists, but the 'stable' directory is now Potato. Congrats to all the ever slaving Debian developers... time to dist-upgrade those boxes that aren't already running woody! It's official now since the release is on Debian's site *grin*

Comments

No please!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not another potato powered server!!

Re:No please!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I did see Satan driving to work in a Zamboni today, so I knew something was up...

Ò

Re:No please!

[istartedi]

Hey, at least it's probably not a lemon.

*Not* linking?

[Platinum Dragon]

This must be a first - Slashdot not providing a link so the main server won't be slashdotted out of the gate.

Either Taco's growing a conscience, or he's just tired of "why are you linking before the mirrors go up??????????" posts.

I know what's going on....

[Bob the Destroyer]

CmdrTaco is just keeping everyone away by not posting the links while he gets prime download time....

at last!

[jamienk]

So now I finally get to experiment with the 2.2 kernals, October Gnome, XFree 3.33, and KDE 1.2 from the "non-free" section? RIGHT ON! I just hope they're stable...

:)

Re:at last!

[Cerb]

You know you can get info on the latest X packages at http://www.debian.org/~branden?

Re: at last!

[joey]

Kde is still not in debian, nor in non-free.
--

Re:Potato?

[flikx]

Sorry, apmd doesn't support potato power yet. Plus my laptop's bios will not utilize advanced tuber power, only Lithium-Ion technology.

Look for it in the next stable release, or maybe netBSD will support it.

I really like debian's release system.

[evilned]

Ok, there are gonna be alot of people bitching about how slow debian is on releases. Well, if you are gonna run a server, running the latest and greatest is a bad idea. With the long testing periods, when a release makes stable, you know damn well its stable. As for those who want to be on the bleeding edge, there is the unstable directory. I run stable on anything like a server, but on my personal machine, where I like to play with the latest Helixcode gnome, the unstable is great. Debian's release system give you the information so that you can make a somewhat informed decision on stability vs. being current, and I appreciate that.

Re:I really like debian's release system.

[timmyd]

most people don't run dselect. apt-get is the utility of choice for some. here is a small guide.

• add deb location and woody/potato to /etc/apt/sources.list
• type apt-get update for a list of packages
• type apt-get install program-name to install a program
• type apt-get remove program-name to remove a program
• type apt-cache search substring to search for packages
• type apt-cache show package-name to show info about a package
• apt-get upgrade to get all the latest ones

unlike dselect, apt doesn't fool with all the suggested packages and just gets the ones you need

Re:I really like debian's release system.

[Greg W.]

I feel your pain. I hate dselect, too.

Know what? You don't have to use it. As of Debian 2.1, there's a new package management tool called apt-get. (Eventually there will be a front-end called apt or something, but it's not ready yet.) While apt-get doesn't do everything that dselect does, it's a whole lot less painful.

For example, to check for new packages and then upgrade all your existing packages, you can use the following commands:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Re:I really like debian's release system.

[joey]

You're obviosly not tried debian 2.2.
--

Re:I really like debian's release system.

[Tet]

I feel your pain. I hate dselect, too.

I don't know why everyone says that. dselect was the thing I liked most about Debian. I kept thinking about porting it to sit on top of RPM instead of dpkg for my RH systems, but never got round to it...

Re:I really like debian's release system.

[shambler snack]

Ok, there are gonna be alot of people bitching about how slow debian is on releases.

The complaint isn't a bitch, but the process is. You go on to talk about the long testing periods, but the best testing period is when it's released and out in the field. If I want to stay behind the curve with say, RedHat, I can go to RedHat's site and pick up patches against RedHat releases that are just as old as anything Debian puts out.

Your comment about long testing also runs counter to the claims of many in the Open Source community that when a problem comes up (such as a bug in the Linux kernel), it can be fixed rather quickly. Why should I sit behind the curve waiting for "stability" when I can get good stability, performance, and features on the curve with just about every other distribution that isn't Debian based? Damon Runyan's oft quoted "the race may not go to the strong and swift, but that's the way to bet your money" applies to Linux as to everything else in software; I'd rather bet my money on anything but Debian.

Great news...

[cperciva]

But I wonder what my brother's new excuse will be.

He's been wearing the debian "what your mother would use if it was 20 times easier" t-shirt for a while, and has always used the upcoming release of 2.2 as an excuse for why *he* isn't using it.

I can just guess... "But the 2.4 kernel is going to be out soon, I can't install a debian while I'm waiting for that!"

Re:Great news...

[MusashiDragon]

(I'm his brother) Very funny. I bought the T-shirt so that the donation would go to Debian, and I've only worn it twice so far. What's the point of installing 2.1 when 2.2 was a few weeks away? Besides, why do i have to use Debian in order to wear the T-shirt? It's quite possible to approve of an OS you arent' running -- else how could I choose between various Linux distros and BSD? And, my dear Windows 2000-using brother, a kernel recompile is a trivial task. You see, Linux gives me the choice and freedom to do that.

Re:Potato?

[Mark A. Rhowe]

Actually, as shown here, parallel potato processing is now standard.

Re:First to link!

[BubbaFett]

Make your own ISO.

Potato install guide

[Greg W.]

For those who are new to this, please start by reading the potato install guide. I seriously doubt that pre-burned CDs are available yet, but network installations should be possible.

The main web page (www.debian.org) still isn't updated, but we can't have everything, can we? ;-)

Re:Debian Team Bravo

[B.D.Mills]

Shouldn't that be "sticking to your gnus"?

--

One reason *not* to link ...

[Frater 219]

... is that Debian has sets of Web and FTP mirrors in eighteen different nations. If you are in Poland, for instance, you should be using www.pl.debian.org.

Re:One reason *not* to link ...

[/]

Hey, if you are in Poland, you're probably doing something else with potatoes anyway. ;-)

Re:I hope...

[DavidOgg]

>> A real compiler that will blow the doors off of any of that hippie crap.

And you plan to run just the kernel then, no GNU OS?

hippie crap. Linux is hippie crap. Microsofts last FUD campaign, I can see it now...
"Dont use that hippie crap, use Win2k, we have short hair!"

apt?

[nconway]

time to dist-update those boxes that aren't already running woody!

Uh Rob, it's 'apt-get dist-upgrade' . For those of you wondering what I'm nitpicking about, from man apt-get:

dist-upgrade

dist-upgrade,in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary. The /etc/apt/sources.list file contains a list of locations from which to retrieve desired package files.

P.S. I love Debian, and I'm running it at home. Hmmm... last time I checked Potato was using Linux 2.2.17preX - is there a reason why the Debian developers felt it was necessary to release 2.2 now, even though it has an 'unstable' kernel. Are there some 'issues' with 2.2.16 that I should know about (of course, I run 2.4.0test on most of my home boxen, but I'm just wondering).

Re:Where do I get my CD image?

[Phil Hands]

That is REALLY STUNNINGLY UNHELPFUL

The box you link to is a P166, which is currently running at a load average of around 10 just dealing with the rsyncs from the mirrors.

Please moderate this moron to the nether reaches of hell --- Thank you.

Not entirely true

[Ars-Fartsica]

Well, if you are gonna run a server, running the latest and greatest is a bad idea. With the long testing periods, when a release makes stable, you know damn well its stable.

Arguably the only valid testing is to get it out there and wait for problems to appear. They will anyway, regardless of how long Debian has taken.

On the other hand, the slow release cycle is slowly stripping debian marketshare to the tpoint where none of this will matter. I can't see debian being relevant in two years at this pace.

Re:Not entirely true

[kronos]

Arguably the only valid testing is to get it out there and wait for problems to appear.

But the simple fact that the unstable (and the beta "frozen") distribution is available to anyone at all times takes advantage of this. Debian's unstable (ie., the cutting-edge branch) is being tested on an innumerable number of machines constantly.

The stable distribution is testing to almost ludicrous stability; home users and other non-"mission critical" users are fully able to run the latest bleeding edge. At work, we run potato exclusively (once it got far enough into the frozen stage). We can't have anything break, and a working system is more important than the latest toys. Toys are more important at home, so i run Woody :)

useful links

[semis]

Full list of mirrors: http://www.debian.org/misc/README.mirrors

The (mirrored) official announcement from Martin Schulze: http://www.ids.org.au/ian/potato- announcement.txt.

Remeber, irc.debian.org (open projects) #debian, and #mashpotato for support.
And remember, before asking anything, '/msg apt install guide' !

Also, mark_, netsnipe, and raja have worked hard to bring you MashPotato (The Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato ), visit the website: http://www.linuxgiant.com/debian/

Enjoy!

The mirrors are still getting it

[mduell]

According to http://cdimage.debian.org/:
"Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 ("Potato") has been released. CD images are becoming available on our mirrors at this moment."

Mark Duell

potato

[Mathieu Lu]

I've been using Debian for a while now, I really love it, but I usually didn't recommend it to newbies. I recently installed a snapshot of the frozen potato at work, and I was really impressed.

First, the installer doesn't just dumps you in dselect anymore. You get a list of tasks to install. There's also a nice config app for XFree that works very well (although I don't know why most distros dont use XF86Setup).

Of course, I'm a fairly lazy person, so I simply downloaded the first iso, burned it, made a base install, and dist-upgraded with most tasks to woody. (Most stores don't carry non-stable Debian CDs)

This rocks, because I was at work, so I needed to install quickly. The full install, including the download of all up to date woody packages on a cable-modem took me about an hour. This is basically due to the fact that I'm not used to re-installing and I didn't do so since about 8 months. (and I have a cheapo PnP ISA SoundBlaster 16 (don't ask..))

Anyways, to get back on what I meant to say: Everyone that thinks Linux sucks will love this Debian release, "apt" rocks.

Now, let's go get drunk and spread the good news :)

Re:What are the ramifications...

[flikx]

Taco: Please test the KatzBot in tacohell only.

Thank you.

ePotato?

[Atomizer]

Isn't that now ePotato? Since Gore invented the Internet.

Debian's naming scheme

[rwg]

Going along with the Toy Story naming scheme, when can we expect the "Stinky Pete" release? (Say what you will about "Stinky Pete," but "Woody" is a release name only a pervert could love...)

Re:Debian's naming scheme

[Fishstick]

...got it. I admit I've only switched to Debian in the last year starting with 2.1 so I new to the naming conventions. Thanks for straightening me out without trying to make me feel stupid or anything (bitter sarcasm).

Re:Debian's naming scheme

[Fishstick]

Actually, that's not quite right, according to this.

1.1 was buzz
1.2 was rex
1.3 was bo
2.0 was hamm

got it!!??

Re:Debian is in it's own little world

[Rapier]

If you are going to compile and install software yourself, then stick it in /usr/local where it belongs. otherwise grab the latest and greatest from the "unstable" tree if you really need it.

WRONG, read the docs before you talk.

[Andrew Cady]

Now that's bad enough, but on top of that, the Debian system makes hell on users who try to install other software. If you happened to download a .tar.gz file and do the make / install yourself, the Debian installer had no way to let you update the dependencies. So next time you went and grabbed a .deb release, you'd end up overwriting the newer libs from your .tar.gz file. Simply brain dead. The Debian team needs to realize that people MIGHT just want to install software OTHER than what they provide. What a concept.

If you don't want dpkg to manage a package, you put the package on "hold". If you want to ignore dependencies, you use dpkg --ignore-depends=package

So like I said, read the docs before you criticize. Just because you don't know how to do something, does not mean Debian does not let you do it.

Re:WRONG, read the docs before you talk.

[Jason W]

I don't think that's what he meant. I think he meant that dpkg should be able to accept dependaecies from .tar.gz files, so you wouldn't get dependency errors and be forced to use --ignore-depends. --ignore-depends is just like --no-deps in RPM, but RPM also allows you to add dependencies in /etc/rpmrc

Maybe dpkg has an option to do that; I wouldn't know since it wouldn't install on my RH system.

Re:WRONG, read the docs before you talk.

[doozer]

You can do it that way, or install the debian equivs package.

You set equivs up and tells the system that there is local software installed that provides qt, or x or whatever you need.

I use if on my local install of X until branden gets X stable. This way, i don't have to fool with putting packages on hold.

Ultimate sources.list for Debian - 6000 packages

[CraigMcPherson]

Here's my sources.list. I think the comments speak for themselves. Let me know if you have anything to add.

Enjoy!


# Last edited 8/14/00 CM
# /etc/apt/sources.list

# ULTIMATE SOURCE.LIST
# Maintained by Craig McPherson
# Contributors:
#
# Benjamin Patrick Mohan
# Philip (FireEgl)
# Anyone I'm forgetting (please let me know)

# This is meant to be used with systems running the unstable version
# of Debian. It fetches stable package lists also for purposes of
# completeness (some packages I like were removed from slink), and
# because there's no harm in it. This list also will fetch package
# lists from the project/experimental branch. These are new packages
# that haven't yet been accepted into even the unstable release.
# These packages are usually marked as experimental in the package
# description itself, and I must warn you that these packages are often
# VERY experimental. There's some GREAT stuff in project/experimental,
# and there's stuff that will crash the moment it's installed. I've
# never encountered anything that actually hurt the system, so don't
# be afraid to give them a try. That's part of the fun of it. Final
# note is that there is some redundancy in this list. This is because
# I don't like having to edit the file whenever a server is down, which
# seems to happen a lot with some servers -- important stuff is always
# fetched from two locations, in case one is down. This will make an
# apt-get update take a few minutes longer on a modem connection, so
# comment-out whatever you want.

# To put this file to good use, copy it (or the parts of it you want)
# to your /etc/apt/sources.list, and then either run the command
# apt-get update, or select the "update" option in dselect.

# This is just a jumping-off point. This is just what works for me. For
# people with cable modems and other fast connections, it would be
# advantageous to check the Debian mirrors list and replace some of the
# servers below with servers that you can get a high data transfer rate
# from. The first two servers below were chosen for their good ping time
# from my location, not for actual data transfer rate -- I didn't want
# to spend all day downloading from 50 servers to see which were fastest,
# so I just selected the first two based on ping time. The others servers
# on the list are unique in some way. Final note, I don't know what would
# happen if you used this file with Corel or Storm Linux, because I haven't
# used them yet. Check their documentation for the consequences and caveats
# of using normal Debian archives with those distros, and let me know while
# I'm at it, I'm curious about how it works.

# FYI: You will note $(ARCH) in some of the entries below. APT will
# substitute your system architecture (i386 for Intel users) whereever
# $(ARCH) appears. This allows access cross-platform with the same
# sources file. See the sources.list manpage for more info.

# PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD TO THIS, we can
# work together to create the ULTIMATE sources.list. :)

# umich.edu - main US mirror I use, very fast connection
deb ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ dists/proposed-updates/
deb ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ project/experimental/
deb-src ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ dists/proposed-updates/
deb-src ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ project/experimental/

# ca.debian.org - main non-US mirror, emergency main mirror
# Uncomment the commented-out lines below if the United States blows up
# but you still need to update your Debian system.
deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/contrib/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/non-free/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/main/binary-$(ARCH)/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/contrib/binary-all/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/non-free/binary-all/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/main/binary-all/
deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/contrib/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/non-free/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/main/binary-$(ARCH)/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/contrib/binary-all/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/non-free/binary-all/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/main/binary-all/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ dists/proposed-updates/
#deb ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ project/experimental/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/contrib/sources/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/main/sources/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/contrib/sources/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/main/sources/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/contrib/sources/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/main/sources/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ dists/proposed-updates/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ project/experimental/

# Netgod: New X stuff. It's cool.
deb ftp://ftp.netgod.net/ x/

# TDYC: KDE and Stuff
# Note: the kde2 branch contains heavily developmental stuff. It
# was pretty rough last time I checked, but that was a long time
# ago, so use your own judgement in trying it.
deb ftp://kde.tdyc.com/pub/kde/debian stable contrib kde rkrusty
deb ftp://kde.tdyc.com/pub/kde/debian unstable contrib kde
deb ftp://kde.tdyc.com/pub/kde/debian unstable kde2
deb-src ftp://kde.tdyc.com/pub/kde/debian stable contrib kde rkrusty
deb-src ftp://kde.tdyc.com/pub/kde/debian unstable contrib kde
deb-src ftp://kde.tdyc.com/pub/kde/debian unstable kde2

# Main Debian archive and main security/non-US site
# Pandora is the same server as security.debian.org and non-us.debian.org
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian dists/proposed-updates/
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian project/experimental/
deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-security/ stable updates
#deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-security/ unstable updates
deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/contrib/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/main/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/non-free/binary-$(ARCH)/
#deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/contrib/binary-all/
#deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/main/binary-all/
#deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/non-free/binary-all/
deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/contrib/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/main/binary-$(ARCH)/
deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/non-free/binary-$(ARCH)/
#deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/contrib/binary-all/
#deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/main/binary-all/
#deb ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/non-free/binary-all/
deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian dists/proposed-updates/
deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian project/experimental/
deb-src ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-security/ stable updates
#deb-src ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-security/ unstable updates
#deb-src ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/contrib/sources/
#deb-src ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/stable/non-US/main/sources/
#deb-src ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/contrib/sources/
#deb-src ftp://pandora.debian.org/debian-non-US/ dists/unstable/non-US/main/sources/

# Yet another backup mirror -- just in case
# This one is down at the moment, but usually pretty fast
#deb ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian stable main contrib non-free
#deb ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/dists proposed-updates/
#deb ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian project/experimental/
#deb-src ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian stable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/dists proposed-updates/
#deb-src ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian project/experimental/

# TDYC mirror - KDE and other stuff
# You might need this... TDYC is often overloaded.
# Now, the mirror itself seems to be down... I'll investigate.
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ stable contrib
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ stable rkrusty kde
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ unstable contrib
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ unstable kde
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ unstable kde2
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ stable contrib
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ stable kde
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ stable rkrusty
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ unstable contrib
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ unstable kde
deb ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ unstable kde2
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ stable contrib
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ stable rkrusty kde
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ unstable contrib
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ unstable kde
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-kde.tdyc.co m/ unstable kde2
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ stable contrib
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ stable kde
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ stable rkrusty
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ unstable contrib
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ unstable kde
deb-src ftp://ftp.uni-marburg.de/mirror/debian-snowcrash.t dyc.com/ unstable kde2

# Enlightenment
deb http://www.debian.org/~ljlane/downloads enlightenment/
deb http://www.debian.org/~ljlane/downloads enlightenment-cvs/

# GNOME
#These first two entries are commented out because they're currently
#dead. I'll put them back in if I find that they've been moved
#elsewhere
#deb ftp://gnomeftp.wgn.net/gnome-1.0/debian slink main
#deb ftp://gnomeftp.wgn.net/gnome-1.0/debian unstable main
deb http://www.debian.org/~jim/debian-gtk-gnome/gnome- stage-slink unstable main
deb http://www.debian.org/~jim/debian-gtk-gnome/gnome- stage-slink slink main
#deb http://www.debian.org/~jules/gnome-stage-2 unstable main

# Gabber (and other stuff, haven't fully investigated)
deb http://eliot.landrum.cx/packages frozen main
deb http://eliot.landrum.cx/packages unstable main

# Helix-Gnome stuff:
deb http://SpiderMonkey.HelixCode.Com/distributions/de bian unstable main

# Sawfish (was Sawmill) stuff:
deb http://WWW.RCPT.To/ pending main
deb-src http://WWW.RCPT.To/ pending main
deb http://WWW.RCPT.To/ non-patent main
deb-src http://WWW.RCPT.To/ non-patent main

# Official KDE:
deb ftp://FTP.US.KDE.Org/pub/kde/stable/latest/distrib ution/deb/potato i386/

# Other Enlightenment related CVS':
deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ efm-cvs/
deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ eterm-cvs/
deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ epplets-cvs/
deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ feh-cvs/
deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ imlib2-cvs/
deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ imlib-cvs/
deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ econfig-cvs/
#deb http://WWW.Debian.Org/~ljlane/downloads/ ee2.cvs/

# PingOO - A French, Debian based Linux dist. (www.PingOO.Org)
deb ftp://FTP.PingOO.Org/debian stable main contrib xfree-update

#The next two entries are commented out because trying to install Storm
#or Corel packages on a straight Debian system often results in weird
#dependency issues. Comment out the appropriate entry if you're using
#Storm or Corel, otherwise use them at your own risk.

#Storm Linux
deb ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm rain main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm hail main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm rain main contrib
deb-src ftp://ftp.stormix.com/storm hail main contrib

#Corel Linux
deb ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/CorelLinux corellinux-1.0 main contrib
deb ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/CorelLinux corellinux-1.0 non-free corel
#deb-src ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/source/corellinux-1. 0 main/source/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/source/corellinux-1. 0 contrib/source/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/source/corellinux-1. 0 corel/source/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/source/corellinux-1. 1 main/source/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/source/corellinux-1. 1 contrib/source/
#deb-src ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/source/corellinux-1. 1 corel/source/

#END /etc/apt/sources.list
#Craig McPherson - craig@bsu.dynhost.com

Debian for everyone! - Download on gnutella

[subreality]

I got the ISO image of the first CD straight from ftp.debian.org last night. Anyone who wants a copy can find it on gnutella - search for potato-i386-1.raw and you'll find it. I have plenty of bandwidth to share around.

Of course, it's shared from a box running potato. :-)

Have fun, all!

--Kai
--slashsuckATvegaDOTfurDOTcom

Excellent. When will woody freeze?

[RobotSlave]

I'm ecstatic about this news, because now my clients (as in, the people who pay me :) can run php4 on a stable debian (I've been tiding them over with apache 1.3.12+php built from source).

What I'm wondering now is when we can expect to see woody freeze. I apologize for not following the debian-devel list and picking up the debate on my own-- I'd feel like a creep lurking on the devel list for a project that I don't have time to commit to (Some day, debian, I will give back to you, but now is not the time... ).

My suggestion would be to commit to a freeze as soon as the 2.4 kernel is released. My simple-minded resoning is that Xfree 4.0 plus the new kernel should be sufficient reason to push a new stable release out the door.

I suspect that the issue has been discussed in much greater detail on the devel mailing list, and that there are many different schools of thought on the matter. I guess I fall into a hypothetical "updates to >n major packages warrant a new release" school of thought. I hold this view mostly due to frustration-- e.g., I was really upset when I learned that I could not build php out of CVS due to outdated gnu tools in slink.

But enough of my rambling. What we really need here is an update from someone intimate with the devel list. If there is consensus on when woody ought to freeze, what is it? If the matter is still being debated, what are the various viewpoints?

p.s. to debian weekly news: This is the sort of thing we would love to see covered, but I know Joey is spread pretty thin to begin with (perhaps because he's both very productive and quite tactful, to boot? ). Commentary from someone not intimate with the project might be welcome, as an addition to dwn, just as it might be unwelcome as an addition to the devel list.

p.p.s. to (lwn | dwn | linuxworld | linuxtoday) : If you're willing to remburse someone, modestly, to lurk and cover debian-devel, put a notice up on your site (or better yet, just drop me a line :).

MashPotato

[Netsnipe]

Hello everyone,

This is Andrew "Netsnipe" Lau from the MashPotato/B> Project,currently being hosted at LinuxGiant until Raja is well enough to move it over to SourceForge, who is hosting our project. Thanks semis for getting the post in early. Most of the crew are volunteers from the official #debian IRC channel at irc.debian.org. MashPotato's aim is to provide all users of Debian with comprehensive live IRC support and an ongoing website. Over the upcoming months, the MashPotato site will be loaded with the latest tips, guides and Debian news, but currently our priority is to help out new and old Debian GNU/Linux users getting a hang of Potato and Woody as well.
Here's an excerpt from a post that was made on the Debian-user mailing list:

We here at #debian, the official IRC channel of Debian have decided that when Potato 2.2 does officially become stable, that we will provide the most comprehensive Debian GNU/Linux support service that we can to users both new and old. However, being the official IRC room, #debian will be overwhelmed with literally hundreds of users seeking installation and configuration help. The task would be quite daunting for regulars there as we already handle several dozen help requests a day.
Hence, the Potato release now has a dedicated IRC tech support crew nicknamed the Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato (MashPotato) which serve around the clock for users around the world. To make things easier, we will also divert users to different channels from #debian to for example #mashpotato and #mashpotato-X, #mashpotato-sound, #mashpotato-gnome. However, we will be lacking in numbers of people to answer the multitudes of help. To sign up for the roster list for MashPotato, just come into #debian and type in "apt roster" for further details, and return over the next few days for more details. You don't need to be using Potato, but any Debian-based help provided will be greatly appreciated.

So if you've got any troubles whatsoever with Debian GNU/Linux, Potato or Woody, then hop into #debian or #mashpotato hosted on any IRC server that's part of the OpenProject IRC Network> and we'll be glad to help you.

MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato

Re:Excellent. When will woody freeze?

[joey]

The above post should be moderated up, and not just because it says nice things about me :-)

Anyway, we've discussed it less than you would expect so far. Common views include:

• We should get X 4, not wait for the kernel (which may not come out this year), and release then, probably as 2.1.1 or something.
  
• We should release with X 4 and the 2.4 kernel and an many updates as we can cram in
  
• Something else.
  

--

update

[joey]

So as an update to what Rob wrote, the Ddebian web site now says "2.2 released!" all over it, and an announcement has indeed been posted to our announce list. Press conference tomorrow at LinuxWorld. It's real, folks. :-)
--

Linux Humor...

[pen]

Linux Humor: dpkg_1.4.0.35.deb

--

FreeBSD is easy to install.

[cot]

I also find FreeBSD's installation procedure quite straightforward, and I am by no means an expert.

I certainly would say it's as easy to install as pre 6.x Redhat.

Anyways, don't be intimidated by FreeBSD, hell it's only time. Take an hour or two and give it a shot.

Once it's going, good God, the ports and packages are GREAT. Installing new software through one of these two methods works very well.

Re:Who needs ISO?

[erotus]

Well, I don't use debian but I have found ISO images to be great for backup, burning CD's for friends, or network installs... Yes that's right network installs. Just mount it with the loop option and you can browse any file on that CD. For those that don't know the command:

mount -o loop /isoimage.iso /mnt/mountpoint

This is great for ftp installs.... It doesnt work with NFS though.

Use the mirrors. PSU's was incredibly fast.

[Wakko Warner]

I've already downloaded and burned all three ISO images. I got them at about 400K/s off PSU's mirror. You can get a list of all mirrors, most of which probably have the thing by now, here.

- A.P.
--

"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

infrequent releases are a problem

[jetson123]

It's great that Debian 2.2 is out, and I appreciate all the testing that has gone into it. I also liked the package system and the installation on Debian 2.1. The floppy-based install is a real boon on oddball hardwawre.

But with the infrequent releases, Debian just became too outdated for me. Because I have some machines that don't have an Internet connection or only have a slow Internet connection, the latest official release on CD is sometimes the only thing I can install. I haven't found any "Debian packages up to last month" kind of CD distributions (if you know of any, please let me know).

Also, lack of interim version numbers means that Debian can be hard to use in an environment with many users who handle their own installations, yet want to share software: if you want to tell other people to bring up their machines to a known level to run some software, what are you going to tell them? If operating system releases are infrequent, the last numbered release is often too out of date.

I hope Debian will be able to stamp version numbers on interim releases, maybe every other month. This shouldn't involve any significant extra work, just a declaration "these packages are Debian 2.1.7". CD-ROM vendors can then burn those versions into CDs and ship them out, and everybody has a reference point. From my point of view, those interim releases don't have to be extensively tested: if there is some real problem with some release (which is probably rare), that will become widely known and people will avoid it.

Am I missing something?

[Lion-O]

Everyone is talking about stable potato's. What ever happened to the "Joel 'Espy' Klecker" release (also peek at the Debian site? Is your memory (pointed at the posters in here who referred to Potato) really that short termed? Its not potato thats gone stable; its espy.

-Personal rant ON-
This makes me kinda sick. Even though I don't know Espy, never chatted with 'm and heard from him when he passed away, I really have a strange feeling after reading the /. story about his death and all the comments on it. Everyone sympathized yet no one is able to remeber the posting for even 1 month? Do a search on 'Espy' on this page and it turns out to nothing. Thats a strange way of showing that you sympathized with the going ons IMVHO.
-Personal rant OFF-

Re:Am I missing something?

[lordsutch]

What ever happened to the "Joel 'Espy' Klecker" release...?

It's not the Joel "Espy" Klecker release. It's Debian 2.2 (or "potato"), dedicated to Joel "Espy" Klecker. Always has been; always will be. The last paragraph of the release announcement mentions it; a dedication is burned on each official CD. However, it's not the name of the release.

(By analogy, the movie The Negotiator is dedicated to late actor J. T. Walsh. Nobody calls it "The J. T. Walsh Movie"; that's not its name.)

Time to buy some floppies.

[shippo]

I'm going to d/l the 16 or so floppy images and do a base floppy install, then apt-get whatever else takes my fancy.

Unfortunatly no-one in town seems to sell blank floppies any more! Even the local supermarket sells CD-Rs, but I don't have a CD-R drive or a fast network connection.

FreeBSD - give it a try at least

[thallgren]

I think it's a bit naïve to expect the first install of a new operating system to finish without problems.

Give it a few tries, or do as I do, install a minimum system, and then add things whenever you feel a need for them.

Distributions that by default install zillions of stuff are worthless since you only get more confused, especially if you're new to the system.

I think you should give FreeBSD a try, it's well worth the time, even if you decide to stick with Red Hat.

Regards, Tommy - FreeBSD enthusiast

Re:Solaris bites with kimodo dragon teeth!

[Psiren]

Hmmm... does Linux support hot-swappable system boards? Does it scale well up to 64 processors? No and no. Comparing Solaris and Linux is a futile pastime. They came from different roots, and are meant for different jobs. Perhaps Solaris is a little slow on x86 machines, but Linux has the advantage that it has been developed specifcally on this architecturefor years. Most of Solaris's devlopment is geared toward running on high-end Sparc's, not lowly x86's.

Re:Solaris bites with kimodo dragon teeth!

[Jason Earl]

Hmmm... does Linux support hot-swappable system boards? Does it scale well up to 64 processors? No and no. Comparing Solaris and Linux is a futile pastime. They came from different roots, and are meant for different jobs. Perhaps Solaris is a little slow on x86 machines, but Linux has the advantage that it has been developed specifcally on this architecturefor years. Most of Solaris's devlopment is geared toward running on high-end Sparc's, not lowly x86's.

Which is why Solaris will continue to be used on the high end for a very long time. However, this does not change the fact that for most people Linux is faster.

This is not a slam on Solaris. Solaris has been tuned for hardware an order of magnitude more powerful than the one to four processor boxes where Linux shines.

When the put a 64 processor Sparc on my desk maybe then I will start to worry about how well Linux runs on it. In the meantime Linux will probably be my desktop and development system of choice :).

Re:I hope...

[mindstrm]

Becuase.. windows doesn't, by default, use the GNU tools, wheras linux distros is almost exclusively built around gnu tools. Whether we like it or not, RMS has somewhat of a point. Somewhat.

If you removed all the GNU software from your box, it would be *useless*

Re:CDs in Australia....

[mindstrm]

If you keep a mirror up to date, it would only take a minute or two to get whatever 'final' changes were necessary to be up to date to the release version.

Re:A rant

[Jason Earl]

You can install the necessary debs by hand. Check out man dpkg if you aren't sure how this works. Or you could do what I do and simply change the line in /etc/apt/sources.list to unstable long enough to:

apt-get install php4

This will get php4, and whatever other packages are necessary, and then you can switch back to stable.

Either way there is no sense building the packages by hand.

Re:Will Corel Linux 2.0 be Potato Based?

[matticus]

no, it will be based on a low-calorie alternative to the potato.

now that potato is out

[WormRunner]

It's officially time to upgrade to woody!

Re:HURD rocks!

[mikpos]

It is available. It's usable, though I can't get apt-get to work for some, and the application support is a bit limited.

Unstable stability?

[CoughDropAddict]

Could anyone report what kind of stability they get running Debian unstable? The Debian web page says: "This release is currently considered ``unstable''. That means that things will break if you run it. Woody isn't even a complete or functioning
system yet." However, I've heard people say that Debian's unstable is more stable than other dists main release...

--

So does this mean...

[bvmcg]

So does this mean that the Debian team has moved on to trying for a stable woody?

Re:HURD rocks!

[mikpos]

To my knowledge, there aren't any real CDs printed yet. Right now, you have to bootstrap from Linux. There are instructions at http://www.pick.ucam.org/~mcv21/hurd.html . Basically what you do is:

1. partition (if you put the Hurd and Linux on the same partition, things will get messed, because the Hurd does a lot of cool stuff with inodes to make changes persistent)
2. get dpkg and a bunch of .debs
3. "cross-install" the .debs onto the Hurd partition (there is a shell script for this)
4. make a GRUB bootdisk (BTW GRUB is by far the coolest x86 bootloader I've ever seen)

I suppose a CD would be nice (it would save quite a bit of download time if you're on dial-up), but, quite frankly, I don't think anyone would buy it :D

WHY aren't there canonical CD images?

[Deven]

For a "release", this "build your own ISO image" concept is bizarre and really unhelpful. Why can't I download a canonical ISO image so I can just burn a clean CD with the "stable" release? Maybe the release is stable, but the CD images are not. I just looked at the .list files for two different copies of one of the new CD images from the list of official mirrors, and the list of files didn't match. (Strangely, the MD5SUM files gave the same checksums anyhow.)

How are we supposed to get CD images and know they're really final and correct? (Say what you will about Red Hat; their ISO images are easy to find and never in disagreement between different mirror sites that carry them.)

Re:Debian is in it's own little world

[FigWig]

Have you ever heard of DLL Hell? The situation is the same on the windows side, just that most apps include their own version of the dynamic libraries in their app, which unfortunately blow away whatever you have installed and lead to an unstable system. It's hard to manage different versions of these libs.