Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Debian Upgrade May Cause Serious Breakage

Posted by Zonk on from the broken-down-busted-up dept.

daria42 writes "Debian developer Bill Allombert has e-mailed the Debian community saying he estimates about 30% of users upgrading from Debian Woody to Sarge will suffer 'serious breakage'. Allombert says the upgrade process suffers from a number of bugs reported before the release went live several days ago. Chief among the problems, he said, were cyclic dependencies and the fact that software installation tool apt depended heavily on the changing C++ libraries. Allombert wants developers to test the upgrade cycle continuously during development and not just during the freeze period just before release."

4 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Evidence of problems with packaging systems by KiloByte · · Score: 5, Informative

    The only issue is: if you don't read the freaking release notes, you will have problems. The apt in Woody is broken. The release notes say that you need to update it first, to let it handle circular dependencies.
    The only fault of Debian is not putting this in a bold enough font.

    Also, this breakage gives us a yet another reason to bash C++ as a poor excuse for a language :p

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  2. Re:Update took me two days ... grrr by BeBoxer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Suddenly apt-get dist-upgrade didnt do anything good, I had to do an apt-get -f install multiple times until the dependancy stuff was sorted out. In the process, some packages (notably apache and ftpd) were simple de-installed and I had to re-select them manually.

    I can't say for sure that it would have helped, but the instructions specifically say to use aptitude because it handles dependencies better that apt. So while I feel your pain, I'm not sure it's a valid complaint.

  3. Re:Mixing Lilo and some kernel configs not nice ei by Qzukk · · Score: 5, Informative

    SATA changed from IDE subsystem in 2.2 and early 2.4 to libata (and therefore part of the SCSI system) in 2.4 and 2.6

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  4. Re:Evidence of problems with packaging systems by Qzukk · · Score: 5, Informative

    I mean, come on, there were 10,000 pairs of eyes looking at the source code and fixing bugs before it was released, right?

    Right. And they fixed the bug, and told everyone that apt was broken and to upgrade to the fixed apt before attempting to upgrade to sarge.

    And nobody listened.

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.