Saturday, November 03, 2012

Upgrading from ubuntu 12.10 to debian sid

A good idea is to install a light desktop manager like lxdm or xfce so at least you have a DM in case
gnome will not work out

Install debian keyring http://packages.debian.org/sid/all/debian-archive-keyring/download


modify /etc/apt/sources.list
delete all the lines and
add these ones 

deb  http://http.debian.net/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb-src  http://http.debian.net/debian/ sid main contrib non-fre


apt-get update
apt-get -f -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" upgrade


there will be a lot of issues and it might bring your  machine unbootable
So be prepared with a testing debian stick or cd

Make a list with packages removed by the dist-upgrade
in my case i have noticed that network manager will be removed

apt-get -f -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" dist-upgrade

From the removed packaged i picked the critical ones that i know i need and i download them before to start the upgrade so i can install them with dpkg -i


Here is my list that i needed on my system (that i know that are critical to me and to make the system functional)
apt-get  install --download-only network-manager network-manager-gnome lxde modemmanager ssh openssh-server alsa-utils anacron at


Here are some of the issues that could happen while upgrading the machine there are many dpkg-new files in the /etc/init.d/ folder so here are some tips bellow

Init scripts and networking system
Get rid of upstart first. I had problems with sysv-rc and needed to force reconfiguration. Some init scripts were installed with "dpkg-new" in the name, I had to rename them. As with X, I tried few solutions, this is distilled but stil redundant version:
dpkg-reconfigure sysv-rc
cd /etc/init.d
mv acpid.dpkg-new acpid
mv anacron.dpkg-new anacron
mv atd.dpkg-new atd
mv cron.dpkg-new cron
mv dbus.dpkg-new dbus
mv module-init-tools.dpkg-new module-init-tools
mv procps.dpkg-new procps
mv rsyslog.dpkg-new rsyslog
mv udev-mtab udev
apt-get --reinstall install base-files ifupdown initscripts netbase sysv-rc sysvinit sysvinit-utils






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