[KLUG Members] Package Manager Problems

[Dennis]

Jamie McCarthy wrote:
> 
> bob@acm.org (Robert G. Brown) writes:
> 
> > Jamie, I'd like to know how apt handles some critical updates,
> > like the Kernel itself, or a ciritcal library like libc/glibc.
> > Are there updates that require a reboot, or is this handled in
> > some particularly clever way?
> 
> Kernel updates require a reboot, yes.  The "stable" tree is still
> on 2.2.19 so that tells you how often that needs to happen!
> "Testing" is on 2.4.18, which was released Feb. 25, my "uname"
> says I updated to it on Apr. 26, and 2.4.19 came out on Aug. 2,
> to give you an idea of how often the maintainers decide to bump
> a version on the mid-range tree.
> 
> You know, I don't know how glibc updates are handled.  I don't
> believe it required a reboot but now that I say that, I don't
> know if it stopped/started all the daemons, either.
> 
> bruce@armintl.com (Bruce Smith) writes:
> 
> > Jamie, would you consider doing a KLUG presentation on apt &
> > Debian?
> 
> Sure, but I'm no expert, I just use it.  I'd have to refresh my
> memory about a lot of how it works :)
> 
> > The few times I've installed Debian, I've found the install
> > process to be somewhat, ah, well, "confusing" ...  I would very
> > much like to see a presentation on the subject.   Thanks!
> 
> Yes, Debian's install is its most painful part.  Tough outer shell,
> smooth creamy middle.
> 
> I'm told Xandros is a good distro, based on Debian but with a nice
> graphical installer.  But it costs money and strangely I don't see
> free downloads.  There's Progeny but it's defunct, not sure if
> there is a user community.  LibraNet uses apt I guess.
> 
> Knoppix is a name that more people may know, and it uses the deb
> package system and has a graphical installer.  It's also the distro
> with the famous boot-from-a-CD feature -- no permanent installation
> required, good for testing or playing around, just boot and go.
> 
> By the way, I found a cool way to see at a glance how "cutting edge"
> a distro is:
> 
> http://www.distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=debian
> 
> Pick a package you know and read across to see how current each
> release is.  On Debian, for example, Mozilla 1.1 is installed on
> "unstable", with "testing" and "stable" stuck back at 1.0.

The free download of Libranet is old and somewhat broken. I installed it
and removed it just three or four days later.
-- 
Dennis