Linux - Debian - Re: Can I install jessie package on wheezy? How?

by lkraemer » 2013-09-25 11:15

eatnut,
Debian has several Repo's, and these need a bit of explaination, before proceeding.

Repositories: ------ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian
stable, currently aliased wheezy
backports
testing, currently aliased jessie
unstable, permanently aliased sid
experimental

Mixing Packages from various Repo's isn't advised, since you can break your system. The best practice is to check the backports Repo
for your Debian Distro (example: Debian 7 "Wheezy") to see if the updated package exists, or build the package yourself.

What you DON'T WANT is a situation where the package you want to install is going to bring down a huge pile of dependencies, as Bulkley
has already stated.

How do I backport a sid package to testing or stable?

Install the Debian source (and the development tools, especially debhelper, devscripts, and build-essential), and then build the package.
Step by step:

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        add a deb-src line for sid to your sources.list
        apt-get update
        apt-get build-dep PACKAGE_NAME
        apt-get -b source PACKAGE_NAME

Don't forget that you can find more information about the PACKAGE_NAME with the following commands (as root):

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#apt-get update
#apt-cache show PACKAGE_NAME
#apt-cache policy
#apt-cache policy PACKAGE_NAME

The resulting debs should be in the current directory and can be installed with dpkg -i the.deb.

Aren't there already backports...?
Possibly. Check http://backports.debian.org/Packages/ first to see if someone has already done it.


Another option is to use Apt-Pinning. But, If you Break your system, you get to keep it.......................

REF's:
viewtopic.php?t=15612
https://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences
http://www.argon.org/~roderick/apt-pinning.html
http://carlo17.home.xs4all.nl/howto/debian.html#errata
http://www.howtoforge.com/a-short-intro ... pt-pinning
http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html


BROKEN SYSTEM???
If your system somehow has broken packages, or has held packages you can use aptitude to fix the problems. Basically, aptitude gives you a
list of choices to repair your system, but it just displays the choices ONE at a TIME, with user responses of Y, N, Q (yes, no, quit), for each
displayed choice. In my case the first choice was to keep all current packages, so I answered N, to view the second choice. Finally, the choice
appeared that I thought would be the answer to repair my held packages. So, an answer of N will proceed to the next choice aptitude has available,
with the option of Q to quit at any time. Use man aptitude from a Terminal for more information.

2.2. Basic package management operations
2.2.1. apt-get / apt-cache vs. aptitude

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debia ... de_literal


Follow what Bigmoozer suggests:
a) Do this first on a test machine.
b) apt-get ... --dryn-run is your friend. It will tell you which packages is going to be installed and in which version - withou doing anything.

You might want to build a system in VirtualBox, and try your building/updating and if it doesn't work, just DELETE your VirtualBox Image. That's
much better than blowing away your current install.

I did a similar thing when I updated Wheezy to XFCE4 Version 4.10 and posted "[HOWTO] - Debian 7 "Wheezy" Min Installation with XFCE".

Good Luck!

Larry