Difference between Testing and Sid

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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My advice for sid users.

1. Only use sid/unstable repos (antiX and Debian)
2. Always update/upgrade via terminal
3. Though some may disagree, use apt dist-upgrade and not apt upgrade
4. Latest elogind is also in sid repos (it was just an oversight)
5. Always read what apt is going to do before pressing the Enter key.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member stevesr0]

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(See update below my original response – if interested <g>.)

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your comments.

I agree completely with your approach.

I am running Sid on my oldest computer, (old) stable on my newest and (almost out of date) antiX17 on my middle one.

The Sid install is for fun and to learn from. It happens to work delightfully in spite of my amateurish mishandling of things like repositories.

I am taking anticapitalista’s recommendations and will see what changes in my available packages.

I do believe that there are some other newbies on the forum who sometimes benefit from discussion of elementary problems that people like me run into.

Hi anticapitalista,

Thanks for confirming recommendations and nice to know that the latest version of elogind and associated packages is present in sid repositories.

stevesr0

P.S. I looked up the security package question and found the debian security FAQ which explained that the developer is responsible for managing security issues in all Sid/unstable packages. That is why the security team doesn’t maintain a security repository for Sid/unstable.

stevesr0

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Update – post changes to lists, no obvious problems. Change in packages listed by aptitude was minimal (7 fewer in the uninstalled out of 76457, and additional 25 new packages).

More importantly, system works (at least) as well as before.

Only residual academic question is the purpose of two list files which also reference Sid/unstable for debian and antix ending in .dpkg.old. The antix one included contrib which is not present in antix.list itself. I left both of these active.

stevesr0

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by stevesr0.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by stevesr0.

[Anonymous]

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Regarding contrib, these are typically additional packages contributed by the community and not necessarily rigorously verified by the development team.

posting to question whether the quoted bit is accurate.
re: antix.list
I have never seen a “contrib” section of repo.antixlinux.com mentioned

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi Brian and skidoo,

The active debian repositories include contrib. After skidoo challenged my comment about antix.list.dpkg.old containing a contrib element, I rechecked and realized that it was debian’s unstable repository listing I saw that in.

I apologize for wasting electrons.

Thanks for clarifying and for catching my mistake.

stevesr0

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by stevesr0.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Contrib: packages classified as Contrib are free license software but depend on non-free licensed software. Non-free: packages have some restriction to use and distribute the software.

Source: https://linuxhint.com/add_debian_repository

These are good questions and worthwhile discussions.

There once was a time where it was difficult to get “non-free” (that is binary only software) even included at all in Debian. Other groups would create repositories, and users would have to go hunting for them.

Debian still differentiates between free and non-free software, and has designations for different types of software. Most recently Debian projects have made some images available that include wireless firmware, which makes it much easier to get laptops, in particular, on wireless networks, which are one of the common networks these days.

My reference to “developers” was to Debian developers, not antiX developers.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member seaken64]

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Thanks to stevesr0, Brian Masinick, anticapitalista and skidoo, and anyone else who has contributed to this thread., You have all helped my understanding of the sid repos.

Seaken64

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi Seaken64,

Thanks for compliment. This has been a good learning thread for me as well.

Thank you for starting and contributing to it.

stevesr0

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by stevesr0.

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