“upgrading” from sid to testing?

[Member stevesr0]

I just realized that I installed the sid version of 19.1 instead of the stable version.

As this is not a “production” computer, I could just continue to use it, but I am leery of the warnings that Debian posts about using “unstable”.

Particularly, I don’t want to have to make patches or to update my system every six hours.

So, I want to “move” from unstable to either testing or stable.

Is it possible to upgrade from sid to testing or stable repos or is this a one way road?

thanks for advice.

stevesr0

[Anonymous]

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FYI a current (Jan 2020) discussion is underway here:
Is changing the sources list from testing back to stable asking for trouble?

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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For what it’s worth I ran a couple of Debian Sid (the “unstable” kid) for quite a while. One began with a Debian Stable installation and I migrated it to Debian Sid. The other one was a custom built system using antiX Core and a Debian Sid repository.

Both worked fine for several years. In fact I believe that the only reason they are gone is that I got rid of the two computers, both of which had antiX Core and Debian Sid.

I really don’t need to track cutting edge software any more, but I can say with confidence it can be done and it’s not very difficult to do.

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Brian Masinick

[Member stevesr0]

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Thanks, skidoo.

I came away with a general sense that it is easy to mess your system by doing that <g>.

stevesr0

[Member stevesr0]

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Thanks masinick.

I am in no rush to mess with this install; OTOH, in general, I have not felt restricted by the stable versions I have used up to now. Except of course for the problem with abcde that led me to accidentally trashing my stable install of antix 17.

So I will play with it for a while.

stevesr0

[Member VW]

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Brian is just being modest. He’s only been running his blog since 2005 🙂

“These are the times that try men's souls" - Thomas Paine

[Member fungalnet]

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There is a an ongoing myth in the debian world that it can’t be done, not a single step back, let alone two. Although logically there has to be a way do be done, but it would be such a precision operation and a fine line not to break the active system in process of downgrading that you must question yourself if it is worth it. A simple reinstallation would be a fraction of the time.

You did use the term upgrade, but we are talking about a total downgrade, nearly 80-90% of the system will have to be replaced by packages that are of earlier release, but then you have configurations that may not be backwards compatible.

On the other hand people have run sid for years and there is even a distribution called siduction (I hope it is still around) that is entirely based on sid.

anti-X - Adélie - obarun - systemd Free Space

[Anonymous]

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@fungalnet

+1

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Upgrades and downgrades are POSSIBLE. In my opinion, IF you have both the time and the interest, plus the ability to sacrifice a system (sometimes things fail the first time you try them).

If you can spare time, a spare system (or one that has been thoroughly backed up) I actually recommend trying all kinds of crazy things, going forward, backwards, doing the “best practices” and some crazy bad practices, in order to understand what works and also how to recover from mistakes. A great recovery technique is to restore a system from failure, so that is a great idea too.

My only caution is to make sure that you protect any resources that you want to save, and give yourself plenty of time to practice and learn. I picked up more this way than anything else I can remember, but it did take a long time and many tries, and multiple backed up systems.

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Brian Masinick

[Member ModdIt]

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Quote: If you can spare time, a spare system (or one that has been thoroughly backed up) I actually recommend trying all kinds of crazy things, going forward, backwards, doing the “best practices” and some crazy bad practices, in order to understand what works and also how to recover from mistakes. A great recovery technique is to restore a system from failure, so that is a great idea too.

Hallo Brian, thanks, my adage too
do a backup or run live. Try what you feel like and see if it works. If it breaks try and fix it. Get some help, you will learn more that way than in years of playing safe and just lazily reinstalling.

Running sid is occasionaly interesting but in my (much less than your) experience at least as stable and usable
as many other much acclaimed distros — and much more so than many others. Long ago I tried downgrading, the system still ran but with issues. For that a reinstall seems the better solution because the downgrade was very time consuming.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I’m pretty sure that “downgrading” a Sid installation is much more likely to create issues than an upgrade from stable to Sid.

The only reason to consider doing it anyway is to see if it breaks beyond repair or if can be salvaged. The salvage effort itself may require manually inserting fixes for broken components or even a complete rebuild. The notion is not that this is the fastest way or the best way, merely that it’s a great way to learn.

Reinstalling the desired software is the safest approach. I often use cloud storage to back up some stuff of interest and I also use DVD, USB, and other systems as alternate sources for the things that I keep. Notice that I have numerous different ways to get the things I want to save and retain. I can retrieve them or recreate them in more than one way.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Brian Masinick.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Brian Masinick.

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Brian Masinick

[Member stevesr0]

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Thanks all for the replies.

I will follow up as I play more with this.

stevesr0

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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stevesr0 wrote:

Thanks all for the replies.

I will follow up as I play more with this.

stevesr0

Best wishes as you experiment and learn.

I think we all agree that installing a new system and copying back the files you save is without question the safest way to do the job.

MX and antiX are both based on Debian Stable in their “standard form”. As you can readily see, we also offer antiX in a variety of other more experimental forms. Novice users should start with one of the “standard forms” unless their goal is to dig, get frustrated and ultimately learn or try another approach. We do offer both.

Best wishes

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Brian Masinick

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