Today I decided to upgrade my home server (the one that serves this blog) from lenny to squeeze. Here is a 'log' of the experience. My first mistake was on the name: it is not `squeezy`, it's `squeeze`. Second, the server once was also a minimal desktop, so I deinstalled a lot of desktop soft to make the upgrade smaller and easier. I simply used my favorite package manipulation toll, `dselect`[^1], and selected for purging all the optional and extra packages in sections libs, python and perl. When the consequences where shown to me, I just marked as install the software I wanted. After that, ~450 packages where removed. Following the [release notes](http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html), and after checking the [known upgrade issues](http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/i386/release-notes/ch-information.en.html), I did the first suggested step: a minimal upgrade. ```bash mdione@cobra:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade [...] 233 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 142 not upgraded. Need to get 67.2MB of archives. After this operation, 11.5MB of additional disk space will be used. [...] ``` I have `apt-listbugs` installed, so I got this question just before accepting the upgrade: ```bash serious bugs of libslang2 (2.1.3-3 -> 2.2.2-4) #615909 - Copyright file does not clearly state licence terms (Fixed: slang2/2.2.3-1) serious bugs of deborphan (1.7.27 -> 1.7.28.3) #618895 - orphaner enteres infinite loop on sparc (Fixed: deborphan/1.7.28.4) critical bugs of initscripts (2.86.ds1-61 -> 2.88dsf-13.1) #612594 - On boot thw wait have no job to wait for, and fail into reboot. serious bugs of libpcre3 (7.8-2 -> 8.02-1.1) #616660 - /usr/bin/pcretest must not be shipped in libpcre3 Summary: libpcre3(1 bug), libslang2(1 bug), deborphan(1 bug), initscripts(1 bug) Are you sure you want to install/upgrade the above packages? [Y/n/?/...] ``` The critical bug for `initscripts` looked ugly, so I checked it in more depth. It seemed to affect `usplash`, which I don't use (no use in a headless server, right?), so I bit the bullet and continued. The [bug's discussion](http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=612594) said that the solution was to purge usplash anyways... The rest of the bugs were, pragmatically talking, not interesting to me. Then `apt-listchanges` showed me the unread entries in the `NEWS.Debian.gz` files for the upgraded packages, with no news that applied to my server. Interesting was the split of `pam_cracklib` into itself and `pam_pwhistory`, so now we can test the reuse of passwords without checking for dictionary attacks, in the strange case one would want to do so, or the other way around. That means that if you want both, you got to enable both. Besides some conffile resolution (it would be nice to be able to resolve diff with `meld` or `xxdiff`), the upgrade went smooth. Upgrading the kernel was painless too. The kernel NEWS included a note on PATA devices rename due to the new SCSI/PATA drivers, but I was aware of that because I read about the upgrade issues first :) I just had to tell `linux-base` to please update the disk devices in my config files, which is the default anyways. `udev` was a little bit more bumpy: ```bash critical bugs of udev (0.125-7+lenny3 -> 164-3) #593083 - udev - system hangs at login screen serious bugs of util-linux (2.13.1.1-1 -> 2.17.2-9) #613592 - /sbin/fdisk: Can't create at sector 63 #613589 - /sbin/cfdisk: Bad Table error after fresh Squeeze install ``` The first one seemed to be something quite handlable, and the other two were not interesting to me. The bullet just needed a little bit more of squeezing, that's all (Hahahahaaa! I told a joke! I can do this crap too![^2]). For the last step I used `dselect` again, as I love the way it presents dependency resolution. I took the opportunity to purge all the obsolete packages, and I got no dependency problem with that, which means the upgrade should be complete and smooth. This last step meant: ```bash 128 upgraded, 68 newly installed, 32 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 96.5MB of archives. After this operation, 33.1MB disk space will be freed. ``` Yeah, smooth indeed, except for these: ```bash serious bugs of wget (1.11.4-2+lenny2 -> 1.12-2.1) #614373 - wget: mixes dpatch and 3.0 (quilt) (Fixed: wget/1.12-3) serious bugs of lvm2 (2.02.39-8 -> 2.02.66-5) #603710 - root and swap devices on lvm do not correctly show up in udev (missing symlinks) (Fixed: lvm2/2.02.84-1) Merged with: 593625 serious bugs of libgssapi-krb5-2 ( -> 1.8.3+dfsg-4) #611906 - GSSAPI in krb5 1.8 fails to delegate credentials to W2K8R2 (Fixed: krb5/1.8.3+dfsg-5) grave bugs of libdpkg-ruby1.8 (0.3.2 -> 0.3.6+nmu1) #585448 - Leaves files open as it scans, resulting in too many open files Merged with: 600260 grave bugs of dash (0.5.4-12 -> 0.5.5.1-7.4) #540512 - dash upgrade breaks mksh-as-/bin/sh #538822 - dash fails to upgrade if /bin/sh is locally diverted grave bugs of grub-pc ( -> 1.98+20100804-14) #593648 - grub-pc install fails on RAID1 (unknown filesystem) #590884 - grub-pc: upgrading with vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 kernel fails on device detection #612220 - after update to squeeze grub2 don't load the system #620663 - grub-pc hangs after upgrading lenny to squeezy grave bugs of openssh-client (1:5.1p1-5 -> 1:5.5p1-6) #607267 - /usr/bin/scp: fails to notice close() errors grave bugs of elinks (0.12~pre2.dfsg0-1 -> 0.12~pre5-2) #617713 - Caches documents in violation of HTTP spec and general sanity serious bugs of apt (0.7.20.2+lenny2 -> 0.8.10.3) #558784 - apt: re-adds removed keys serious bugs of python2.5 (2.5.2-15+lenny1 -> 2.5.5-11) #598372 - python2.5: uses the network during build serious bugs of lvm2 (2.02.39-8 -> 2.02.66-5) #603036 - lvm2: fails to install due to incorrect dependencies in init.d LSB header serious bugs of munin (1.2.6-10~lenny2 -> 1.4.5-3) #619399 - munin shouldn't recreate apache conf on every update serious bugs of grub (0.97-47lenny2 -> 0.97-64) #594283 - grub: non-standard gcc/g++ used for build (gcc-4.3) serious bugs of insserv ( -> 1.14.0-2) #598020 - barfs when there are "invalid" init scripts ``` I focused on `grub-pc` bugs, because I don't have a monitor and having the server unbootable is not my idea of a funny way to spend my afternoon. 612220 and 620663 seemed the most graves ones, so I checked them. The latter seems more complicated, so I just added another bullet in my mouth and continued. The rest of the bugs seemed harmless enough for me. The NEWS had nothing either. The moment of truth was coming closer. During the `Debconf` part, I chose to put `grub-pc` in the boot sector of the root partition and chainload it from `grub-legacy` which is still installed in the MBR. I also kept the old kernel, just in case. With a mouthfull of bullets in different states of chewedness, I rebooted the server. As spected, nothing happened; that is, it booted fine, no problems, all services still there. Dissapointed, now I' looking intently to a more complicated server for an upgrade. [^1]: yes, I know `dselect` is in maintenance mode now, and that it knows nothing about automatic packages, but I mostly know what I need and what not. In any case, what's missing can be installed later. Nothing critical is run in this server. [^2]: If you hadn't, you *really* have to see [Ahmed, the suicide terrorist](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go)