Linux Debian 6 Update

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Update Debian 6.0 Squeeze to 7.0 Wheezy

official link : https://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html

Before upgrade

you should remove graphical interface to prevent useless trouble

to remove gnome environement:

apt-get remove gnome-core

sources.list

First, prepare sources.list, You can use your favorite text editor, to open /etc/apt/sources.list file.

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

And change squeeze for wheezy, it may look like this after the change:

deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ wheezy main
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ wheezy main

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main

if you have other lines, you have to remove them to prevent conflict

Upgrade the system

Respecting what the official how-to says, we’ll do the upgrade in stages.

Update the sources

apt-get update

Minimal upgrade

apt-get upgrade

Upgrade the Kernel

It seems I already have the 2.6 kernel, but I’m going to follow the instructions anyway.

Here is what I’ve already have installed.

dpkg -l | grep linux-image

The output is:

ii  linux-image-2.6-amd64                2.6.32+29                      Linux 2.6 for 64-bit PCs (meta-package)
ii  linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64           2.6.32-45                      Linux 2.6.32 for 64-bit PCs

So, upgrading kernel.

apt-get install linux-image-2.6-amd64

Good thing I did, it actually upgraded and added packages.

And because I’m using grub, and I want to be sure everything is going to work.

update-grub

then upgrade udev

apt-get install udev

Final upgrade

Once all these steps have completed, I can now upgrade the distribution so:

apt-get dist-upgrade

Some problems

when you type the command apt-get dist-upgrade you can have some errors. This is how error could be solved:

• if you have some minor issues, you can try:

apt-get -f install
apt-get dist-upgrade

• if error occure on Immediate-Configure, you can try:

apt-get -o APT::Immediate-Configure=0 -f install
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

• try Updating aptitude

aptitude safe-upgrade
aptitude install aptitude apt
aptitude dist-upgrade

After upgrade

dpkg -configure -a
apt-get autoremove

update kernel headers

apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

add an UI if needed:

apt-get install gnome-core

Result

to verify boot logs check in /var/log/boot if nothing has been logged yet or if file is missing, install the package bootlogd:

apt-get install bootlogd

to display log with visibility:

sed 's/\^\[/\E/g;s/\[1G\[/\[27G\[/' /var/log/boot > /var/log/bootFormated

or

sed 's/\^\[/\E/g' /var/log/boot | less -R > /var/log/bootFormated

then edit /var/log/bootFormated and search for "error" string

• working stuff after the upgrade:
  • Linux users
  • Linux conf
  • ssh conf (and sftp)
  • Apache conf (with custom .so)
  • PHP conf
  • Mysql server
  • Personnals web site
  • Cgit
  • phpMyAdmpin
  • Wiki
  • and some more tools

• not working stuff:
  • Ruby (for redmine)
    • requier ruby install
  • Mounted folder (on oracleVM Virtual box)
    • requier install new VirtualBox Guest Additions (don't forget to update linux headers)

apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-utils
modprobe vboxvfs
mount -t vboxsf {mountName} {targetFolder}

desktop icon

1] option in System tools>preference>advanced paremeters			2] select "have file manager handle the desktop"

• if you have trouble displaying gnome desktop:

install gnome-tweak-tool

apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

can be launched with command

gnome-tweak-tool

if cannot execute gnome-open $HOME command, type thoose command to fix it:

sessionfile=`find "${HOME}/.dbus/session-bus/" -type f`
export `grep "DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" "${sessionfile}" | sed '/^#/d'`