> > That is odd. As I've mentioned, I've never seen that happen. Any
> package in particular? (And was it the same package each time?)
>
> No very specific but at least once I was adding lot of packages not
> installed by default (including some Asian fonts and input methods.)
Sounds like you didn't have the Multiverse repository enabled.
The 'Universe' repository includes non-Canonical free and open-source
packages. The 'Multiverse' repository contains the non-free or
patent-encumbered packages. I know there's at least one input manager
that is in the Multiverse repo. It likely was just set as "Recommends",
but as I said, by default Recommends is treated as "Requires".
Why do I know this? Back when I started using Debian I wanted to know
about all the great packages available, and during upgrades I always
paid attention to the new packages. At this point it is practically a
compulsion. At one point or another I've read the descriptive text on
every package available. (Though I don't pretend to actually retain
much of it, occassionally I recall something useful.)
> My got feeling is that it's always riskier to do a live-upgrade then a
> standalone upgrade. Weird things can happen when you upgrade important
> shared libraries such as glibc -- the old ones are still open by
> utilities already running while the new ones might kick in by new
> running programs -- e.g., there is a bug in, say, 'rm' that is not
> triggered by the old glibc. Now the new glibc is in place and the new
> runs of 'rm' will start using the new shared libraries and the bug got
> triggered. When it comes to our important servers, we either do a fresh
> install or, if upgrade route is necessary, a standalone upgrade.
At this time I don't recall if I did a live update when migrating from
a.out to ELF or not. I do know that during that time my resources were
limited and so if it were an option, I would have done it. (My first
Linux distro was a.out, but I may have still been using Slackware during
the switch... and I think I may have done a reinstall for a Slackware
update once to go from the CD-shipped to the then-current version.)
I recall once being shocked and horrified to find out that with RedHat
I'd need to boot to a CD to perform an upgrade. (When that was, I can
not say, it may well have been 12 years ago.) I was always only ever
talking about live-upgrades, as with Debian I have never done any other
kind in my ~13 years of using it.
To be safe, you want to perform a full update (dist-update in Debian
parlance) on the system first (rebooting the system if the kernel or
various important libraries were updated), then reboot the system when
the update is complete...
I don't know how the developers work over in RPM-based distributions,
but in the DEB-based world development happens on an open repository
so that if upgrading libc were to break package FOO then the entire
developer community would see it long before I -- a mere user of the
'stable' distribution -- would.
To my knowledge there is only one way to update a Debian-based system,
and that is online. Booting from CD is fine if you need to repartition
and reinstall, but to my knowledge Debian has never explicitly supported
booting from a CD to perform an update. Sure, it might work, but you'd
be better off doing it live and using the CD as a package store.
Cheers,
Steven Black
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