Re: Is apt-get dist-upgrade worth the hassle?
On 07/01/18 13:17, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
I've been banging my head against the wall trying to compile OpenSSL
clients on my Jessie laptop (see my recent posting titled "Can't link to
OpenSSL on my laptop). I've decided to upgrade it to Stretch like my
desktop machine, which compiles these programs successfully. However,
"sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" shows the message:
E: You don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/.
apt-get autoclean doesn't help; neither does apt-get clean. When I
tried apt-get autoremove, the upgrade started, but at 99% completion it
threw the message:
Error writing to output file - write (28: No space left on device)
Sure enough, / is full, with all the fun that that entails.
Is Jessie's default partitioning insufficient for Stretch, or have I
somehow filled up / with extraneous junk? Would I be better off backing
up /home, wiping the disk (e.g. with cfdisk) and starting from scratch?
(Probably - I should probably split /var into a separate partition
anyway.)
After this experience, I'm gun-shy about upgrading a system in place.
BTW is it ok to sudo apt-get, or should I su root and run it from an
actual root prompt?
I have had a SOHO network with a couple Debian machines for ~15 years.
My primary goal is reliable operations.
Doing a major version upgrade in place without understanding all the
issues and risks involved has not work well for me. And, I estimate the
learning curve to be non-trivial. Instead, I pursued the following:
1. Put my drives in mobile rack drawers, put racks in my computers,
and/or put trayless racks in my computers.
2. Take good system administration notes for every machine.
3. Place notes and all modified configuration files into a version
control system.
4. Invest in additional equipment and learning to implement robust
backup, archive, and image procedures.
5. Keep at least one spare machine available at all times.
These allow me to install, repair, upgrade, etc., computers within an
acceptable (and predictable) effort level.
When I want to do a major version upgrade on a computer:
1. Backup and archive the data and configuration files. Remove the
system drive and take an image of it. Save drive.
2. Get a fresh system drive. Wipe and test it using the manufacturer's
diagnostic utility. Insert into machine.
3. Download the latest Debian Stable and burn to media. Do a fresh
install. Update and upgrade. Install desired software.
4. Edit configuration files and migrate settings by hand. Restore data.
5. Integrate into backup, archive, and imaging processes.
David
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