[conspire] Ah, another test subject for this Saturday's CABAL

[Rick Moen]

In other news, the *buntu "Hardy Heron" development branch, which will
be 8.04 LTS if released on schedule in April, just entered pre-beta
freeze.  The one planned beta will be available soonish, but probably
not in time for this Saturday's meeting.

By contrast, Knoppix 5.3.1 _will_ probably be here.  (Every year, Klaus
Knopper issues a much-improved but restricted Knoppix at CeBIT in Germany;
this year's post-CeBIT release will be 5.3.1.)  It includes an
experimental KDE4 boot option, which will probably still be buggy.

For those who want Ubuntu/Medibuntu integrated with lots of proprietary
codecs and browser plugins, Java, DVD playback, and the like (plus easy
access of non-redistributable proprietary software such as the Opera
browser, Microsoft Web Fonts, RealPlayer 10, Adobe Acrobat Reader,
Google Earth, and Skype), Linux Mint has hit 4.0 "Daryna".  There are
GNOME (v. 2.20.0) and KDE (v. 3.5.8) releases of Linux Mint 4.0.

Mandriva 2008, Fedora 9, and OpenSUSE 11.0 have betas out.  And Gentoo 
is showing signs of life again, with a Gentoo 2008-03-13 unofficial
installable live-CD, compensating for the project leaders' inability to 
get a release out the door since early 2007.




 From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
 To: Paul Ross <paulross at igc.org>
 Cc: installers at linuxmafia.com
 Subject: Re: Upgrade from Libranet 3.0 to Debian Etch?
 Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:53:54 -0700
 Reply-To: installers at linuxmafia.com
 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11+cvs20060403

Quoting Paul Ross (paulross at igc.org):

> Several years ago I was at an installfest at your house inquiring
> about Debian.  After talking to me for a few minutes to get an idea of
> my skill level, you suggested that I might prefer one of a couple of
> more user-friendly Debian based distros, including Libranet.  I don't
> recall what the other one was.  I chose Libranet, which, as you know
> has been defunct for a few years now.  At this time, the system seems
> to be no longer workable.
> 
> I have a dim recollection that you said at that time that Libranet
> could be upgraded to straight Debian Etch.  I would like to do this if
> it is reasonably feasible.  If it is not feasible, I can download
> Debian and install it over the Libranet, but I would prefer not to
> lose the data I have accumulated on the hard drive.

It's an intriguing idea.  The final 3.0 releases of Libranet were (if I
recall correctly) still around the level of Debian 3.0/woody, and the
earlier Libranet 2.8x series were right around the level of 2.2/potato
-- as to bundled software versions.  So, you'd be either converging
first to 2.2/potato, then going to 3.0/woody, then 3.1/sarge, then
4.0/etch, _or_ attempting to skip the first step (2.2/potato), depending
on what Libranet version you have.

That's actually a _whole_ lot of upgrading, either way.

> Last June, I attempted to upgrade the computer to Sarge.  I commented
> out the lines that were obviously Libranet proprietary software.
> Eventually, the system told me that I had successfully upgraded to
> Sarge.  It turned out, however that the upgrade was less than
> successful.  I got by with it until today.  Although I'm sending this
> message from that computer, it seems to be going down fast.
> 
> So I would like to bring it to your March 22 meeting, if you think
> that anybody would want to look at it.

Well, sure.  Question:  What would you like to accomplish?  I mean, we
could go several ways, right?  One thing we could do is copy the data
you care about over to another machine for safekeeping, blow away your 
system, and install... something, whatever you want, on it, and then put
your data back.  

If, on the other hand, you really, really like Libranet's Adminmenu app
and other company-proprietary stuff like that, it might be possible to 
install some other Debian-type distribution that's still maintained, and
load your pick of Libranet's special .deb packages into it.  (I cannot
say in advance what obstacles might arise to that effort.)

Or, we could reinstall your Libranet version (from your CDs) as a fresh
installation, and then attempt to step-upgrade it to Debian-etch and
see/hope if it's possible to keep the Libranet-issued desktop
applications (or whatever else you value from Libranet) functional in so
doing.

Or it might be the case that you'd be happy with just plain old
Debian-stable (currently 4.0/etch) with, maybe, KDE 3.x on it -- without
the need to drag along Libranet's proprietary packages.  That would be a
whole lot easier to do, since then we'd need only to copy off the files
you care about (for safekeeping), install Etch, put your files back, and
we're done.

I hope that helps.





 From: Paul Ross <paulross at igc.org>
 To:  installers at linuxmafia.com
 Subject: Re: Upgrade from Libranet 3.0 to Debian Etch?
 Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:18:21 -0700
 User-Agent: Debian Thunderbird 1.0.2 (X11/20070113)

Thanks for getting back to me so promptly, Rick, and apologies for my
taking so long to get back to you. There is nothing about Libranet that
is sacred to me, and since it sounds like trying to upgrade it at this
stage would be opening a can of worms, I will try to download and
install Etch myself. I will let you know how it turns out.

regards,
Paul Ross






 From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
 To: Paul Ross <paulross at igc.org>
 Cc: installers at linuxmafia.com
 Subject: Re: Upgrade from Libranet 3.0 to Debian Etch?
 Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:50:46 -0700
 Reply-To: installers at linuxmafia.com
 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11+cvs20060403

Quoting Paul Ross (paulross at igc.org):

> Thanks for getting back to me so promptly, Rick, and apologies for my
> taking so long to get back to you. There is nothing about Libranet that
> is sacred to me, and since it sounds like trying to upgrade it at this
> stage would be opening a can of worms, I will try to download and
> install Etch myself. I will let you know how it turns out.

As a second option, if you like, at this Saturday's CABAL meeting /
installfest (4 pm - midnight, West Menlo Park), we'd be glad to help you
with your choice of Debian (or similar) installation media, which we 
already have available.  See you there, if you can visit.