[conspire] How to update packages when Deb is behind?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> To answer your first question, the most recent web-site was someplace
> doing a survey about my doctor visit.  However, some banking web-sites
> have also complained.

I'd be interested to hear whether that continues if you install the
User Agent Switcher extension (Debian package xul-ext-useragentswitcher), and 
use it to masquerade as a popular MS-Windows or MacOS or smartphone
browser.  It's really rare for sites to have _real_ browser
dependencies.  And, frankly, when those exist, it's even rarer for the
site to tell you about the problem.  (It's more common that you find
that some AJAX-heavy feature on a site doesn't work right on one browser
but works fine on a different one, but the site tells you nothing at
all.)

> But, I have uncovered a more interesting aspect of the problem.
> Looking at my edited /etc/apt/sources.list, I believe I once installed
> Jessie from CD.  But that line was commented out.  The active lines
> are like:   
>
> deb http://mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
> deb-src http://mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
> 
> So I thought I have been on testing for a long time.  

Um... before doing anything else, better do some checking.

Look at the contents of /etc/issue, for starters.  It's an ASCII text
file, and, on Debian, should tell you a lot about what development
branch the system thinks it is.  Also check /etc/debian_version,
which'll probably say the same thing as /etc/issue, whatever those
contents are.

Just to be double-sure, check for the possible existenceof an
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory that (if it exists) could house
additional sources.list entries within additional files.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26020917/what-is-the-function-of-etc-apt-sources-list-d

The sources.list (active) lines you cited strike me as being, at
minimum, incomplete, if only because there should be a
security.debian.org line for Debian Security Team package updates.
And a *-updates line.

So, I'm kind of wondering who or what has been messing with your system.

But as you'll see here, mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu has a perfectly OK
set of Debian package repos:  https://mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/debian/

Here are some typical, normal sources.list file prototypes:
https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList#Example_sources.list


> Also as stated in my original email, Firefox is version 45.  According
> the Debian package search, even Wheezy has 52.  
> 
> Obviously something is not getting updated.  But at least it is called
> Firefox not IceApe.

Intended reference was probably to IceWeasel, which was Debian's
unbranded Firefox (necessitated at one time by Mozilla, Inc. being
asshats about trademark policy, to make a long story short).  IceApe 
was indeed a Web browser, but an oft-forgotten one.  It was Debian's
unbranded fork of SeaMonkey.  (Icedove was Debian's unbranded
Thunderbird, and Iceowl was Debian's unbranded Mozilla Sunbird.
One version of the long story is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_software_rebranded_by_Debian )

I was quite fond of IceWeasel and Icedove, and think nowadays that it's
really unfortunate that they were EOLed, because IMO some additional
good alternatives to Firefox v. 57+ would be A Good Thing.

Anyway, _after_ you have checked /etc/issue and /etc/debian_version to
see what your system thinks it is, you should perhaps consider fixing
your /etc/sources.list a bit.  I also hope you're aware that you must
occasionally replenish/update the available-packages catalogue?  That
doesn't do itself, is my point.  If using apt-get:

  apt-get update

Only after recently having done so will 'apt-cache search' and similar
operaions give you meaningful information about what is available in the
package repos for your system.