[conspire] How to update packages when Deb is behind?
Paul Zander
paulz at ieee.org
Thu Jun 21 09:38:50 PDT 2018
Below are the file contents.
Apparently I installed from CD in 2015 and updated sources.list, but missed the other files.BTW, I did not email the full sources.list file. We can return to that later.
root at PZ01:/# ls -l /etc/debian*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 665845760 Dec 21 2015 /etc/debian-testing-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40133 Dec 13 2015 /etc/debian-testing-amd64-xfce-CD-1.jigdo
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61937999 Dec 13 2015 /etc/debian-testing-amd64-xfce-CD-1.template
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11 Jun 25 2017 /etc/debian_version
root at PZ01:/# ls -l /etc/apt/sources.list.d
total 0
root at PZ01:/etc# cat debian_version
buster/sid
root at PZ01:/etc# cd /
root at PZ01:/# cat /etc/issue
Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid \n \l
root at PZ01:/# cat /etc/debian_version
buster/sid
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: conspire at linuxmafia.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2018 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [conspire] How to update packages when Deb is behind?
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.
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