Upgrading Debian Squeeze to Wheezy
The Blog of Tom Webster
Since switching to
Debian
for the majority of my computing needs, I started looking for a way to
get more up-to-date packages. The stability is nice, but I'm willing to
live with some bugs if it means that my desktop can have more frequent
updates. Turns out, all I need to do is change a few words in my
/etc/apt/source.list file, and the system is upgrade with a simple
apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade. The usual disclaimer
applies, using software in testing or unstable could be dangerous and
cause you to lose data / get divorced / start world war 3 (in that
order).
Here's my stable /etc/apt/source.list file before:
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.7 _Squeeze_ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20130303-21:07]/ squeeze main
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.7 _Squeeze_ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20130303-21:07]/ squeeze main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
# squeeze-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-proposed-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-proposed-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib non-free
And here's my testing /etc/apt/sources.list file after:
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.7 _Testing__ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20130303-21:07]/ testing main
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.7 _Testing_ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20130303-21:07]/ testing main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
# testing-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing-updates main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing-proposed-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing-proposed-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing-updates main contrib non-free
If you look, all that changed is the word squeeze to the word
testing. Run a find-and-replace in your favorite text editor to make
the switch. If you're really living on the edge, you can make the switch
to the unstable branch, but I hear things break a bit more over there.