How do YOU keep your system up to date?

[Paradox]

Hi.

How do YOU keep your system up to date?

personally I just do:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

But, I have been getting a little tired of debian, because a lot of the packages
are so out of date, and many programs I want are missing. It seems more suited
to a server, than a desktop OS. So, I'm looking for another distribution to
try.

However since day one I have had trouble installing new packages, and keeping my
system up to date. So far apt-get is the only tool I have seen that does what I
want. I have heard about urpmi but never really given it a try.

So, I am curious to see what everbody else is using to keep there system up to
date. What distro are you running? How would you perform some tasks like:

updating your already installed packages to the latest version over the
internet.
Installing the latest version of KDE (preferably a pre-linked version)

What programs would you use? How? can it be done from the command line, or
GUI? Do you often run into problems? How long would you expect to spend to
perform those tasks?

Thanks. I'm curious to see how people do this stuff, before I chose a distro.

- Luke

[thor420]

I have decided in my limited experience that Slackware coupled with the little program checkinstall works wonders on keeping things up to date. Slackware uses a package manager that throws in .tgz packages. They are all listed nicely in one big list you can easily peruse, remove stuff, or update. The problem with that is that the .tgz packages tend to be out of date. By the time someone decides to make a Slack-pak of the latest greatest foo.tgz, it is already out of date. Enter checkinstall. This program is great! It makes slackware packages on the fly out of regular old tarballs. So I usually do a ./configure, make, checkinstall and voila I have an up to date easily removeable package.

Pretty neato...if you're into that kind of thing.

[Siskmarek]

I use Mandrake and it has a nice update utility built into its software manager. You configure a list of ftp mirrors you can download from, then click the Mandrake Update button. Select whether you want bugfixes, normal version updates to stay current, security patches, or all three and then let it go out and search the mirrors for updates.

It comes back and, depending on what you have installed, gives you a list and description of each package that is outdated, a security issue, or just plain buggy. Select the ones you want, leave it downloading in the background, and once it is done exit out and volia! You're done!

~ Siskie

[anton]

Siskmarek: I wanted to try this program out too ... what mirrors do you use ? besides rpmfind ?

thx :)

[Siskmarek]

There's quite a list (probably about 20 or so) but a lot of 'em are for universities that require password access so I skip over anything with .edu. Currently when I click on "Update List of Mirrors" it brings up ftp.stealth.net on the top of the list, so I just stick with that and download from there. Of course, it helps that I have a cable modem. :D

Just to warn you, it may take a while to add the source to your source list. This seems to be normal, because after all, I am on a cable modem. ='D Just leave it going and it will eventually pop whatever server you picked into your list of places to get RPMs from.

The neat thing about this program is is that you can use previous Mandrake CDs, or even Redhat cds, or a CD you have a bunch of RPMs burned onto, or even a directory on your hard drive filled with RPMs as sources, too. I bought Mandy 7.2 oh so long ago and it had quite a few cool things on the "commercial" CD. I can add this CD as a source and install/uninstall stuff from it, search it, etc. It really is an awesome proggie. ='D

~ Siskie

[anton]

thx , updating right now : )

hmm ... cable modem ... I think I won't have problem downloading - sitting on 10mbit :D

[bdg1983]

The latest versions of Caldera Workstation and Server 3.1 also have Caldera System Updater which works similar to *cough* Windows update. Well sort of as it logs you on to one of their sites, scans your software database, compares with what is available and then downloads and installs whatever you select to be updated. Very slick.

[z0mbix]

Sorry, I'm just an apt-getter... ;)

[thedexman]

CVS

[vasah20]

Originally posted by Siskmarek:
<STRONG>The neat thing about this program is is that you can use previous Mandrake CDs, or even Redhat cds, or a CD you have a bunch of RPMs burned onto</STRONG>

Sisk - are you using 8.0 or 8.1? I'm using 8.0, and I can't get my cds full of RPMs to get recognized in Drake's Software Manager. Software Manager keeps looking in /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS for the RPMS, even though they are in /mnt/cdrom. how did you fix this?

[Strike]

If you are comfortable enough with Debian and how its package system works, try the testing or unstable branches. The unstable branch is REALLY up to date.

[z0mbix]

Originally posted by Strike:
<STRONG>If you are comfortable enough with Debian and how its package system works, try the testing or unstable branches. The unstable branch is REALLY up to date.</STRONG>

I've just got woody(a week ago) and very happy with it, but only been using Debian about a month so not too sure whether to upgrade to sid yet. What are the major benefits from using sid instead of woody. I know I can always get help here and google etc but it is really worth the hastle yet? Is it much more unstable that woody?

[Strike]

Well, sid generally has new software releases packaged and mirrored within 24 hours of the release, so that's one good thing. It does, of course, have broken packages from time to time, but fixes are put out quite fast (perhaps not new packages, but a known fix - I just always check in #debian on irc.openprojects.net with their bot, apt).

[Duh]

use red-carpet and redhat.

or when needed grab things out of redhat's rawhide (i always get the kernel from there).

[Icarus]

Using Red Hat 7.2, I use the up2date and am very happy with it (I have to turn off the daemon it starts when setup so it stops looking for updates every 2 hours). Just register your system with Red Hat, login and check for updates...it will even install them for ya. Very slick and very easy (using Gnome makes it easy to see what your getting also), plus being registered you can have them send out e-mails to you when there is an update available on one of your packages.

[Siskmarek]

Sisk - are you using 8.0 or 8.1? I'm using 8.0, and I can't get my cds full of RPMs to get recognized in Drake's Software Manager. Software Manager keeps looking in /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS for the RPMS, even though they are in /mnt/cdrom. how did you fix this?

vasah20:

I'm currently using 8.1, although I thought 8.0 could do it, too. You added everything correctly, right? Try removing the source and re-adding it once again. Or updating to Mandy 8.1. ='D For me it's really been nice but a lot of people have been having trouble with it. *shrugs* Fair warning...

Mandrake's Software Manager &gt; apt-get! :D

~ Siskie