Learning Daily

Howto: Upgrade to Debian Squeeze

Posted on 23. Sep, 2009 by Krishnan.

My first attempt to upgrade to Debian Squeeze failed. It was because I lost power in the middle of the upgrade and my PC got switched off. It was so bad that I could not get the installation to work again. I had to re-install.

I made a second attempt today and succeeded. Briefly, this is what happened.

18:45 hrs
I pop in the Debian 5.03 DVD 1 and start a vanilla install of Lenny with GNOME.
20:35 hrs
Debian Lenny  installation completes.
20:40 hrs
I edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to change all instances of “lenny” to “squeeze” and all instances of “.in” to “.us”. This is the only preparatory step required. Nothing else is necessary as the entire squeeze installation happens by a download.
20.41 hrs
I use the update manager to check for updates. Smart Upgrade feature  identifies 1101 packages adding to 881 MB.
20:42 hrs
I begin to download the squeeze upgrades on my 512 KBPS connection
12:58 hrs
All 1101 package downloads complete and squeeze installation starts. Thankfully, I didn’t lose power this time.
01:25 hrs
Installation freezes when attempting to restart the hardware abstraction layer.
01:27 hrs
After waiting for two minutes, I press Enter a few times and Ctrl+c a few times. Disk whirls and installation continues.
01:35 hrs
Installation completes. Update Manager throws out a long list of dependency problems reproduced below. PC freezes again and wont power down.
01:36 hrs
I manually power down the machine, wondering if the upgrade worked
01:38 hrs
When I boot, I notice that the Vanilla installation of Squeeze is near perfect. Everything works flawlessly.

The addition of  multimedia drivers, third party software etc. are for another day.

————————————————————-
Dependency problems during a normal squeeze install.
————————————————————-
E: dbus: subprocess installed post-installation script killed by signal (Interrupt)
E: dbus-x11: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: gconf2-common: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgconf2-4: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: gconf2: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnomevfs2-common: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnomevfs2-0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnomevfs2-extra: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libedataserver1.2-11: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libcamel1.2-14: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libebook1.2-9: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libecal1.2-7: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-evolution: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnome2-common: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: gvfs: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnome2-0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libbonoboui2-0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnomeui-0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libpanel-applet2-0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-gnomeapplet: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnome-desktop-2-11: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-gnomedesktop: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: gnome-media-common: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgnome-media0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-mediaprofiles: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: metacity-common: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libmetacity-private0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-metacity: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libtotem-plparser12: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-totem-plparser: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-gnome2-desktop: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-gconf: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: python-gnome2: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: consolekit: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: policykit: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: hal: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: xserver-xorg: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: xserver-xorg-core: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: xserver-xorg-input-kbd: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libebackend1.2-0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libedata-book1.2-2: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libedata-cal1.2-6: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libegroupwise1.2-13: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libsoup-gnome2.4-1: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgweather-common: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgweather1: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libedataserverui1.2-8: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libexchange-storage1.2-3: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgtkhtml3.14-19: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: libgtkhtml-editor0: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
E: evolution-data-server: dependency problems – leaving unconfigured

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Howto: Automatically start a program in Debian

Posted on 20. Sep, 2009 by Krishnan.

Some times, some of us may need to start a program when starting Debian. One example could be the instant messenger program Pidgin or it could be Vuze for people who want their downloads to start automatically.

GNOME has an elegant solution for this. Go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions and here you can add a list of programs you want to start with every session.

*Edited later*

In KDE4 there is a similar choice in Control center -> autostart.

If you are using KDE 3.5, which comes with Debian Lenny as a default, you will need to add the program manually to ~/.kde/Autostart

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Why does Debian smell like freedom?

Posted on 17. Sep, 2009 by Krishnan.

I bought my first desktop computer in 1999 and Windows ’98 came with it. I thought it was pricey, but I didn’t have a choice. Since then, I’ve bought two more desktops and three more laptops for home use at regular intervals and each one of them came with an XP or Vista license. In the couple of decades that went by, learning Windows was a necessity. Windows ’95 didn’t exist when I was in college and was never taught to me. At that point in time, I didn’t mind coughing up the money for personal licences, to cope with the corporate hunger for Windows.

Now when I ask myself if I would like to pay for the newest Windows, I come up with a big no. This is not the first version of Windows and it certainly wont be the last. Clearly, the more I invest in Windows today, the more I will re-invest in the future. And the money usually buys me features that dont really matter to me. Even if one ends up buying Windows, he’d soon have had to pay for an MS-Office licence, if it weren’t for the open source folks who gave the world atelast a possibility of opening a spreadsheet before opening your wallet..

I re-built my PC recently. Instead of dual booting with OpenSuSE, I now dual boot with Debian 5.

When I get back from work and power up my PC and watch GRUB ticking, I am faced with a hard choice every day. Should I boot into Debian by default and use the less known programs like Iceweasel, Pidgin and Transmission or should I boot into Windows so that I can update my virus definitions, install windows updates and use the programs with nice names?

I’ve learnt by practice that when I boot into Debian, my heart feels free and light. With every boot, the conviction grows stronger. I dont have to worry about buying software. Its sure is not the easiest way to do things. But atleast a programmer wont make me open my wallet again because he couldn’t write the best program in the first go.

I believe that the real solutions for the world today should be simple, transperant,  driven by collective intelligence and  accessible to the masses. If it weren’t for piracy, most commercial software would be lot less popular today. Things were different when people were not computer savvy and depended on other companies to get their software. But as people begin to know more and more about about computers, they are not waiting for companies to step in to solve their problems. They write their own solutions and strive to make it better.

If we can understand that human beings are natural problem solvers who strive to improve the quality of life, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve learnt to solve the coding problem. The companies that made hay while the sun shone were the lucky ones. Clearly, open source  has come of age and it will only get better as the average user learns more.

Debian smells like freedom because it reflects my own growth into a mature user who can understand and evalute choices.

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