[Cialug] Debian updated without choosing

[Daniel A. Ramaley]

See below.

On Monday January 26 2009 12:40, Tom Sellers wrote:
>OK
>
>Here is the sources.list file contents.
>
>#
>
># deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r4a _Etch_ - Official i386 CD
> Binary-1 20080803-21:07]/ etch contrib main
>
>
># deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r4a _Etch_ - Official i386 CD
> Binary-1 20080803-21:07]/ etch contrib main
>
>
># Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
>
># deb http://security.debian.org/ etch main
>
># Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
>
># deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
>
># deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ sarge main
>
>deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian sid main
                                     ^^^

Extra linefeeds aside, there's your problem. Debian is configured to get 
updates from ftp.de.debian.org ("de"... is that in Germany? You might 
consider a more local mirror.). And it is configured to pull updates 
from the "sid" branch. So, congratulations, you're not just 
running "Testing", but are probably running "Unstable".

Unfortunately, while it is easy to upgrade Stable -> Testing -> 
Unstable, going the other way is usually not so simple. If you really 
want to get back to Stable, the safest and easiest way would probably 
be to reinstall. And then make sure the lines that are supposedly 
"commented out by installer because it failed to verify" are 
uncommented. It would be useful to really figure out why everything is 
commented out except for the one ftp.de.debian.org line at the end, and 
where that one line came from.


>
>--- On Fri, 1/23/09, kristau <kristau at gmail.com> wrote:
>> From: kristau <kristau at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Cialug] Debian updated without choosing
>> To: "Central Iowa Linux Users Group" <cialug at cialug.org>
>> Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 11:46 PM
>> On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 10:17 PM, Tom Sellers
>>
>> <tomsellers2001 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> > This question was asked several times when I left
>>
>> posts on Linux Questions as well.  Since I am a new Linux
>> user I am not really sure what this file is all about.  Can
>> you enlighten me on that?  I will have to get back to you on
>> the contents as I can't look right now.
>>
>> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you were the
>> gentleman with
>> whom I visited prior to the last LUG meeting.  If so,
>> I'm pretty sure
>> your laptop had the default values in the /etc/apt/sources
>> file, so
>> I'm not sure why it would self-upgrade to Lenny.
>> Usually under
>> Debian-based systems you have to specify a full version
>> upgrade like
>> that, so it shouldn't do that on it's own.  Several
>> possibilities come
>> to mind (in order of most likely to least likely):
>>
>> 1) You inadvertently checked a box to upgrade the
>> distribution.
>> 2) The default apt configuration was, again inadvertently,
>> changed by you.
>> 3) Debian changed their configuration to push out the next
>> upgrade by default.
>> 4) Dark, Mysterious Forces are conspiring against you.
>> Run.  Now!
>>
>> I'm not trying to place the blame on you.  We have all,
>> however,
>> inadvertently changed a setting only to later discover that
>> it
>> resulted in unintended results.  If you post the contents
>> of your
>> /etc/apt/sources file to this list, I'm sure myself or
>> someone else
>> can see if there is anything in it that would have caused
>> the
>> automatic upgrade.
>>
>> But then again, it could be those Dark, Mysterious Forces.
>> Beware!
>>
>> Ken Ristau
>> --
>> Tired programmer
>> Coding late into the night
>> The core dump follows
>>
>> My GNUPG public key is available at
>> http://www.kristau.net/public_key.asc
>> _______________________________________________
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>
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Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA