[Cialug] Debian updated without choosing

Mon Jan 26 13:15:51 CST 2009

The extra line feeds are probably my doing since I tried to reformat the file after copying it from the debian system to a Windows machine to send it.  (None of the browsers work right now.)  

As for the lines being commented out in this file, I think that may be due to some bad information that I got from the Linux Questions site on some earlier feedback.  Re-installation would not be a problem since this is not a machine that I am using for anything critical.  I am just trying to learn about linux.  I guess if I install it enough times I just may get the hang of things eventually! 

--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Daniel A. Ramaley <daniel.ramaley at drake.edu> wrote:

> From: Daniel A. Ramaley <daniel.ramaley at drake.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Cialug] Debian updated without choosing
> To: "Central Iowa Linux Users Group" <cialug at cialug.org>
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 1:00 PM
> 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
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Cialug mailing list
> >> Cialug at cialug.org
> >> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Cialug mailing list
> >Cialug at cialug.org
> >http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> 
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118,
> Drake University
> Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
> +1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311
> USA
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