Which is the best way to update antiX?

secipolla · posted: 2009-11-16 11:42

In
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link, the author says he prefers to keep a sid Debian system rather than a 'testing' one.
So I would like to know what do you think. I had to reinstall antiX and I'm inclined to go with sid repos through smxi. From my experience, the testing packages have been braking quite frequently making me get used to the sid way __{{emoticon}}__

Also smxi offers some options, if I recall well one is antix-sid, then there's antix-sid-sidux and there's yet one that installs some sidux packages. I would like to know your opinion on these options. Also we know that the sidux people broke with h2 and I would like to know if that affects anything in regard to smxi capabilities.
I guess I can have some information on smxi.org but I'm asking first and reading later __{{emoticon}}__

Tx.

secipolla · posted: 2009-11-16 12:18

I gave a good read at smxi.org but still would like to know the differences between antix-sid, antix-sid-sidux and the other option.

secipolla · posted: 2009-11-16 14:23

The question is open but I think i made a decision: I won't update __{{emoticon}}__ ...not until something is not working that must be fixed with an update.
Everything seems to be working fine, the first thing I did after installing was reconfiguring sysv-rc (link when I find it) and antiX booted really fast then. With my specific cleaning on startup services and purging Wicd it was booting with 32 MB in a 1 GB RAM system.
I installed the latest nVidia driver with sgfxi (the graphics card driver installer script) because it improves the graphics. nv works pretty well but the screen doesn't fit perfectly as it does with the prop. driver.
Now the system booted with 62 MB RAM used and that's ok.

I have 588 updatable packages. The only 'security' issue I would consider would be this machine turning into a zombie, like with Windows but I guess that would be as probable as myself turning into one __{{emoticon}}__

anticapitalista · posted: 2009-11-16 22:37

I prefer using antiX-sid.

I don't use any desktop environment (99% fluxbox, 1% icewm)
I don't use a printer (sid upgrades of cups sometimes causes problems)
I always read what is to be removed etc before deciding
I pop over to the sidux forum to see if there are any serious breakages and if there are, I don't upgrade.
I always do apt-get dist-upgrade

My partner's box uses Testing repos and has been upgraded from antiX-M7.2

A friend's laptop is using antiX-M8 with the Stable repos enabled and the stable MEPIS Community Repo.

I just tested an upgrade of antiX-M8.2 in Virtualbox and there was a problem with xserver-org-input-all and xserver-xorg-video-all not upgrading which led to the box not booting into X.
An apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-org-input-all solved the problem.

antiX-M8.5 will/should solve other main problem with upgrading antiX-M8.2 (and earlier versions) ie with insserv/sysv-rc and the init scripts.

I no longer see any need to use the sidux repos at all.

macondo · posted: 2009-11-17 00:11

"Cada mente es un mundo diferente" __{{emoticon}}__

I've used all 3 versions (stable, testing, and sid for months at a time), I think it all depends what is your state of mind. If you are interested in learning, trying new things, going where no man has ever gone, etc, sid is a good bet. You have to read a lot, try new things and update/dist-upgrade a lot, antiX sid is cool, sid sidux is more obssessive.

Testing is less taxing but more or less the same as sid. You still have to install apt-list-bugs etc.

Stable is cool too, everything works, no updating unless it's a security one, i installed OOo from the backports repos and that's it, i'm happy.

IMHO, it all depends on your state of mind, do you wanna be elite? Or at least think you are elite, you can play games with your mind. Or if you just want something that works and not waste time, upgrading, or bug fixing, there is a choice for you.

Me? i got tired of all the update/dist-upgrade and just go right to work, I don't need the latest of everything and kernel 2.6.27 is fine with me. My needs are simple: international newspapers, writing, and watching youtube.

Like i said at the beginning,"every mind is a different world", whatever you do is OK, you'll learn a lot, you'll become knowledgeable about what you like and why.

Happy trails,

eriefisher · posted: 2009-11-17 00:20

Both xserver-xorg-video-all and xserver-org-input-all are just meta packages. They don't actually provide anything but bring in all the drivers at once. They can be removed safely.

anticapitalista · posted: 2009-11-17 00:30

True, erie.
But there was a problem that xserver-xorg didn't get upgraded properly, which is why Dynamo 9and possibly secipolla) could not get into X. The video drivers were missing.

secipolla · posted: 2009-11-17 02:34

Oh no, anti. I think antiX never gave me such a deep trouble. It's very stable comparing to the recent 'top' distros.
I had to reinstall because I played with Windows and couldn't get antiX to boot anymore (even after reinstalling GRUB from the live-cd it kept saying at boot that there was no /lib/modules..., that couldn't open /... etc. even though everything was apparently in place).
I'm a bit picky with little things like last week VLC's sound broke in wmv videos for 4 or 5 days and then an update fixed it again. So I thought since this fresh install is working fine I could just leave it as it is (until it eventually breaks with some new app installed and then I update).
Also I got a bit on my nerves because Windows apparently managed to break the sound completely (like it wouldn't work anymore regardless of the OS, even with known good live-cd's) and I had to reinstall it to make the sound work again (?)
Edit- not the VLC issue, which was a package one but the hardware sound issue I'm suspecting now it's these crap sound speakers that I have which started to fail after getting hot.

secipolla · posted: 2009-11-18 14:32

Ok, I couldn't resist and went with antix-sid. I think I'll have to report a bug about xorg because there isn't 'abnt2' anymore in Xkbmodel list and it boots with 'us' layout. Thankfully I found that 'setxkbmap -layout br' does set it to br-abnt2 (but now I'm having to do it at every login).

Also, as with 'testing', mplayer and streamtuner were removed. What do you suggest about that anti, just install them again and leave them on hold? There's the alternative to go with VLC, which can substitute both of them.

plvera · posted: 2009-11-18 15:36

Macondo has an excellent point in saying that it really depends on what you want to do with your system. Since my needs are complex (data analysis, article/grant writing, digital image analysis, statistics, etc), I am leaning towards just running stable (right now it's the standard stable/testing mix), and a system that is rock solid, rather than running a bleeding edge system that might take a great deal of work to keep going.

My questions are: if I do close off testing and just keep stable open, does this present a problem since I was running stable/testing mix before? Should I continue to do apt-get updates and apt-get upgrades (with stable only open), or just hold off, as Secipolla suggested, and only update if something is broken. Also, what happens when I upgrade to a newer Antix release (using Antix's handy script)?

Thanks.
Pedro

secipolla · posted: 2009-11-18 15:51

Hi Pedro. My guesses from what I read is that it would be hard to 'go back to Lenny' but if you comment the testing repos and the system is working fine now then it should prevent the updates that could eventually break something.

As for the upgrade script, my knowledge isn't up to that __{{emoticon}}__

macondo · posted: 2009-11-19 00:16

Pedro:
Just change the file /etc/apt/sources.list to 'stable' and add the backports repository, here's mine as an example:

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macondo@antiX:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# See sources.list(5) for more information

# Note:If you want maximum stability, only use the stable repos.
# If you want to install kde3.5, you MUST only use the stable repos.

# Mepis8
#deb ftp://ftp.mepis.com/mepis/ mepis-8.0 main 

# Debian
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free 
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free 
#deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free 
 
# mplayer
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main

# Backports
deb http://www.backports.org/debian lenny-backports main contrib non-free.

Notice i commented the Mepis server, the source (src), because i don't intend to install from source, added the backports repo (you can look at the apps they introduced at debian.org). Changed the mplayer line to stable too.

I tried apt-get update/dist-upgrade but it didn't give me all the dependencies, and gave an error, so i switched to aptitude:

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# aptitude update && aptitude dist-upgrade

that brought everything and the kitchen sink, i wanted the latest OOo3
so i installed:

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# aptitude install debian-backports-keyring

and then install OOo:

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# aptitude update && aptitude -t lenny-backports install openoffice.org

and i got the latest OOo, the one in stable was crummy.
good luck!

PS: As to upgrading to antiX newer version you'll have to ask anticapitalista, I for one, will only update to the newer version of stable (squeeze) whenever that happens and if that doesn't work, reinstall antiX which i doubt will be necessary __{{emoticon}}__

anticapitalista · posted: 2009-11-19 00:27

Alternatively, instead of using backports, use the stable MEPIS Community repo.

macondo · posted: 2009-11-19 00:42

secipolla wrote:Ok, I couldn't resist and went with antix-sid. I think I'll have to report a bug about xorg because there isn't 'abnt2' anymore in Xkbmodel list and it boots with 'us' layout. Thankfully I found that 'setxkbmap -layout br' does set it to br-abnt2 (but now I'm having to do it at every login).

Try editing (as root) the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change"us" for"br-abnt2", save and reboot. See if when you enter X the kbd is OK, here's mine:

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Section"InputDevice"
  Identifier"Keyboard0"
  Driver"keyboard"
  Option"CoreKeyboard"
  Option"XkbModel""pc105"
  Option"XkbLayout""es"
  Option"XKbOptions""grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"
EndSection

PS: Make sure the XkbModel is"pc105", pc104 is for us keyboards.

secipolla · posted: 2009-11-19 03:00

Thanks macondo but it couldn't work. The bug I reported was quickly closed since it's the way xserver-xorg works now (not using input from xorg.conf anymore). From /usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg/NEWS.Debian.gz:

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xserver-xorg (1:7.4+1) unstable; urgency=low

  * Changes in handling of input devices

  Starting from this version, input devices are no longer configured
  statically in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.  Instead, input devices are detected at
  runtime (and can be hotplugged) and configured individually.  The default
  keyboard layout is shared with the console and is configured in
  /etc/default/console-setup.  As a result, devices configured in xorg.conf to
  use the mouse or kbd driver are ignored by the X server by default.

  For more details, see:
  http://who-t.blogspot.com/2008/12/evdev-xorgconf-hal-and-other-fud.html
  http://who-t.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-keyboard-configuration-handling.html

  * keycodes changes will break custom Xmodmaps

  As a result of using the evdev driver for keyboards, the keycodes for some
  keys are no longer the traditional xfree86 ones.  This will break custom
  Xmodmaps relying on the old keycodes. You'll need to re-configure these
  custom maps with the new keycodes.

  * Linux kernel configuration requirement

  The evdev X driver can't work if the CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV option is disabled
  in your kernel configuration.  You'll have to either enable this kernel
  option, or disable the"AutoAddDevices" option in xorg.conf.

 -- Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org>  Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:01:11 +0200

Edit-I fiddled with everything (/etc/default/keyboard, /etc/default/console-setup etc.) but couldn't manage to make the keyboard set to abnt2 automatically when booting to level 5. Since it's properly configured when booting to level 3 and the docs apparently say that X should inherit these settings I think that when I have the will i'll have to ask on Debian forums.

Also, just mentioning, logout through exitantix (logouthelper.sh) doesn't work. Here's the error in ~/.xsession-errors

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kill: 9: Illegal number: such
icewm-session: no process found

I imagine that suspend, hibernate etc. scripts might not work too.