Upgrading Debian Etch (v4) to Debian Lenny (v5) and Kernel 2.6.26
Well, seeing as Debian Lenny is almost about to be released, I figured upgrading my server wouldn’t be a bad idea. Its locked behind a NAT firewall and doesn’t really do too much so I don’t think it will be a security issue (especially considering Lenny is soon to be a stable release.)
Its really quite simple. first of all, open /etc/apt/sources.list
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Then, change etch to lenny, so it looks something like this (depending on your region/mirrors etc.)
deb http://debian.virginmedia.com/ lenny main deb-src http://debian.virginmedia.com/ lenny main deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib
Save the file and then run apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade.
apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
You should then be prompted with information regarding how much disk usage will be used and a long list of packages that will be updated and installed. I think it was an extra 100mb+ for me.
138 upgraded, 14 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 18.5MB/56.3MB of archives. After unpacking 23.3MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Once finished, you should be upgraded to the Lenny build of Debian and Kernel 2.6.26.
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Did you encounter any issues worth mentioning, or went everything as smooth as silk?