[CLUG] Migrating to Debian

[adam beecher]

I'm not sure I got a definitive stable or unstable recommendation there
Dave. :)

Lemme put it this way: Don't mind desktops and the LAN, imagine I had a
couple of live Red Hat servers beside me here and I want to migrate them to
Debian. I don't want to spend time tweaking and twiddling them, all I want
to do is update them occasionally to keep them relatively modern and secure.
Stable or Unstable?

adam


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> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Dorgan [mailto:davidd at sponge.xevion.net]
> Sent: 16 January 2004 15:35
> To: adam beecher
> Cc: cork at linux.ie
> Subject: Re: [CLUG] Migrating to Debian
>
>
> Quoting adam beecher (lists at beecher.net):
> > Is Debian substantially different to Red Hat? The most important
> > applications will be Apache, PHP, MySQL, sendmail and possibly
> Bind, am I
> > going to have any problems with these?
>
> No, you should have no problems. You might want to check
> and know what versions you need. On debian desktops I use,
> I use unstable, it's slightly misleading, it's just as stable
> as redhat/mandrake etc... and has more up to date packages,
> it is stable really. There are strict guidelines for maintainers
> etc...
>
> However on say sponge, I use stable. If you look at the ssh
> version on sponge, it's pretty old, but patched. In stable
> you often see 'older' packages which have security/serious flaws
> fixed in them.
>
> > How does Webmin perform on Debian,
> > anybody using it? How does Debian operate as an all-in-one
> solution (router,
> > firewall, mail server, proxy, etc)? How does the file system
> and operation
> > compare to Red Hat, i.e. is it substantially different?
>
>
> Well, packages in general, you never have to worry about in
> debian, if you apt-get it, and it exists, then you're done.
> You install, and it's setup and done, all working, except in a few
> cases where you'll get a configuration dialog.
>
> > How do updates work on Debian? I don't run up2date
> automatically on Red Hat,
> > but I want it to be as simple as Red Hat to update the
> machines: login, run
> > an up2date-like command to check what's new, and run another command to
> > update the box. I don't want to be pissing around with manual lilo/grub
> > updates and the like. I want the box to come back up after a
> kernel update
> > with no whines or grumbles every time.
>
> This is probably about the best feature in Debian.
> I put apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade on a nightly cron.
> You don't have to do this, run it manually. On stable it's
> mostly security fixes. Say for ssh, it's well tested etc...
> So you run it, it stops and starts the sshd and you're done.
>
> To see if a package exists, just do apt-cache search package,
> for example,
>
> davidd at sponge:~$ apt-cache search webmin | wc -l
>      35
>
> These are mostly plugins mind you.
>
> Or say I want a newer kernel, on this stable box,
> and I want 2.4, apt-cache search kernel-image gives 31 matches.
> Say I want an i686, apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.18-1-686 .
> I've never once had an issue with a kernel upgrade
> on debian, in fact I upgraded my work workstation at 3am last night
> from home, for ipv6 support, put a script into startup to assign
> the ip , tunnels etc... Came in this morning and all was done.
>
> It's pretty much flawless.
>
> > Any other tips, tricks or suggestions welcome.
>
> Well I mean, apt-get will really really blow your mind if you've
> never used it, you'll ask yourself why all distros don't use it.
>
> It's simple, easy to keep secure, update and high quality.
>
> Just remember, stable is very very stable, with older (patched)
> packages, unstable has always been rock stable for me and
> testing is well, testing ;-)
>
> David.
>