6 ms·

Debian 10.3

105 points by annadane 7y ago

teddyh 7y ago
Please note: Starting with Debian 7, the minor number is not part of the Debian release number, and numbers with a minor component like 9.4 or 9.7 now indicate a point release. Basically, only security updates and major bug fixes, with new updated installation media images. This, 10.3, is not a new major release of Debian.
- zozbot234 7y ago
  Yup this is basically a cumulative update to Debian 10 buster. apt update && apt upgrade picks it up just fine, and there are no obvious performance issues.
- ajot 7y ago
  It's been so long that I do not instantly remember minor numbers not referring to point releases. Long live to the Debian project!
- derefr 7y ago
  "Debian 10 Service Pack 3."
- jancsika 7y ago
  > Basically, only security updates and major bug fixes, with new updated installation media images. With a tiny exception for the two most complex packages, Chromium and Firefox, which have different support cycles from Debian plus different levels of arch support. For those you get a wholesale application upgrade which may or may not work given your arch and version of stable. Not a big deal atm, but if the web or the arm architecture ever takes off this may become an issue.
susam 7y ago
Did you know that Debian releases are named after characters from the Toy Story films? I began using it with Debian 4 (Etch) in 2007. It was named after Etch A Sketch[1], one of Andy's toys. The latest release, Debian 10 (Buster), is named after Andy's pet puppy[2]. The name Debian itself is a portmanteau of the names Ian Murdock (the creator of Debian) and Debra Lynn (his then-girlfriend, later ex-wife). As a result, this name has been called a curiously personal name for such a community-oriented project.[3] I was using Fedora and Ubuntu in 2007 when a member of a local Linux User Group (LUG) introduced me to Debian. Its simplicity and elegance, its vast package repository, and its stability and robustness made me an ardent user of this distribution pretty quickly. Thirteen years later, I still use Debian on my laptops, Linode servers, and virtual machines. I run my personal website[4] on Debian too. I have got so used to "apt-get install" and the large number of tools available in the Debian repositories that I keep a Debian VM or a remote shell handy when I am working on a non-Debian system. Over these years, I have gradually moved from GNOME 2 to GNOME 3 and then to Xfce 4. It really helps that Debian provides an installation CD with Xfce as the default[5]. In case anyone is interested, I have documented and shared my Debian setup notes on GitHub[6]. [1]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch [2]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buster https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buster [3]: https://archive.org/download/lud098mag/LU%26D098%20-%20Android%20Tablet%20Super-Test.pdf https://archive.org/download/lud098mag/LU%26D098%20-%20Andro... [4]: https://susam.in/ https://susam.in/ [5]: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/#indexlist https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/#i... [6]: https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/master/docs/debian-setup.md https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/master/docs/debian-se...
- 1kGarand 7y ago
  My first Debian install was 2.0. I ordered the CD's (there were 2, as I remember) from an on-line shop that sold burned CDRs with linux images. I wish I could remember their name...
  - aninteger 7y ago
    Probably CheapBytes.com
    - k0stas 7y ago
      I always ordered mine from Walnut Creek!
  - debian3 7y ago
    Mine was Debian 3. Still running all my servers in Debian.
    - winrid 7y ago
      I guess your name gives it away. My first was Debian 4. Ran it on a 550mhz PIII.
      - JeanMarcS 7y ago
        Mine was a Debian 5. Installed it on a small baremetal server for a client. The client went away, and so did I. Then some month ago, the client came back. The Debian 5 is still online and still running (but we plan to move on a new infra with a Buster soon).
- malkia 7y ago
  From Ian Murdock's wikipedia page, the debian's founder: "He named Debian after his then-girlfriend (later wife) Debra Lynn, and himself (Deb and Ian).[3] They later married, had three children, and divorced in January 2008.[4]"
jlgaddis 7y ago
That would explain why my PXE installs broke yet again (with that oh so familiar error message about a mismatch between the kernel and modules versions)! Fortunately, it only takes a minute to grab the latest mini.iso, mount it, grab the kernel and initial ramdisk images (and "cat" the non-free/unofficial firmware to the end of the ramdisk), push 'em up to the TFTP server, and be right back in business.
- mkesper 7y ago
  This happens every time a new kernel is pushed out (security fixes...). Debian's suggested way is to use the debian-installer-netboot packages for updating, e.g. https://packages.debian.org/buster/debian-installer-10-netboot-amd64 https://packages.debian.org/buster/debian-installer-10-netbo...
  - jlgaddis 7y ago
    Yep, but the TFTP server doesn't run Debian so this is the easiest "solution" for me. When it does break, it literally takes less than five minutes to get it working again. Looks like I'd been using the previous kernel and initramfs since 2019-09-05 and, well, I can deal with spending five minutes on an issue once every five months -- especially considering all the time that it saves me! (At one point, I insisted -- for some unknown reason! -- on using the weekly "unstable" images so the breakage was much, much more frequent. Fortunately for my sanity, I finally gave up and went back to just using the latest "stable" mini.iso.)
- mattl 7y ago
  https://fiendish.github.io/The-Debian-Gotham-Needs/ https://fiendish.github.io/The-Debian-Gotham-Needs/ might help?
  - jlgaddis 7y ago
    Short answer: Thanks for the suggestion but, no, this won't work for me. --- Long answer: Unfortunately, no, that doesn't help me as I don't really even need an ISO image at all. What I really need is just the new version of the kernel ("linux") and initial ramdisk ("initrd.gz") files. I don't need the regular ("cdrom") ones (like you might find on a regular ISO image), though. I need the "netboot" ones -- yes, they're different! Well, the kernel is usually the same but the initrd.gz is different. When a new version of the kernel and modules show up on the servers (and once my local "cache/proxy" notices them and downloads the newer version of the modules), my network installs will start failing. See, a host PXE boots the existing version of the kernel but when debian-installer launches and starts downloading the modules it needs, it finds that they were built for a different version of the kernel than what it booted from. This causes "that oh so familiar error message" to be thrown [0] and the installation to fail. The "fix", obviously, is to boot the new kernel instead of the old one. As I mentioned, all that I really need to do is replace the existing versions of the linux and initrd.gz files on my TFTP server with the new ones. In theory, I could just SSH into the TFTP server, "cd" to the appropriate directory, fire off a single "wget" (the URLs for those two files don't even change!), and be done; real life is, however, (only slightly) more difficult! Now, once in a very great while, I will actually do an installation on a VM where I do use an ISO image instead of performing a network install. That's why I just go ahead and grab the ("netboot") "mini.iso" file and extract the linux and initrd.gz files out of it instead of downloading just those files in the first place. The other thing has to do with the "non-free" firmware. Although they provide ISO images that include it, it was easier for me to just do it myself. Once I've got the linux and initrd.gz files downloaded, all that is needed is to download the "firmware.cpio.gz" file if I don't already have it (or if a newer version is available or something) and (literally) "cat" initrd.gz and firmware.cpio.gz together. Then, I replace the existing linux and initrd.gz files on my TFTP server with these two new files and reboot the host so that it restarts the network install! Depending on the hardware, it sometimes takes the server longer to POST and get to the point where it actually starts booting than it takes for the actual OS installation (I'm looking at you, Dell PowerEdge servers!). It may sound like a fustercluck but it's actually pretty simple (just a few commands) and from "uh oh, the install failed" to "okay, it's working again" is almost always less than five minutes (well, it is now that I switched back to using the "stable" mini.iso images instead of the daily or weekly "unstable" ones!). I could write a script to automate it, I suppose, but it doesn't seem worth it as it only happens two or three times a year. (That's a rather long way of saying "no, that doesn't help" but since you offered a suggestion I wanted to explain why and not simply dismiss it with a "no, that doesn't help"!) --- [0]: https://i.imgur.com/3cB5LC3g.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3cB5LC3g.jpg

105 points by annadane 7y ago

Please note: Starting with Debian 7, the minor number is not part of the Debian release number, and numbers with a minor component like 9.4 or 9.7 now indicate a point release. Basically, only security updates and major bug fixes, with new updated installation media images. This, 10.3, is not a new major release of Debian.

zozbot234 7y ago
Yup this is basically a cumulative update to Debian 10 buster. apt update && apt upgrade picks it up just fine, and there are no obvious performance issues.
ajot 7y ago
It's been so long that I do not instantly remember minor numbers not referring to point releases. Long live to the Debian project!
derefr 7y ago
"Debian 10 Service Pack 3."
jancsika 7y ago
> Basically, only security updates and major bug fixes, with new updated installation media images. With a tiny exception for the two most complex packages, Chromium and Firefox, which have different support cycles from Debian plus different levels of arch support. For those you get a wholesale application upgrade which may or may not work given your arch and version of stable. Not a big deal atm, but if the web or the arm architecture ever takes off this may become an issue.

susam 7y ago

Did you know that Debian releases are named after characters from the Toy Story films? I began using it with Debian 4 (Etch) in 2007. It was named after Etch A Sketch[1], one of Andy's toys. The latest release, Debian 10 (Buster), is named after Andy's pet puppy[2]. The name Debian itself is a portmanteau of the names Ian Murdock (the creator of Debian) and Debra Lynn (his then-girlfriend, later ex-wife). As a result, this name has been called a curiously personal name for such a community-oriented project.[3] I was using Fedora and Ubuntu in 2007 when a member of a local Linux User Group (LUG) introduced me to Debian. Its simplicity and elegance, its vast package repository, and its stability and robustness made me an ardent user of this distribution pretty quickly. Thirteen years later, I still use Debian on my laptops, Linode servers, and virtual machines. I run my personal website[4] on Debian too. I have got so used to "apt-get install" and the large number of tools available in the Debian repositories that I keep a Debian VM or a remote shell handy when I am working on a non-Debian system. Over these years, I have gradually moved from GNOME 2 to GNOME 3 and then to Xfce 4. It really helps that Debian provides an installation CD with Xfce as the default[5]. In case anyone is interested, I have documented and shared my Debian setup notes on GitHub[6]. [1]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch [2]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buster https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buster [3]: https://archive.org/download/lud098mag/LU%26D098%20-%20Android%20Tablet%20Super-Test.pdf https://archive.org/download/lud098mag/LU%26D098%20-%20Andro... [4]: https://susam.in/ https://susam.in/ [5]: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/#indexlist https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/#i... [6]: https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/master/docs/debian-setup.md https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/master/docs/debian-se...

1kGarand 7y ago
My first Debian install was 2.0. I ordered the CD's (there were 2, as I remember) from an on-line shop that sold burned CDRs with linux images. I wish I could remember their name...
- aninteger 7y ago
  Probably CheapBytes.com
  - k0stas 7y ago
    I always ordered mine from Walnut Creek!
- debian3 7y ago
  Mine was Debian 3. Still running all my servers in Debian.
  - winrid 7y ago
    I guess your name gives it away. My first was Debian 4. Ran it on a 550mhz PIII.
    - JeanMarcS 7y ago
      Mine was a Debian 5. Installed it on a small baremetal server for a client. The client went away, and so did I. Then some month ago, the client came back. The Debian 5 is still online and still running (but we plan to move on a new infra with a Buster soon).
malkia 7y ago
From Ian Murdock's wikipedia page, the debian's founder: "He named Debian after his then-girlfriend (later wife) Debra Lynn, and himself (Deb and Ian).[3] They later married, had three children, and divorced in January 2008.[4]"

jlgaddis 7y ago

That would explain why my PXE installs broke yet again (with that oh so familiar error message about a mismatch between the kernel and modules versions)! Fortunately, it only takes a minute to grab the latest mini.iso, mount it, grab the kernel and initial ramdisk images (and "cat" the non-free/unofficial firmware to the end of the ramdisk), push 'em up to the TFTP server, and be right back in business.

mkesper 7y ago
This happens every time a new kernel is pushed out (security fixes...). Debian's suggested way is to use the debian-installer-netboot packages for updating, e.g. https://packages.debian.org/buster/debian-installer-10-netboot-amd64 https://packages.debian.org/buster/debian-installer-10-netbo...
- jlgaddis 7y ago
  Yep, but the TFTP server doesn't run Debian so this is the easiest "solution" for me. When it does break, it literally takes less than five minutes to get it working again. Looks like I'd been using the previous kernel and initramfs since 2019-09-05 and, well, I can deal with spending five minutes on an issue once every five months -- especially considering all the time that it saves me! (At one point, I insisted -- for some unknown reason! -- on using the weekly "unstable" images so the breakage was much, much more frequent. Fortunately for my sanity, I finally gave up and went back to just using the latest "stable" mini.iso.)
mattl 7y ago
https://fiendish.github.io/The-Debian-Gotham-Needs/ https://fiendish.github.io/The-Debian-Gotham-Needs/ might help?
- jlgaddis 7y ago
  Short answer: Thanks for the suggestion but, no, this won't work for me. --- Long answer: Unfortunately, no, that doesn't help me as I don't really even need an ISO image at all. What I really need is just the new version of the kernel ("linux") and initial ramdisk ("initrd.gz") files. I don't need the regular ("cdrom") ones (like you might find on a regular ISO image), though. I need the "netboot" ones -- yes, they're different! Well, the kernel is usually the same but the initrd.gz is different. When a new version of the kernel and modules show up on the servers (and once my local "cache/proxy" notices them and downloads the newer version of the modules), my network installs will start failing. See, a host PXE boots the existing version of the kernel but when debian-installer launches and starts downloading the modules it needs, it finds that they were built for a different version of the kernel than what it booted from. This causes "that oh so familiar error message" to be thrown [0] and the installation to fail. The "fix", obviously, is to boot the new kernel instead of the old one. As I mentioned, all that I really need to do is replace the existing versions of the linux and initrd.gz files on my TFTP server with the new ones. In theory, I could just SSH into the TFTP server, "cd" to the appropriate directory, fire off a single "wget" (the URLs for those two files don't even change!), and be done; real life is, however, (only slightly) more difficult! Now, once in a very great while, I will actually do an installation on a VM where I do use an ISO image instead of performing a network install. That's why I just go ahead and grab the ("netboot") "mini.iso" file and extract the linux and initrd.gz files out of it instead of downloading just those files in the first place. The other thing has to do with the "non-free" firmware. Although they provide ISO images that include it, it was easier for me to just do it myself. Once I've got the linux and initrd.gz files downloaded, all that is needed is to download the "firmware.cpio.gz" file if I don't already have it (or if a newer version is available or something) and (literally) "cat" initrd.gz and firmware.cpio.gz together. Then, I replace the existing linux and initrd.gz files on my TFTP server with these two new files and reboot the host so that it restarts the network install! Depending on the hardware, it sometimes takes the server longer to POST and get to the point where it actually starts booting than it takes for the actual OS installation (I'm looking at you, Dell PowerEdge servers!). It may sound like a fustercluck but it's actually pretty simple (just a few commands) and from "uh oh, the install failed" to "okay, it's working again" is almost always less than five minutes (well, it is now that I switched back to using the "stable" mini.iso images instead of the daily or weekly "unstable" ones!). I could write a script to automate it, I suppose, but it doesn't seem worth it as it only happens two or three times a year. (That's a rather long way of saying "no, that doesn't help" but since you offered a suggestion I wanted to explain why and not simply dismiss it with a "no, that doesn't help"!) --- [0]: https://i.imgur.com/3cB5LC3g.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3cB5LC3g.jpg