debian versions (was: package installation problem)

[John Heim]

At 05:43 PM 4/18/2006, Charles Hallenbeck wrote:
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>Hi John,
>
>I am still enthusiastic about unstable, even after this problem. It
>turns out that modutils was pretty much replaced by another package, but
>was still installed, and when I got up enough courage to remove it and
>purge its files, everything cleared up nicely. Evidently I overlooked
>something in a changelog or somewhere that would have told me in advance
>to do that. But the advantages of keeping current with Sid far outweigh
>the occasional problems that might arise. This is the first problem I
>have had with unstable in -- let's see -- closer to a year than to six
>months now. One thing that helps is to install apt-listbugs and
>apt-listchanges, which warn you during the upgrade process about known
>problems. Of course you have to pay attention to those warnings, though.

That is a great tip. I was running unstable on my laptop for quite some 
time because it's very old. That may sound contradictory but by running 
unstable, i was able to get some driver fixes i needed.

Actually, i switched back to testing just about 2 weeks ago because 
unstable sounds dangerous. I guess i thought i was asking for trouble by 
running an "unstable" version of linux. Maybe that was unnecessary. I was 
worried though because I've become quite dependent upon my laptop to do my job.

We run stable/sarge  here at the math Department at the University of 
wisconsin.  But when I build a new machine, i use a kernel downloaded from
http://people.debian.org/~shane/speakup/kernel ./

Building my own speakup enabled kernel is on my to-do list for this 
week.  I've built kernels but never with the speakup patches. I couldn't 
get it to work last time I tried because I didn't have time to do it right. 
I was trying to cut corners and it didn't work.

I need to see if I can build a kernel for pebble linux with speakup 
enabled. Pebble linux is a debian derivative runs on compact flash 
drives.  If I get that working, then  I can use this very small computer 
called a Soekris that runs linux off a cf drive. Then I can leave my laptop 
at home.

This Soekris computer is only about 8 inches by 4 inches by 1 inch. It has 
a 512 Mb compact flash (which i bought myself), 1 PCI slot, 128 Mb RAM, and 
a 266 Mhz processor. It has a USB port, 2 serial ports, and 3 ethernet 
ports. No hard drive. No video.  If I can get it to talk, I plan to use it 
to troubleshoot networking problems.

The cool thing about this machine is that the BIOS setup program runs 
through the serial port.  You get a command line interface on the first 
serial port and that's how you control the BIOS. Very nice for a blind guy.