Re: Newbie Aptitude Question about Security Updates

On Mon, Apr 23, 2007 at 12:22:57PM -0400, Jan Sneep wrote:
I could log in, but every command I could think of to try failed ... the
only command that worked was "help" and it didn't really provide any helpful
advice ... so I've started to re-install the OS, this will be the 7th or 8th
time I've had to re-install it ... :O( ... every time I try to do something
it has failed on me. Very frustrating. It doesn't "feel" very "stable"
sometimes.

I haven't a clue what packages the initial install program has installed
(other than the Desktop Environment, Print Server, Mail Server check boxes
that are presented during initial install) ... never mind have to go through
them all and set options ... there isn't a simple way to get the OS to check
what packages are installed and then go get all the updates and install
them?


That's aptitude's job.

FYI 'help' is command internal to bash.

Etch is quite stable. You just told aptitude to go ahead and hose your
system :). Actually, the 'stable' re a release means "everything works
pretty well so we'll freeze it at this point and release it". The
'stable' referrs to the low frequency of changes, and only gets security
fixes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Learn to use the command
line tools. There's no reason why you can't take a basic system (i.e.
basedebs only) with a functioning aptitude and get it to do anything you
want, including showing you gnome. For a beginner to parachute into a
graphical environment is great untill something goes wrong. Its like
parachuting onto Mt. Everest. Great. Now what.

Good luck.

Doug.


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