Bill Harris wrote: > Andrei POPESCU writes: > > Sorry, no idea about the freezes except maybe to try a newer kernel > > (backports has 3.2). > > Thanks. I see that now. I'll think about it (and research what I'd > have to do in addition to installing it). I've been staying mostly with > Stable to reduce risk.
It is quite safe. You can always try it now and if it doesn't have
any success for you then you can remove it without lingering issues of
having had it installed. Example:
# apt-get install -t squeeze-backports linux-image-686-pae
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
initramfs-tools linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.4-686-pae
Suggested packages:
linux-doc-3.2 debian-kernel-handbook grub-pc extlinux lilo
The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.4-686-pae linux-image-686-pae
The following packages will be upgraded:
initramfs-tools
1 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 120 not upgraded.
Need to get 22.9 MB/23.0 MB of archives.
After this operation, 90.0 MB of additional disk space will be used.
It would install two new packages and upgrade initramfs-tools from
0.98.8 to 0.99~bpo60+1. Those are pretty safe as a general statement.
To return to the previous so that things will be as if those were
never installed you can do these steps. First reboot back to the
previous kernel by selecting it at the grub menu. Then:
# apt-get purge linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.4-686-pae linux-image-686-pae
# apt-get install initramfs-tools=0.98.8
At that point you would be back to a fully Stable Squeeze system.
Which is always good to know how to do.
But it isn't really necessary if you plan on upgrading to Wheezy once
it is released. (It has been frozen for 5+ months now so _should_ be
popping out the release door "any time now".) All of the versions
numbers in backports are carefully chosen so that they can be
installed on Stable and then upgraded automatically to the new Stable
once it is released. That is the carefully executed design of the
Backports area. A temporary, with emphasis on temporary, bridge from
one stable release to the next.
Bob
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