How to perform an operating system update to Etch

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[edit] How to perform an operating system update to Etch

Suggested activities PRIOR to upgrading

Before performing an operating system update, you may want to back up some important folders on the unit, should the upgrade fail. This is particularly important if the unit has an environment you prefer not to lose. The folders including important operating system information include:

/etc /var/lib/dpkg

Saving the current installed packages may be helpful in case the unit needs to be recovered. To get this information, execute the command dpkg --get-selections "*" (yes, quotes are important). Piping this information to a file is an easy way to store this information.

Update Process

The Sarge operating system build that is provided for the TS-7800 is a bit dated compared to current builds, and has been moved to Debian's archive servers. To keep the operating system current, it is important to be able to perform an update. Fortunately, this can be done without too much trouble.

 Using your favorite text editor, open the file /etc/apt/sources.list
 Put a # symbol in front of everything in the file currently
 Add the following line (feel free to add your own mirror instead):
   deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
 Save the file
 Execute apt-get update to update the apt cache
 Execute apt-get install aptitude to install the tools to perform 
   a smooth update
 Execute aptitude -f --with-recommends dist-upgrade to perform
   the operating system upgrade

During the course of the upgrade, questions will appear based on the packages that have been installed on the TS-7800. Answer them appropriate depending on your situation.

Troubleshooting

You may get an error like the following during the apt-get update

 Reading Package Lists... Error!
 E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room

To fix this, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf and add the following line:

 APT::Cache-Limit "16777216";

Now, run apt-get update again.