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Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 24, 2021, 8:00:04 PM7/24/21
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Hi,
Here are the message I get after my debmirror when I do apt-get update

Err:31 file:/mnt/mirror/debian buster-updates/main amd64 Contents (deb)
File not found -
/mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster-updates/main/Contents-amd64 (2: No such
file or directory)
Reading package lists... Done
E: Failed to fetch
file:/mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster/main/Contents-amd64 File not found
- /mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster/main/Contents-amd64 (2: No such file
or directory)
E: Failed to fetch
file:/mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster-updates/main/Contents-amd64 File
not found - /mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster-updates/main/Contents-amd64
(2: No such file or directory)

The command I used for creating the mirror is

debmirror --all --progress --verbose --method=http
--dist=buster,buster-updates,buster-backports
--section=main,contrib,non-free --arch=amd64,i386 --rsync-extra=none
--source --i18n --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
--root=debian --host=debian.mirror.iweb.ca /mnt/mirror/debian

Got idea ?
--
Polyna-Maude R.-Summerside
-Be smart, Be wise, Support opensource development

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David Wright

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Jul 24, 2021, 9:40:04 PM7/24/21
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--getcontents ?

Cheers,
David.

Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 24, 2021, 9:50:04 PM7/24/21
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Hi,
Giving this one a try....


> Cheers,
> David.
>

Thanks
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Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 25, 2021, 9:40:05 AM7/25/21
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Hi,

On 2021-07-25 3:42 a.m., Gunnar Gervin wrote:
> Polyna.
> I always have heard it's better to put all documents, files, photos etc
> in a usb or external harddisk. And do a clean reinstall of the updated
> distro.
Can you explain a bit further... ?

If I follow what I read in your message...
You are telling me that :
It is recommended to backup user's personal data
Do a clean reinstall
When Debian publishes update ?

What type of update ?
Point release ?
Release ?

This look pretty heavy to me...and sounds much more like something that
is done on the Windows world.

Why would it be needed to do a clean reinstall ?
If you work properly and don't litter around then everything in your
system is registered as file in the package manager and the
configuration are preserved thru configuration file litigation (ask you
what to do when a config file has been changed from default).

Would you have the reference regarding this ?

Are talking about clean the apt cache before doing upgrade ?

Explain more because this smell like non-sense to me.
> BR,
> geg
> <http://debian.mirror.iweb.ca> /mnt/mirror/debian
> >>
> >> Got idea ?
> >
> > --getcontents ?
> >
> Giving this one a try....
>
I'm not sure you have close to a clue what my problem is.
Because when I simply change my repository to the usual Debian one, I
can do my apt cache update properly.
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Andrew M.A. Cater

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Jul 25, 2021, 12:40:04 PM7/25/21
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On Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 09:37:14AM -0400, Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 2021-07-25 3:42 a.m., Gunnar Gervin wrote:
> > Polyna.
> > I always have heard it's better to put all documents, files, photos etc
> > in a usb or external harddisk. And do a clean reinstall of the updated
> > distro.
> Can you explain a bit further... ?
>
> If I follow what I read in your message...
> You are telling me that :
> It is recommended to backup user's personal data
> Do a clean reinstall
> When Debian publishes update ?
>
> What type of update ?
> Point release ?
> Release ?
>
Point releases should just "upgrade". After all, they're mostly collections
of bugfixes - at that point, if you've been updating regularly, there's very
little difference.

When it comes to doing a major release upgrade: 10-11, say, it's always
not a _bad_ idea to back up documents files and so on, just in case
something goes wrong, but it's not vital by any means.

If you are repartitioning disks / changing boot method from Legacy -> UEFI
than it might be a good idea to save off all data and re-install from scratch
depending on how much you're doing - but there's no absolute requiremnt.

There have been a couple of transitions that had the potential to break
stuff - the original ELF transition, way back, sysvinit -> systemd - but
otherwise you could take a Debian 4.0 say and update it to Debian 10
by using standard systm tools.

> This look pretty heavy to me...and sounds much more like something that
> is done on the Windows world.

Absolutely. I don't think it is true of Debian. It is, however, the
recommended way of dealing with Red Hat/CentOS/Almalinux/Rocky Linux
at major version change. [There is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux script
that _may_ do this - but folks have had signifncant problems if there
are any third party packages installed - sometimes to the extent of
including EPEL packages.]

All the very best, as ever,

Andy Cater

Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 25, 2021, 9:20:04 PM7/25/21
to
Hi,
Gave this one a try and it worked.
Next step...
I'm setting up a Debian mirror (don't know if it will be very useful
because I already have one nearby (iweb.ca)...

But as I'm only carrying Buster and Bullseye (possibly the next testing
too).
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Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 26, 2021, 1:20:04 AM7/26/21
to
Hi,
>>>
>>> --getcontents ?
>>>
>> Giving this one a try....
>>
>>
> Gave this one a try and it worked.
> Next step...
> I'm setting up a Debian mirror (don't know if it will be very useful
> because I already have one nearby (iweb.ca)...
>
> But as I'm only carrying Buster and Bullseye (possibly the next testing
> too).
>
With only the security update mirror.
Please don't write me (again) it's bad to create a local copy of
security-update.

Now getting this problem :

E: The repository 'file:/mnt/mirror/security-debian buster/updates
Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is
therefore disabled by default.
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Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 28, 2021, 6:20:06 AM7/28/21
to
Hi,

On 2021-07-27 10:45 a.m., Gunnar Gervin wrote:
> Just a Linux advice/s I read 10years ago + -.
Time goes by and things change.
Advice from 10 years ago can even be bad when applied today.

I used to create multiple partitions that were needed years ago. But by
doing so today, I don't gain much and just add problems.

And this also apply to other things too...

Today's there is enough processing power that encrypting a disk doesn't
put a overhead that will make your system much slower. This wasn't true
10 years ago. So if I follow what was done 10 years ago, I'll be
restraining from encrypting my disk for the laptop. And this may cause
me more problem because today's market for stolen data is very big when
compared to 2010...

> It probably don't apply to experienced users. 
> That advisable to backup to external device, & do install from newest
> distro release. 
> Why is that a non-sense?
> Seems logical to me. A newbie.
Yes, may seem logical to you a "newbie" and there's no danger of doing a
backup.

But if you read what I was talking about...
First you it was a really different context than doing a system update.
I wasn't even talking about doing the update yet, but only knowing
what's available.
2nd, I was talking about updating the list of software available and
receiving the new version, so the package manager knows which one have
gotten new release out.
3rd, This type of check if done everyday and package installation are
also done at the same time (can be done in automatic fashion).

Don't you think it would be somewhat painful for a server operator to
backup his whole system everyday only for this purpose ? Because yes,
most server have the backup of user data and program data done everyday.
But what you seem to talk about was doing a backup by hand.

Like I said earlier, time goes by and evolves...

> Not even sure what "cache" means/definition of it.
Could be useful to learn what the word means before going into answering
question or ask people what's the context.
You'll save your time and also get a chance to learn.

> Temporary storage?
Mostly mean to store some frequently accessed data at a place where it's
faster to get it.
In this situation, the list of package available is stored in
/var/cache/apt instead of reading off the network each time it is needed.

Can also apply to your computer processor, 1st and 2nd level (even 3d
level) cache. A special part of the processor that has really fast
memory and keep data frequently used.

Your browser has a cache to keep some image of website you frequently
visit so it doesn't need to download them every time you load the page
(save some time).

In computing, word goes in hand with context to make sense...

If you'd have took a minute to do a search on Google for "apt cache
update" you'd have gotten many answers on Stackoverflow that would have
gave you the context for this type of cache.

Just a hint.

It comes with time.

Hope this help you somehow.

Sincerely,

> Geg
>
>
> On Sun, 25 Jul 2021, 16:37 Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside,
> >     <http://debian.mirror.iweb.ca <http://debian.mirror.iweb.ca>>
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David Wright

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Jul 29, 2021, 1:00:07 AM7/29/21
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On Sun 25 Jul 2021 at 09:37:14 (-0400), Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote:
> > On Sun, 25 Jul 2021, 04:41 Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote:
> > On 2021-07-24 9:33 p.m., David Wright wrote:
> > > On Sat 24 Jul 2021 at 19:52:36 (-0400), Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote:
> > >> Here are the message I get after my debmirror when I do apt-get update
> > >>
> > >> Err:31 file:/mnt/mirror/debian buster-updates/main amd64 Contents (deb)
> > >>   File not found -
> > >> /mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster-updates/main/Contents-amd64 (2: No such
> > >> file or directory)
> > >> Reading package lists... Done
> > >> E: Failed to fetch
> > >> file:/mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster/main/Contents-amd64  File not found
> > >> - /mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster/main/Contents-amd64 (2: No such file
> > >> or directory)
> > >> E: Failed to fetch
> > >> file:/mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster-updates/main/Contents-amd64 File
> > >> not found - /mnt/mirror/debian/dists/buster-updates/main/Contents-amd64
> > >> (2: No such file or directory)
> > >>
> > >> The command I used for creating the mirror is
> > >>
> > >> debmirror --all --progress --verbose --method=http
> > >> --dist=buster,buster-updates,buster-backports
> > >> --section=main,contrib,non-free --arch=amd64,i386 --rsync-extra=none
> > >> --source --i18n --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
> > >> --root=debian --host=debian.mirror.iweb.ca <http://debian.mirror.iweb.ca> /mnt/mirror/debian
> > >>
> > >> Got idea ?
> > >
> > > --getcontents ?
> > >
> > Giving this one a try....
> >
> I'm not sure you have close to a clue what my problem is.
> Because when I simply change my repository to the usual Debian one, I
> can do my apt cache update properly.

and then

On Mon 26 Jul 2021 at 01:12:14 (-0400), Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote:
> >>>
> >>> --getcontents ?
> >>>
> >> Giving this one a try....
> >>
> >>
> > Gave this one a try and it worked.

Difficult to keep up.

> > Next step...
> > I'm setting up a Debian mirror (don't know if it will be very useful
> > because I already have one nearby (iweb.ca)...
> >
> > But as I'm only carrying Buster and Bullseye (possibly the next testing
> > too).
> >
> With only the security update mirror.
> Please don't write me (again) it's bad to create a local copy of
> security-update.
>
> Now getting this problem :
>
> E: The repository 'file:/mnt/mirror/security-debian buster/updates
> Release' does not have a Release file.
> N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is
> therefore disabled by default.

Just copy the files *Release* from the website with wget?
(In no way condoning what you are attempting to do.)

Cheers,
David.

Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 29, 2021, 4:20:06 AM7/29/21
to
Hi David,
Difficult to keep up ?
I'll give you a hint...
--getcontents = option for debmirror

And maybe I shall have only sent this message to the person who told me
to try --getcontents. Only wanted to say thanks for the help.
>>> Next step...
>>> I'm setting up a Debian mirror (don't know if it will be very useful
>>> because I already have one nearby (iweb.ca)...
>>>
>>> But as I'm only carrying Buster and Bullseye (possibly the next testing
>>> too).
>>>
>> With only the security update mirror.
>> Please don't write me (again) it's bad to create a local copy of
>> security-update.
>>
>> Now getting this problem :
>>
>> E: The repository 'file:/mnt/mirror/security-debian buster/updates
>> Release' does not have a Release file.
>> N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is
>> therefore disabled by default.
>
> Just copy the files *Release* from the website with wget?
> (In no way condoning what you are attempting to do.)
>
Yes, just copy the *Release* file.

But doing things like trained monkey doesn't go nowhere. There's a
reason why it did work for the debian.org repository and not the
security updates.

First thing is understanding why, so that the choice I'll make will be
based on fact to support them. Not based on "this seem like working".

And it's related to the way the repository is maintained.

So I went with using aptly to create a local repository, that I sign
with my own key. This way, I keep it secure.

One reason it is recommended not to make local copy of security-updates
is because the repository is not signed. So it would be easy to
compromise. As a fact, the Release file ain't present itself.

But by making my own repository for security update and signing, I did
get a safe local copy.

> Cheers,
> David.
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Jonathan Dowland

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Jul 29, 2021, 4:30:04 AM7/29/21
to
On Wed, Jul 28, 2021 at 06:11:25AM -0400, Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote:
>On 2021-07-27 10:45 a.m., Gunnar Gervin wrote:
>> Just a Linux advice/s I read 10years ago + -.
>Time goes by and things change.
>Advice from 10 years ago can even be bad when applied today.

This messages is threaded with your other "Debmirror" messages, but
seems to be a reply to Gunnar on an unrelated topic. I can't see a
message from Gunnar to your "Debmirror" thread. Perhaps he mailed you
privately? In which case: it's bad form to post somebody's private mail
to a list.



--
Please do not CC me for listmail.

👱🏻 Jonathan Dowland
jm...@debian.org
🔗 https://jmtd.net

David Wright

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Jul 29, 2021, 3:20:04 PM7/29/21
to
Yes. Your first message appeared to say that I hadn't a clue.
The second appeared to say that my suggestion worked.

> I'll give you a hint...
> --getcontents = option for debmirror

What else would it be? You sensibly gave the debmirror command that
you typed. I merely typed man mirror and read there:

--getcontents
Additionally download Contents.<arch>.gz files. Note that these
files can be relatively big and can change frequently,
especially for the testing and unstable suites. Use of the
available diff files is strongly recommended (see the --diff
option).

and saw that you hadn't used it. So I suggested it.

> And maybe I shall have only sent this message to the person who told me
> to try --getcontents. Only wanted to say thanks for the help.

No problem.

> >> Now getting this problem :
> >>
> >> E: The repository 'file:/mnt/mirror/security-debian buster/updates
> >> Release' does not have a Release file.
> >> N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is
> >> therefore disabled by default.
> >
> > Just copy the files *Release* from the website with wget?
> > (In no way condoning what you are attempting to do.)
> >
> Yes, just copy the *Release* file.

The "*"s were wildcards, not emphasis.

> But doing things like trained monkey doesn't go nowhere.
> [ … ] First thing is understanding why, so that the
> choice I'll make …

Sure. It generally behoves one to understand any post here
before acting on it, especially when it involves security.
As I said, I don't condone what you're doing, so I'm not
going to spend time thinking about it.

BTW,

> Please don't write me (again) it's bad to create a local copy of
> security-update.

I don't think I did, in either post. But neither do I want the
appearance of supporting what you're doing, by replying to your posts.

Cheers,
David.

Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside

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Jul 29, 2021, 3:50:04 PM7/29/21
to
Hi,

>> Yes, just copy the *Release* file.
>
> The "*"s were wildcards, not emphasis.
>
That's *confusing*

>> But doing things like trained monkey doesn't go nowhere.
>> [ … ] First thing is understanding why, so that the
>> choice I'll make …
>
> Sure. It generally behoves one to understand any post here
> before acting on it, especially when it involves security.
> As I said, I don't condone what you're doing, so I'm not
> going to spend time thinking about it.
>
I think we might have got misunderstood.
> BTW,
>
>> Please don't write me (again) it's bad to create a local copy of
>> security-update.
>
> I don't think I did, in either post. But neither do I want the
> appearance of supporting what you're doing, by replying to your posts.
>
I didn't talk about you.
This was in my original post and was a message to everyone on the
mailing list who write me many time that it's bad to create a local
security update repository.

But I have bandwidth limitation on some client (they don't have
unlimited) so I have to do as much possible from my portable HD.

> Cheers,
> David.
>

Cheers (and beers)
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