Steps to be performed to upgrade from etch (i386) to lenny. I don't explain why a certain step is done - read the manual found at step one. You should know what you're doing!

preperations

1. read http://www.debian.de/releases/lenny/i386/release-notes/index.en.html
2. back up the contents of /etc, /var/lib/dpkg, /var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates and the output of dpkg –get-selections “*”
3. disable APT pinning
4. check packages status (dpkg –audit)
5. save status (dpkg –get-selections “*” > ~/curr-pkgs.txt)
6. remove any holds before upgrading (aptitude search ”~ahold” | grep “^.h”) or (dpkg –get-selections | grep hold)
7. adding APT Internet sources

upgrade

1. record the session (script -t 2>~/upgrade-lenny.time -a ~/upgrade-lenny.script) - type exit to end the script
2. view the script at the end of the session: less -R ~root/upgrade-lenny.script
3. aptitude update
4. apt-get install debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring
5. apt-key update
6. aptitude update
7. see what would be done: (aptitude -y -s -f –with-recommends dist-upgrade)
8. apt-get install apt
9. aptitude install aptitude
10. aptitude search ”?false”
11. aptitude upgrade
12. aptitude dist-upgrade

upgrade the kernel

1. dpkg -l “linux-image*” | grep ^ii
2. If you do not see any output, then you will need to install a new linux-image package by hand

before reboot

1. rerun lilo if you're not already using grub (/sbin/lilo)

after reboot

1. If the new kernel image metapackage was pulled in as a dependency of the old one, it will be marked as automatically installed, which should be corrected: aptitude unmarkauto $(dpkg-query -W 'linux-image-2.6-*' | cut -f1)
2. remove or update depreciated or obsolete packages