I understand that Trixie is expected to become the stable version of Debian on August 9. I use Debian stable on a couple of other computers here so I am looking forward to the change but I am wondering about my freedombox server which runs here on a separate pc. I am spoiled by how automatic the upgrade process is each time the server package is upgraded.
Is there anything I should be doing to prepare it for this distribution upgrade beyond having my freedombox package up to date?
Is upgrading the OS on the server as simple as ticking the “Enable auto-update to next stable release” box on the Software Update screen?
Should I do that now or wait for a while after August 9 to enable that?
The update on the server is as simple as ticking the “Enable auto-update to next stable release” box on the Software Update screen. I have updated 2 out of 3 Pioneer FreedomBoxes running as productive servers and I didn’t have had any troubles. But after the update I had an minor issue with a package which was displayed in cockpit. I don’t remember the name (lib… something). After running the diagnose in system, the faulty package was marked and I was able to repair it with the repair button. But I don’t know, if this is still the case.
Two suggestions (this is how I do it): make a dd copy of your OS before the update and start the update before you go to bed and just let the system do its job (don’t disturb it).
As of now, there are no known issues with the dist upgrade procedure, you should be safe to just upgrade using the UI. To be extra careful you can still make extra backups of course. I would advise against using dd just because how easy it is even for experienced sysadmins to mix up the input and output options. I consider Clonezilla to be a much safer and robust tool for this purpose.
If you installed FreeomBox on top of Debian, you should wait until the next release lands in Backports, since it’s introdicing an important improvement specific to this type of setup.
I (and not only me) had much more trouble at the auto-update from Bullseye to Bookworm (like, firewall blocking services), which made me decide to disable this auto-update to next stable release.
I am rather busy now, if any issue happens I may not have enough time to deal with it, and I rely on my freedombox for email, so I prefer to wait a bit.
This is my situation. My system is at 25.9.3. I see that 25.9.4 was released on Aug 2 and is in the pipeline. Is it that release I should wait for or the one following that?
BTW, my upgrade to Trixie on 3 different debian devices here has been completely flawless!
Folks there are many discussions happening on this topic. It is hard for others to follow this important topic so split them into separate topics of their own. Please continue in those topics.