Keeping in mind that I’m a total noob in terms of Linux but I’m willing to learn, I ask you this: Upgrading to using “apt-get dist-upgrade” to Debian 9 Stretch is a safe move? Or is it even possible?
Thank you in advance!
EDIT: After getting some more info from my dad, it seems it’s not that easy to upgrade it, but it’s possible. My question stands. Is it safe to do it?
Here are a few relevant point to upgrading to Debian 9:
Debian 9 (“Stretch”) is still in dev/testing. It’s possible to run into issues in the usage of Debian 9, and it’s possible to run into complications from the upgrade.
That said, most of the changes in a distro release upgrade are to the apt packages–since you tagged this MineOS Turnkey, I’ll assume that this is how you are using MineOS. I haven’t personally upgraded Turnkey to Stretch, so this is all general speculation.
Here are the packages MineOS Turnkey installs: from normal repos & from third-party repos
Most of these standard packages–if upgraded–will continue to work exactly as they did on Debian 8. From that perspective, you should expect no issues from the upgrade (at least I wouldn’t).
Also, NodeJS is installed through apt, but from a separate repository (configured through that script line). This will also ensure NodeJS will remain the right version (which is preferably 4.x).
JDK8 is installed from a separate (but official) repo locked into this version. If Stretch makes a newer version available, this will not be downloaded/utilized unless you go through the steps to uninstall it (not necessary, or at least: not necessary until you confirm everything else went well)
To that end, I expect upgrading to be safe. But as always, you should go through preventative measures to protect against upgrade-related issues:
Last thing to remember: so long as you protect your server archives, you can just as well demolish your server and you’ll always be able to get back to a Turnkey install (or a fresh Debian 9 install). So don’t be afraid of bricking your server–I know when I’ve done it (on things like kernel recompiling in the past), it has always been educational!
Fair enough. Also, thank you very much for all you’re doing and I hope you keep on doing it.
Yes, I’m using Turnkey. I always install it freshly from a CD.
If I’m going to update it, I will let you guys know through this post!
So, I upgrased last week and so far so good. Works like a charm, nothing to complain so far.
The only trouble I encountered was with stunnel4 which for some reason broke after installation. So the only fix was to completely remove it.
Note: I never used it before and I don’t intend in using it anytime soon.
All in all, it’s safe to upgrade, but you might have to remove stunnel4.
I just tested an upgrade from Jessie to Stretch on a VM. All the updates went through and rebooting the server works, from a client side.
I can access the WebUI and manage the servers from in there. however on the VM side, the tty8 session crashes and dumps me into tty1 when trying to access the advanced options.
This wouldn’t be a major issue from a day-to-day operation, except for the times a reboot or any changes to the configurations