Using Debian Sarge (stable) with "testing" and "unstable" is not always the best idea, as in order to get a package not present in Sarge you might need to make a massive update of libs, thus having a mixed system, not quite Sarge anymore.

However, you can use at times some packages from the "testing" and "unstable" — just don't forget to check first the backports repositories!

A newer package backported to Sarge is supposed to be compiled on a Sarge system, with as little as possible "foreign dependencies" (in theory), so you would not have to perform a massive upgrade (nor a dist-upgrade) to be able to use it!

Backported packages for Sarge exist in plenty of places, and a place where you can look for them is www.apt-get.org. For not messing things up, it's advisable to generally stick to a fixed list of sources.

Here's a selection of Sarge extra repositories, and what to expect from them:

deb http://www.backports.org/debian/ sarge-backports main contrib non-free

Plenty of backports, e.g.: openoffice 2.0.1, amule 2.1.0, amsn 0.9.5, blam 1.8.2, clamav 0.88.1, dvd+rw-tools_6.1, Firefox 1.5.0.3, fluxbox_0.9.14, fuse 2.5.2, fvwm 2.5.16, gaim 1.5.1, gecko-sharp2 0.11, gimp 2.2.11, gstreamer 0.10, gtk_sharp2 2.4.0, hibernate 1.12, inkscape 0.43, iptables 1.3.3, ipython 0.7.1, KDE 3.5.0, koffice 1.4.2, liferea 1.0.7, lighttpd 1.4.11, (linux-2.6): kernel 2.6.16 (image 686, headers), lua 5.1, Mono 1.1.12, MonoDevelop 0.9, MySQL 5.0.20, nVU 1.0, PHP 5.1.2, postfix 2.2.10, postresql 8.1.3 and 8.0.7, sylpheed_2.0.4, Thunderbird 1.5.3, TinyERP 3.2.1, vim 6.4, wget 1.10.2, wine 0.9.7, wireless-tools_27+28pre13, wxwidgets 2.6.1, xen-tools 1.2, XFCE 4.2.2, xorg-x11_6.9.0, Zope 2.8.6

deb http://ftp.debian-unofficial.org/debian/ sarge main contrib non-free restricted

bladeenc, beep-media-player-wma, lame, libdvdcss2, gvidcap, sun java, adobe reader, opera 9, pine

deb http://mirror.zic-network.ch/dotdeb/ sarge all

DotDeb.org includes mainly PHP 4 & 5, MySQL 4.1 & 5, and a few others.

deb http://debian.stdout.at/ ./

Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ sarge main

The classical repo for restricted formats multimedia and alike.

deb http://debian.jones.dk/ sarge misc

misc packages

deb http://deb.stosberg.net/ sarge main  deb-src http://deb.stosberg.net/ sarge main

misc packages, incl. KDE 3.5.1, udev 0.7, amaroK, etc.

deb http://debian.buzzzed.de/ sarge main non-free contrib  deb-src http://debian.buzzzed.de/ sarge main non-free contrib

misc packages

How do I use them? In order to set a repository as prioritary over another repository, I have to set proper pin priorities to the enabled ones. My current configuration files look as follows:

My /etc/apt/apt.conf (not mandatory) —OR— /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10debconf (not mandatory): NOTE: If I want to force the preference of the packages in Sarge (e.g. Firefox 1.0.4) over other sources, I can set them a priority of 990 with:
My /etc/apt/sources.list:
My current /etc/apt/preferences: Note that:

• Debian "testing" and "unstable" are "partially disabled": 200 is less than the default priority level (500), so they're not considered to be part of the current release (which is true). However, they will get used for install if a newer version of an installed package could not be found in any other sources! To prevent considering automatically these sources, set Pin-Priority to a value less than the priority of an installed package (100), say 95. In this case, a package from these sources will get installed only if there is no version installed and no other source has a package that can be found here. To completely prevent any installation from them, set a negative priority. If you fully enable them, you might consider giving "testing" a better priority than to "unstable" e.g. 700 vs. 650.


• All the extra repositories having a Pin-Priority of 600 are fully enabled (>500). However, if you want to set them as prioritary over the current release (which has 990 if set with APT::Default-Release "stable"; or 500 as listed in this file), let them have a priority like 995 or 999.


• Packages udev, kernel-* (whatever), XFree86 and X.Org are prevented from any upgrade by having a priority over the downgrade limit (1000). You will have to unprotect them manually. You might want to protect other sensitive packages, like libc6, etc.

Do not confuse "o=" (Origin) with "origin some.url.here". Better off, if there is something you don't understand, read some documentation:

Official manuals:

• Debian Apt How-To, especially apt-get How-To
• Debian Package Management Quick Reference

Debian Wikis:

• Apt Pinning
• Apt Preferences

Good articles:

• Using APT with more than 2 sources
• Apt Pinning
• Downgrading to Stable

Man pages:

• man 5 apt_preferences or online man 5 apt_preferences
• man 5 apt.conf or online man 5 apt.conf
• man 8 apt-cache or online man 8 apt-cache
• man 8 apt-get or online man 8 apt-get
• man 5 sources-list or online man 5 sources-list

How to work with repositories — quick check-list:

• After adding or enabling a source, do: apt-get update


• Simple way: apt-get install package_name


• Simple way, force a version: apt-get install package_name=version


• Install from a preferred (forced) source, e.g.:
  apt-get install package_name/sarge-backports.
  This will NOT try to meet any dependencies from the same forced source! (May not work.)


• Install from a preferred (forced) source, also meeting any other dependency from the forced source. E.g.:
  apt-get -t sarge-backports install package_name.


• Examine the policy in effect to see what version will get installed and why (also useful for debugging unmet dependencies):
  apt-cache policy package_name


• Obviously enough, with aptitude or Synaptic you'll have easier choices to select or force a version, and to fix unmet dependencies.

How to fix the annoying error "E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room" while performing an apt-get update or starting Synaptic, aptitude, or dselect?

Put a very large value in /etc/apt/apt.conf —OR— in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10debconf:Usually, a value of 10 million to 20 million should work. With a lot of repositories (like in my case), 30 million is much safer.

Sample case of dealing in Sarge with different versions from different sources, with different dependencies (some of them unmet or too heavy) — for what else other than... Mozilla Firefox?


Wow, I was prepared to show some version mangling here, but I can't do it anymore. I updated libc6 from 2.3.2 to 2.3.6, which implied some other replacements (even gdm!), so the situation is more even now.

If we set "stable" (Sarge) as the default release (APT::Default-Release "stable";), the candidate to be installed would be... Firefox 1.0.4:That's what I don't want, that's why I disabled the setting of a default release:Let's see now, using the -s (simulate) flag, "what if" we'd like to install a particular version of Mozilla Firefox.

1.5.0.1 is straightforward (the same is 1.5.0.3 from sarge-backports, which I installed later):1.5.0.3 from unstable would be impossible to install on Sarge, due to unmet dependencies (with current settings):As for installing the same version from testing, it would be a complete mess!We definitely don't want that...

But with current settings in my Sarge, "apt-get install firefox" just worked (1.5.0.3), the same for "apt-get install openoffice2" (2.0.1), etc.

A last hint: if you don't know the name of the package (or metapackage) to install, your friends are:

• apt-cache search package_name
• aptitude
• Synaptic

All of them as root or prefixed with sudo, of course.



For Marillat's repo, see: New home for Marillat's multimedia repository and Tiny annoyance with Marillat's repo.

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