Debian Lenny stable version is finally released and many are curious to upgrade Debian Etch to Debian Lenny. Debian Etch to Debian Lenny Upgrade is not a difficult task, you can easily initiate the live upgrade with bunch of commands. But before you start the upgrade make sure to take the backup of your important stuffs like web files, database, conf …..Etc.

To Upgrade Debian Etch to Debian Lenny, just follow these 5 steps:

1. First you need to edit the /etc/apt/Sources.list file.

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

or

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

You may noticed as follow in the Sources.list

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main

deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main

or

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main

deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib

If you notice something like this, you need to replace the word ‘etch’ with ‘lenny’. Debian Lenny is now a stable version, so if the entries in Sources.list are ‘Stable’ leave it unchanged.

2. Now perform the Update.

sudo apt-get update

3. Once Update is done Upgrade the core apt packages.

sudo aptitude install apt dpkg aptitude

4. Now run dist-upgrade or full-upgrade and follow the on screen instructions.

sudo aptitude full-upgrade

or

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

5. Once the upgrade is done reboot your server.