Debian Backports

More Excitement! Debian Backports!

Some of the applications that are standard in Debian 5.0 are getting a bit dated now. Examples include IceWeasel 3.0.6 and Pidgin 2.4.3. In order to have a somewhat stable system yet have more recent versions of some basic apps and other software (e.g. kernels) the kind folks over at http://www.backports.org have taken some recently released  software from the Debian testing and unstable branches and "backported" them so that they work with minimal fuss or effort on a stable system. For example, although Debian 5.0.4 comes with the 2.6.26 kernel (which is also a server kernel by the way, more on that later) the good people at backports have configured 2.6.30 and 2.6.32 to work on the Lenny platform. Bear in mind that a system running some or all backports is no longer considered 'stable' as such.

How do I get backports you may ask? Easy, add the following line to your sources.list file in /etc/apt/

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

then do an apt-get update. You should get an error message about a missing key but to fix this and verify the autheticity of any backports sfotware you install, type:

apt-get install debian-backports-keyring

Apt will moan about it being unverified but go ahead and hit 'y' to install the keyring package.

apt-get update again and apt should quit complaining and from now all backports packages will install as normal.

Now to get the software you may want from the backports repo the following syntax needs to be used:

apt-get install -t lenny-backports [package name]

Voila, you're done.

To see what is available from backports.org, have a look at http://packages.debian.org/lenny-backports/

For an example one package I recommend updating on a desktop system is the Linux kernel. Debian ships Linux kernels that are geared towards server use by default. This is fine if you are running Debian on a server, and if you are, I strongly suggest you stick with the default kernel. However, there are other kernels available that are optimised for desktop use and the backports kernels are two examples of such kernels. To install them both type:

apt-get install -t lenny-backports linux-image-2.6.30-bpo.2-686 linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.3-686

You need not install them both and the above is just an example. Wait for apt to do its thing and when it is finished, type 'update-grub' to make sure that the grub bootloader sees them. Restart your computer and you should see the two new kernel options in the grub menu screen.

Two other packages you may wish to know about are an updated version of IceWeasel and flashplugin-nonfree. IceWeasel is up to 3.5.8 and flashplugin-nonfree allows you to install flashplayer for your web browser to view youtube content etc without all the fiddling about required in Iceweasel 3.0.6. Also, all of the addons from http://addons.mozilla.org will work with IceWeasel 3.5.8