Announcing CSAIL support for Debian 5.0 (lenny)

The Debian Project has recently released version 5.0, codenamed
lenny. [1] Lenny is a major upgrade from version 4.0 (etch), which most
CSAIL Debian machines are currently running, and contains a number of
visible changes and improvements.  Among these are:

	- X.org 7.3
	- GNU Emacs 22
	- Eclipse 3.2.2
	- Java SE 6 (Update 12)
	- KDE 3.5.10
	- OpenOffice.org 2.4.1
	- Linux 2.6.26 (*)
	- Thunderbird (icedove) 2.0.0.16
	- Firefox (iceweasel) 3.0
	- MySQL 5.0.51a
	- Several versions of gcc
	- New python, perl, and ruby packages

See the Debian release notes for more info about what's new in this
release. [2]

INSTALLING LENNY ON NEW SYSTEMS

For new installs, there is a new ISO CDROM image on the TIG web
site. [3] Unlike previous CSAIL Debian installers, there is now a
single CDROM image capable of installing either 32-bit or 64-bit
versions of the OS.  TIG can provide physical CDROM media if needed.

UPGRADING EXISTING SYSTEMS TO LENNY

Currently, the recommended upgrade steps are

	   - Switch to text mode (CTRL+ALT+F1) and log in
	   - Run sudo /usr/local/csail/sbin/lenny-upgrade

The upgrade process will take approximately 1 hour, and you'll need to
reboot the machine at the end of the upgrade.  Because it changes
almost every component of the operating system, it's important that
you not update multi-user systems without notifying the other users
ahead of time.

It's important to note that, while we've done significant testing and
expect the upgrade to work, it is possible that it will fail and leave
your system in a state that requires sysadmin attention in order to be
functional again.  It's also possible that code that you've developed
will not work with newer versions of system libraries and will need to
be recompiled or updated for API changes.  Don't try the upgrade if
you don't have time to deal with unexpected problems!

GETTING HELP

Send questions or problem reports to help@csail.mit.edu.  The
workstation-discuss list [4] is also a good resource for contacting
CSAIL Debian developers and other users.

noah

[1] http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214
[2] http://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/i386/release-notes/
[3] http://tig.csail.mit.edu/twiki/bin/view/TIG/Installation
[4] https://lists.csail.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/workstation-discuss