Breezy repos with Hoary

[hamburger123]

I'm using Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog right now and the backports repos seem to be broken, would it be okay if I used the breezy-backports? Or would I totaly mess up my system that way? Thanks.

P.S. I'm mostly just looking to install a newer version of firefox without having to compile it.

[bryansmith]

Why not upgrade to Breezy?

Bryan

[St. Joe]

For a single package I would just download it and use dpkg to install. If it complains about unmet deps, forget about the whole thing...

Installing new deps from divergent repos is where trouble can start.

[hamburger123]

Bryansmith: is it safe to use dist-upgrade? or do I have to get the iso and burn it on a cd? If it's the latter, I'm probably too lazy to do it. And I only have about 2 gigs left on my hard drive.

St. Joe: is there a firefox .deb file anywhere?

[St. Joe]

Bryansmith: is it safe to use dist-upgrade? or do I have to get the iso and burn it on a cd?

Either method is not "safe". Anytime you do a complete system upgrade there are problems with compatibility and functionality that can come into play. It is basically supposed to work, but there are plenty of instances where things do not go according to plan. Usually, these situations can be resolved, but just be advised that it would be a good idea to back up what you have in case all does not go well.

[St. Joe]

St. Joe: is there a firefox .deb file anywhere?

firefox_1.4.99+1.5rc3

[hamburger123]

awesome, thanks

edit: uh-oh, more problems...
Looks like that package needs newer versions of quite a few libraries, which I can't get through apt-get.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  firefox: Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.4-1) but 2.3.2.ds1-20ubuntu14 is installed
           Depends: libcairo2 (>= 1.0.2-2) but it is not installable
           Depends: libfontconfig1 (>= 2.3.0) but 2.2.3-4ubuntu7 is installed
           Depends: libgcc1 (>= 1:4.0.2) but 1:4.0.0-7ubuntu6~5.04ubp1 is installed
           Depends: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.9.1) but 2.6.3-1 is installed
           Depends: libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.8.0) but 2.6.4-0ubuntu5 is installed
           Depends: libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.11.1) but 1.8.1-0ubuntu2 is installed
           Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 4.0.2-4) but it is not installed
           Depends: libnspr4 (>= 2:1.firefox1.4.99+1.5rc3.dfsg-1ubuntu12) but 2:1.7.12-0ubuntu05.04 is installed

[lestoil]

Robert Story article Resistance is Futile in Distrowatch lists steps to ugrade to Breezy--edit apt/sources.list then the apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade. It is well written and helpful. cheers.

[bryansmith]

I would personally download the breezy iso and install that way. Both methods should work but if you need to re-install later, you won't have to re-upgrade and therefore you will save that precious bandwidth.

Bryan

[St. Joe]

edit: uh-oh, more problems...
Looks like that package needs newer versions of quite a few libraries, which I can't get through apt-get.

Like I said, if it wants to pull in deps from a different repo then you need to just back off. That is a path to nothing but trouble. If your current system is running fine and you like everything, there is no way I would upgrade the entire installation over just a single package. That is akin to lunacy.

My advice would be to simply install the Firefox version you want using the package from their own website. It is not difficult at all to install and you are welcome to post back if you encounter any difficulties. It would also be a good learning experience for you.