1. Before changing apt sources (They should be etch)
2. apt-get update
3. apt-get upgrade
4. reboot if kernel upgrades
5. Now change your apt sources  (Lenny or Stable)
6. apt-get update
7. apt-get upgrade
8. NOTE: At this point lvm2 is probably held back.
9. Reboot if the kernel upgrades
10. NOW do your dist upgrade
11. apt-get update
12. apt-get dist-upgrade
13. NOTE: At this point lvm2 is probably still held back.
14. Reboot
15. apt-get update
16. apt-get install lvm2
17. Reboot

TADA!  You have to reboot a couple times, but you never have to touch the configs or the mapper.

Did you find this post useful or have questions or comments? Please let me know!

The post LVM Breaks When Upgrading Debian Etch to Lenny 4.x to 5.0 first appeared on Brain Goo.

http://non-us.debian.org is a repository signed with F1D53D8C4F368D5D, but Debian does not trust that key (because it is expired). Go figure.

To resolve the irritating error:
W: GPG error: http://non-us.debian.org stable/non-US Release: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY [some key]

Do this:

1) Make sure you have the newest keys from Debian the automagical way: apt-key update
This will probably do nothing.

2) Update your keys manually:

• Visit http://ftp-master.debian.org
• Find the URL to the latest key (right at the top of the page)
• Download it and import it: wget [URL] -O - | apt-key add - (replace [URL] with the link to the key, silly)

3) Try again. If it was indeed a key issued by Debian that you were missing, you should have it now. My guess is you have stumbled across packages signed by a key that Debian forgot to include in their trusted keys list.

4) The Icky part

• Install GNU PG if you don’t have it: apt-get install gnupg
• Grab the key from Debian (Hey, it’s their key, they just forgot to give it out): gpg --keyserver keyring.debian.org --recv-keys [KEY]
• Install the key: gpg --armor --export [KEY] | sudo apt-key add -
• Trust the key: gpg --export [KEY] >> /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
• Make sure the key is there: gpg --list-keys

Now, not to rag on the Debian group, but the key I have been fighting with is F1D53D8C4F368D5D on non-us.debian.org. That key is expired which is why it is not distributed. No packages should be signed with it.

The post Debian Key Signing Bug: NO_PUBKEY first appeared on Brain Goo.

Common errors are:

Target filesystem doesn’t have sbin/init
BusyBox v.1.1.3
/bin/sh: can’t access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)

or

mount: Mounting /root/dev on /dev/.static/dev failed: No such file or directory
Done.
Target filesystem doesn’t have /sbin/init

or

Mounting root file system…
Running /scripts/local-top…Done.
Running /scripts/local-premount…Done.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds.
Running /scripts/log-bottom…Done.
Running /scripts/init-bottom…
Mounting /root/dev on /dev/.static/dev failed: No such file or directory…Done.
Mounting /sys on /root/sys filed: No such file or directory
Mounting /proc on /root/proc filed: No such file or directory
Target filesystem doesn’t have /sbin/init

A common reason for this is simple. Your GRUB menu is messed up and you swear you didn’t touch it!

There is a bug somewhere in Debian that changes your filesystem from /dev/sd<something> to /dev/sd<something else>. Of course changing that will make the system mount root from the wrong partition and BOOM! No boot for you.

In my case it constantly changes my boot partition from /dev/sda1 to /dev/sdb1 which is really annoying. If I don’t update /boot/grub/menu.lst before I reboot, my system will not come back.

Lucky for you Debian has BusyBox and initramfs with the 2.6 kernel.

You will have to be on the console for this, but here is how to get up and running:

• Boot up your broken system.
• (initramfs) is actually a prompt, so:
  • (initramfs) cd /
• (initramfs) mkdir /mnt Make a directory in the RAM filesystem.
• (initramfs) mount /dev/sda1 /mnt Mount your REAL root partition there.
• (initramfs) vi /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst Edit your menu.lst file to load the correct partition (toward the bottom)
• (initramfs) reboot

In my most recent case, the line:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-686 root=/dev/sda1 ro

Was changed to

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-686 root=/dev/sdb1 ro

If I change it back before I reboot, I don’t have an issue.

The post Debian-based machines and the (initramfs) prompt first appeared on Brain Goo.

http://www.randomsequence.com/articles/smtp-pop3-email-for-virtual-users-on-debian-sarge/

Adverts:
The Exim SMTP Mail Server
Exim: The Mail Transfer Agent
The Exim SMTP Mail Server: Official Guide for Release 4

The post SMTP & POP3 Email for Virtual Users on Debian Sarge first appeared on Brain Goo.

apt-get install gcc

And of course you need make

apt-get install make

What you don’t know is that you won’t be able to do anything without your C library and headers. You will get errors that your compiler cannot make executables.

The package you want is libc6-dev

apt-get install libc6-dev

Much better!

The post Debian GCC libc package required first appeared on Brain Goo.

Very comprehensive tutorial on setting up a Solaris Jump Start server on Debian Linux (works on pretty much any Linux distro)

The post Solaris Jumpstart Server on Linux first appeared on Brain Goo.