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Questions tagged [debian]

Debian is a popular and influential GNU/Linux distribution. Questions here should generally be about Debian Server.

Debian GNU/Linux its one of the oldest and more popular Linux distributions. The Debian project was started in 1993 by Ian Murdock (the name Debian is a junction of Debra + Ian, his girlfriend at the time). Debian strongest points are the portability, stability and commitment to the free software ideal.

The current Debian version (6.0, code named Squeeze) has more than 29.000 software packages available on nine platforms (including SPARC, ARM, PowerPC), and 2 platforms supporting the FreeBSD kernel (Debian GNU/kfreebsd on i386 and amd64). The Debian APT package management provides dependency management and strong update and upgrade capabilities.

Debian maintains normally 3 versions of its repositories: stable (the current release), testing (the next release), unstable (new packages and versions). After debian makes a new release, the previous stable release is maintained for one year, and is re-labed oldstable. Squeeze also included the backports repository where some software from the testing will be made available to the stable release, and updates (previously named volatile) to deal with software that evolves too fast. Debian also makes point releases with aggregated updates and updated tools, those keep the release name but update the version like Debian 6.1 for example.

Debian has a Social Contract with its users and will only distribute on its main distribution software that is compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines.Those two devices were created on the early days of the distribution and also are the basis for Open Source Initiative's Open Source Definition.

The Debian project organization counts with the Debian Project Leader, the Debian Project Secretary and the Debian Developers. The developers are responsible for the releases, packaging software, managing the FTPs, security and so on. Each Project Leader is elected for a period of one year and any Developer can be a candidate.

Ubuntu Linux uses Debian as its base, as well as other well known distributions like Maemo, Mint, Knoppix and several others. The Wikipedia article has also more details about the distribution, as well as Debian's official site.

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apt-get update/upgrade list without changing anything

I would like to view what packages are available for update/upgrade without actually changing any files becuase there are some packages I wouldn't like to update. Would it then be possible to apt-get update with exceptions.
John Magnolia
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Unable to ssh to GCE: "Permission denied (publickey)"

I created a VM via Bitnami in Google Compute Engine. Previously, I was able to ssh via the Bitnami web interface. I tried to ssh via terminal on my Mac but kept getting the Permission denied (publickey) error. I then deleted all keys on the server…
NEO
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How to use both AllowGroups and AllowUsers in sshd_config?

I'm trying to modify /etc/ssh/sshd_config on my dedicated debian7 server with both AllowUsers and AllowGroups. However I can't seem get both to work together. The Setup There's a user called testuser. That user is in a group called ssh-users: $…
Johannes
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Huge amount of TIME_WAIT connections says netstat

Okay, this is creeping me out - I see about 1500-2500 of these: root@wherever:# netstat Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State tcp 0 0 localhost:60930 localhost:sunrpc TIME_WAIT …
KTamas
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Can someone clarify Ubuntu (Debian) dist-upgrade for me?

I've got an Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server. There are several packages which are "kept back" ("the following updates have been kept back") when I do an apt-get upgrade. It's my understanding that I can do an apt-get dist-upgrade to upgrade these packages,…
Boden
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What is the preferred method to restart networking in Ubuntu and Debian

When I restart the network using: /etc/init.d/networking restart I get this warning: Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not enable again some interfaces So what's the best way to restart the network after making…
Antonius Bloch
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how can I limit per user bandwidth?

To summarise: I have a dedicated server with a few friends running a torrent client with web gui. Each user is running a client under their username on the server so downloads go in their user dir, and only they have access to their own files…
loco41211
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See what files are being written to (like iotop but for files, not processes)

I have a Linux server, and it's doing a lot of disk io. There is one process that is doing most of the disk writes. I found this out with iotop, which shows the processes that are doing disk I/O. Is there an equivant programme (in the debian lenny…
Amandasaurus
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Chown operation not permitted for root

I try to chown the owner of a file to root, but I can't. I'm doing this as root. I get the following message: chown: changing ownership of `ps': Operation not permitted
Peter Stuifzand
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How to list services/daemons started at boot _and_ check their loading order

I want to be sure in what order services are started during boot process in Debian based systems (Debian Squeeze in particular).
user155872
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What is the best place to setup system wide environment variables on Linux?

I just want to setup a system wide environment variable, JAVA_HOME for all users, including root user. Requirements: accessible to normal users accessible to root always loaded, not only for bash (gnome-terminal does not start a bash by…
sorin
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Postfix TLS over SMTP - RCPT TO prompts renegotiation then 554 5.5.1 Error: no valid recipients

I've setup ispconfig3 on my debian six server, and here is a little smtp over ssl: The server is postfix AUTH PLAIN (LOL!) 235 2.7.0 Authentication successful MAIL FROM: lol@lol.com 250 2.1.0 Ok RCPT TO: lol@lol.com RENEGOTIATING depth=0…
lol
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How to duplicate TCP traffic to one or multiple remote servers for benchmarking purposes?

Infrastructure: Servers in Datacenter, OS - Debian Squeeze, Webserver - Apache 2.2.16 Situation: The live server is in use by our cusotmers every day, which makes it impossible to test adjustments and improvements. Therefore we would like to…
Sise
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how to remove a package which post-installation and pre-removal script fails?

I have an issue with the package openqrm. How do I remove it? root@wl183004:/# apt-get upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not…
Marc Riera
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How do I see the changelog for a debian/ubuntu deb package?

I'm running Ubuntu and I have a deb file installed. I've made deb packages before, so I know there is a debian changelog (debchange). Is there anyway to see the debian changelog for any package that I have installed? Assume I don't have access to…
Amandasaurus
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