Yrurtj

currently I am having lot's of fun with apt-get - and the bad thing is, it was my own fault. I had enabled the testing packages in /etc/apt/sources.list to install a certain package. And I told my system do apt-get dist-upgrade. Everything worked fine, but now I am trying to get back to the stableupdated - and I fail...

When trying to do the apt-get dist-upgrade, i get the following information:

The following packages will be REMOVED:

  linux-image-3.10-3-amd64

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  libcgi-fast-perl libfcgi-perl libyaml-syck-perl

The following packages will be DOWNGRADED:

  initramfs-tools libdate-manip-perl munin munin-common

Well, that's okay, but when I am try to do this, I get a warning in bold friendly red letters:

You are running a kernel (version 3.10-3-amd64) and attempting to remove the same version.

...

It is highly recommended to abort the kernel removal unless you are prepared to fix the system after removal.

Well, I like to follow the recommendmend. The correct kernel version for the stable release would be linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64 and it is already installed. Probably the downgrade would be no problem if I was working under the older kernel? Actually, I have no clue how to enable the kernel 3.2.0 instead of 3.10.

Look at this, it seems to indicate that downgrade is possible using apt-get:

http://ispire.me/downgrade-from-debian-sid-to-stable-from-jessie-to-wheezy/

Essentials (3-step):
(If much of your system is of a higher version, you'll want to be careful downgrading. See especially format changes (data and personal config files)

1. 
   

   Remove all references to sid or unstable in your /etc/apt/sources.list by deleting, replacing, or commenting out. Ensure sources.list has what you do want (I recommend security and stable deb sources). For example:

   
   
   

   
   

   deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main
   
   deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main

   
   
   

   deb http://cdn.debian.net/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
   
   deb-src http://cdn.debian.net/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free

   
   

   
   


2. 
   

   Pin the release you want in /etc/apt/preferences (this will cause the already downloaded but now unwanted package information to be ignored as desired).

   
   
   

   
   

   Package: *
   
   Pin: release a=stable
   
   Pin-Priority: 1001

   
   

   
   


3. 
   

   Finally we have to run the apt update and upgrade process for downgrading all packages.
   
   *apt will ask for confirmation

   
   
   

   
   

   # apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
# apt-get dist-upgrade

   
   

   
   

If you can't explain what each of these commands does independently, read your man pages! :) And do the same for at least the options you use in other utilities.

4. 
   (If you have issues downgrading a package)
   Purge it, then reinstall
   
   

   
   

   # apt-get purge [your_failing_package]
# apt-get install [your_failing_package]

   
   

   
   

• Reboot the machine.


• From Debian advanced menu on Grub, choose a kernel different from the
  one you want to remove.


• 
  

  If you're on Debian you'd have a meta package for the kernel
  installed.

  
  
  

  gayan@deb:~$ dpkg -l | grep linux 
  
  ii  linux-image-amd64                     4.9.25-1~bpo8+1
  
  ii  linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64            3.16.43-2
  
  ii  linux-image-4.9.0-0.bpo.3-amd64       4.9.25-1~bpo8+1
  
  

  
  


• 
  

  Simply purge the meta package (linux-image-amd64) and and reinstall
  it.

  
  
  

  Then you'd have:

  
  
  

  gayan@deb:~$ dpkg -l | grep linux
  
  ii  linux-image-amd64                     3.16.43-2
  
  ii  linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64            3.16.43-2
  
  

  
  



• Reboot.

Info:

linux-image-amd64 is a meta package. It could point to a either stable kernel or a back-ported one (4.9.25-1~bpo8+1) depending on how you install it:

apt-get -t jessie-backports install linux-image-amd64

or

apt-get install linux-image-amd64

I don't have enough rep on this community to comment on the top answer.

But...

If you ever run into a broken packages error on Debian and the standard solutions don't work the top solution is what fixes it, turns out everything was installing latest which is not what you want on Debian.

Setting all the packages to stable fixes everything.