This is an advance notice that security support for Debian GNU/Linux 5.0
(code name "lenny") will be terminated in two months.

The Debian project released Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 alias "squeeze" on the
6th of February 2011. Users and distributors have been given a one-year
timeframe to upgrade their old installations to the current stable
release. Hence, the security support for the old release of 5.0 is going
to end on the 6th of February 2012 as previously announced.

Previously announced security updates for the old release will continue
to be available on security.debian.org.

FYI, Dotdeb will follow this decision and no new packages will be available for Debian 5.0 after february 2012. Don’t be sad, this will give me some free time to focus on PHP 5.4 packages and some more cool tools.

It’s now time to upgrade your last Lenny boxes…

After 24 months of constant development, the Debian Project is proud to present its new stable version 6.0 (code name Squeeze). Debian 6.0 is a free operating system, coming for the first time in two flavours. Alongside Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is introduced with this version as a technology preview.

The website of the Debian project also got a facelift. Please visit it for more information.

As a consequence, you have to take care of the content of your /etc/apt/sources.list file :

• Squeeze is now refered as “stable”
• Lenny is now known as “oldstable”

Therefore, if you want to stick to Lenny, change all the occurrences of “stable” to “oldstable” or “lenny”.

Waiting for a dotdeb-keyring package, you just have to get the key and add it to your trusted keys’ keyring :

gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 89DF5277
gpg -a --export 89DF5277 | sudo apt-key add -

I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Security Support for Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 to be discontinued on
February 15th

One year after the release of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 alias 'lenny' and
nearly three years after the release of Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 alias
'etch' the security support for the old distribution (4.0 alias
'etch') is coming to an end next month.  The Debian project is proud
to be able to support its old distribution for such a long time and
even for one year after a new version has been released.

The Debian project has released Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 alias 'lenny' on
the 14th of February 2009.  Users and Distributors have been given a
one-year timeframe to upgrade their old installations to the current
stable release.  Hence, the security support for the old release of
4.0 is going to end in February 2010 as previously announced.

Previously announced security updates for the old release will continue
to be available on security.debian.org.

Then, Dotdeb will follow the Debian project and all the Etch packages will be moved to http://archives.dotdeb.org/ on Feb. 15th.

It is now time for you to upgrade your last servers from Etch to Lenny…

What’s next?

I’ll have to prepare the Squeeze release (planned on August 2010). The (early) plans ?

• Focus on high quality PHP 5.3 and MySQL 5.1+ packages
• More useful tools for your LAMP platforms : Gearman, Maatkit… MariaDB? Drizzle? Wait & see
• No more mail-realated packages (Qmail, Vpopmail, Courier, Dovecot, Vqadmin)

I’m actually kind of busy at work, but I managed to build and upload the most important packages : PHP5, PHP5 PECL extensions and MySQL 5.1. Additional pieces of software (Google Perftools, for example) will appear in the next few days. Please be patient and don’t hesit to make suggestions.

What (about LAMP) has changed in Lenny?

• Apache 1.3 has been removed, in favour of Apache 2.2. You have to migrate before any other change.
• In addition, libapache-mod-php5 is still present, but it’s a non-sense and a cause of mistake : it depends on the missing apache-common package! You have been warned.
• MySQL 5.0 comes in a satisfying recent release (5.0.51a) and will take profit of official Debian security releases.

What will change in the Lenny branch of Dotdeb?

• PHP5 (5.2, 5.3, …) has now the focus and will be updated frequently, so PHP4 is not maintained anymore. PHP6 will be uploaded when it’s ready.
• Up-to-date MySQL 5.1 packages will be provided as often as needed
• MySQL 5.0 effort has been discontinued in favour the official Debian packages.
• I’m wondering if I will keep maintaining the mail-related packages (Qmail, Vpopmail, Ezmlm, Qmailadmin…). If you really need them, let me know in the comments.

Should I switch to Lenny or should I stick to Etch?

It’s up to you. I will continue maintaining up-to-date packages for Etch in the next few months, so you’ll have time to upgrade your servers. Whatever you choose, you just have to take care of the Dotdeb entries in your sources.list :

• It should refer to stable or lenny if you want to make the switch and take benefits from the brand new Debian distribution :

deb http://your.mirror/ stable all
deb-src http://your.mirror/ stable all

• It should refer to oldstable or etch if you want to stick to the good old Etch and to take your time to upgrade.

deb http://your.mirror/ oldstable all
deb-src http://your.mirror/ oldstable all

(Please chose a mirror near your location on this page)

Conclusion

Thanks for using Dotdeb! This personnal project still aims (and will continue) to provide an efficient and up-to-date LAMP stack to your servers.

You can : 

• read the press announce
• sign or comment the petition
• spread the word
• so many other things to fight those absurd patents…