How do system upgrades work?

[fuji]

I've browsed the wiki and the documentation and i can't figure out what the upgrade process is. I don't use kubuntu yet, but have used linux for a while. I had trouble phrasing this question for some reason... sorry.

I'm looking for a FreeBSD update system where you keep the base system the same while updating user installed software at will. Not looking for ports, just the ability to install software (KDE, amarok, etc) without upgrading or touching the base system such as glibc, gcc, etc.

I'm also looking for kynaptic to be able to update my entire system (base and user chosen software) when a new release is made without having to download a new CD.

Does kubuntu do this already? If not, how does kubuntu's upgrade process work and is there any separation between the base system and the user chosen software?

Thanks for any and all help in advance

[aysiu]

I'm looking for a FreeBSD update system where you keep the base system the same while updating user installed software at will. Not looking for ports, just the ability to install software (KDE, amarok, etc) without upgrading or touching the base system such as glibc, gcc, etc. Hm. I don't know how to do this. You can upgrade all your software or upgrade individual packages manually, but I don't know how to separate out different types automatically.



I'm also looking for kynaptic to be able to update my entire system (base and user chosen software) when a new release is made without having to download a new CD. Hm. Again, I don't know how to use Kynaptic or even Synaptic to do this. If you use a terminal, you can change your sources.list and
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to upgrade the entire system without downloading a new CD.

[fuji]

Thanks for your help, I think I have an understanding now of how it's done. I've never used Debian or Ubuntu so I really don't know much about apt.

I did find the apt-get man pages here: http://nixdoc.net/man-pages/Linux/man8/apt-get.8.html --- if anyone was interested.

[flebber]

If you use synaptic, you can browse by category to choose your progrm or just search the program name. After selecting synaptic takes care of all depndecies for you, press instal and away it goes. you can also chose to upgrade current packages by choosing mark all upgrades in synaptic and then hitting apply.

I don't like kynaptic, you could install adept sudo apt-get install adept, which has a nice safe upgrade feature and like synaptic you can search programs too install or with adept you can actually use fiters to define program types if you are unsure of the names.

As previuously stated sudo apt-get dist-upgrade will upgrade your dsitro without the neeed to download a new CD.

[fuji]

I really like adept for browsing the packages, thanks for the pointer.

I came from a source based distro and they would constantly mangle the toolchain without taking precautions I felt were needed. Since everything is binary here, I guess my largest worry doesn't really matter (as it would for a source-based distro or freebsd which offers both).

Anyway, I made the switch, I'm running Kubuntu, thanks again guys :)