Upgrading from Sarge to Etch

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html

backup /etc, /var/lib/dpkg and the output of dpkg --get-selections "*"

change /etc/apt/preferences

New /etc/apt/sources.list:
------------------
deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free

deb ftp://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
------------------

aptitude -y -s -f --with-recommends dist-upgrade
shows how much free space you need

aptitude upgrade
does a minimal upgrade without removing the packages

NB shorewall needs some edits:
/etc/shorewall/zones now looks something like this
net     ipv4
loc     ipv4
fw      firewall

(nb also look at /etc/shorewall/interfaces)

aptitude install initrd-tools

aptitude install udev

aptitude install discover

make sure lvm2 is installed, as lvm 1 is incompatible, as are snapshot volumes, so they need to be removed from /etc/fstab and can safely be destroyed.

Also make sure dmsetup is installed.

If the machine exports NFS volumes, make sure the portmapper is listening to all ports (/etc/default/portmap)

Make sure the packages which were changed are running under the new configuration

Upgrade the Kernel:

apt-cache search linux-image-2.6- | grep -v transition

aptitude install linux-image-2.6-686

/etc/lilo.conf initrd configuration. use mkinitrd to create it if it isn't there allready. Check the existence of the files!
-----------------
image=/vmlinuz
        label=Linux
        read-only
        initrd=/initrd.img
#       restricted
#       alias=1

image=/vmlinuz.old
        label=LinuxOLD
        read-only
        optional
#       restricted
#       alias=2
-------------------

rerun lilo after editing lilo.conf

check mountpoints and exports - make sure nothing is accessing them before the next step, so make sure any servers using those mountpoints have unmounted them cleanly!

reboot

pray a bit

login

backup the mysql databases

aptitude dist-upgrade (nb make sure of free diskspace!)

NB if you get shit during the upgrade process from sed, delete the file ik keeps talking about, don't bother about trying to fix the dependancies, then go back to the dist-upgrade.

to get the package signature checking mechanism:

apt-get install debian-keyring

apt-key add /usr/share/keyrings/debian-role-keys.gpg

aptitude update

in /etc/default/snmpd
change 
SNMPDOPTS='-Lsd -Lf /dev/null -u snmp -I -smux -p /var/run/snmpd.pid'
to allow access from all hosts

/etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess there's some broadcast option set which I'm not sure yet if it's important.

make sure that in /etc/kernel-img.conf
do_bootloader = Yes
exists

check the raid arrays
mdadm --detail /dev/md0
(http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-mdadm/mdadm/trunk/debian/README.upgrading-2.5.3?op=file)