For a few years now, I’ve been running Debian GNU/Linux on my Linksys NSLU2 (commonly known as a ‘slug’). I use it to run various services on my home network, but primarily it’s used as an FTP interface to my ‘Toppy’, otherwise known as a Topfield TF5800 Freeview/DVB-T Hard Disk Recorder (PVR), and to populate its MyStuff EPG TAP with daily TV listings from the Radio Times.

The NSLU2 is a great little device. Its small (really small), low power, silent, relatively inexpensive and just works. Ive modified it to run at 266MHz, from the stock 133MHz. Note: This isnt overclocking it. The ARM CPU in use is designed to run at 266MHz, but its limited in the NSLU2 to run at 133MHz. A simple modification allows it to run at its full speed.

When I heard that lenny had been released, I thought I’d go ahead and update my slug, as I like to stay current. The great thing about Debian, is that it’s so easy to maintain. I logged in, and did the usual ‘apt-get update‘ followed by an ‘apt-get dist-upgrade‘, expecting a huge amount of updates to appear. What I actually saw was only a handful of packages offering themselves for the taking, and there was no sight of a full distribution upgrade.

I took a quick look at my /etc/apt/sources.list file, and the problem was apparent:

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ etch main
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ etch main

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

deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free

My sources were set specifically to ‘etch’. So I proceeded to edit /etc/apt/sources.list and replace all instances of ‘etch’ with ‘lenny’.

Another ‘apt-get update‘, followed by an ‘apt-get install apt dpkg‘ to upgrade apt and dpkg, and I was ready for lenny.

One note though: After running the ‘apt-get update‘ above, I got the following message:

Reading package lists... Done
 W: There are no public key available for the following key IDs:
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

Well, I just ran ‘apt-get update‘, so that wasnt going to help! What I actually needed to do was the following:

gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

apt-key add /root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg

apt-get update

Replacing the XXX’s with the key ID from the previous message.

Finally, I was ready for the upgrade:

apt-get dist-upgrade

A loooong while later, and my slug was nicely up to date. I would also note that you’ll need a large amount of free disk space before you start this. I needed over 200MB, which is hard to find when my entire disk (including swap) is only 1GB!

Now that the slug is done, I think I’ll have a go at installing lenny on my HP Thin Client that I recently bought off eBay.