Info can also be used for upgrading (much) older releases
(notably older ones beyond both main and LTS support)
On Mon, Mar 31, 2025 at 12:51 AM <
[email protected]> wrote:
For comparison, some research and portability tests I'd like
to install old releases of Debian, i.e. versions 8, 9, 10.
Are there archives and old repositories to install from?
For older ISOs:
http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/
That will get you almost all the way fully back to 3.0_r0*
Note also that for many of those older ISOs, you'll need assemble via
Jigdo, e.g. jigdo-lite(1).
As for repositories (which will also be needed for much of the above, notably assembly via Jigdo), for packages no longer on the current repositories/mirrors,
there's:
https://snapshot.debian.org/
*as for getting all the way back to 3.0_r0
note also:
https://bugs.debian.org/933728
See its info, including work-arounds, to get you the rest of the way
fully back to 3.0_r0
(note that I also host:
https://old-debian.balug.org/
and some while ago also got the missing files onto archive.org,
however can't download them
as easily with, e.g. jigdo-lite(1) from archive.org, but the files are
also available there.)
Also, links from:
https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:cds_and_images_etc
might help you, indirectly, to find the relevant installation documentation. But note that due to link rot (some months to a year or so ago), many
of those links no longer work,
Debian rearranged a fair bit of their web content - now giving 404
where that wasn't the case before.
Note also that archive.org and/or some relevant searches or
appropriate remapping to the updated locations may work around that.
In any case, in general, the links for the first releases of the then
first stable release versions (rather than subsequent point releases)
may be relatively useful.
Note also with the relevant resources, one also then has the
information necessary to do proper stepwise upgrades from any >=3.0_r0
Debian to each subsequent stable release (though generally recommended
to first update to the last point release of the major version before
going to the next major version). Note also with some of Debian's
older stable releases, not all increased the number before the decimal
point, but some updated the number immediately following the first
decimal point - see also:
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases
references:
http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/ https://bugs.debian.org/933728
https://snapshot.debian.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigdo https://manpages.debian.org/stable/jigdo-file/jigdo-lite.1.en.html https://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases
https://wiki.debian.org/LTS
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