Debian Upgrade Marathon: 3.1 Sarge
Apr. 25, 2025 [technology]
Had my priorities been better aligned, I would have first begun building Linux skills sometime during the Bush (W) administration. It has left me feeling as though I should make up for that lost time. So I’ve decided to reclaim that lost experience of installing and using Debian from around the early-mid 2000s. From there, the plan is to upgrade the installation through each stable release up to present day Debian Stable. And hopefully pick up a few tricks along the way. Or at least earn my rite of passage as a bonafide Debian historian.
It is most appropriate that I begin with Debian 3.1 Sarge. Not only because that was the active release around the time I first tried tinkering (and failing) with Linux install media. It is also an appropriate launch point simply because I am no longer in possession of any motherboards predating 2004. And, no, doing this kind of exercise within virtual machines just isn’t the same.
This marathon will be taking reprieves at each release for excursions along the way. Not least of which to test out file compatibility, media playback, web browsing and just absorbing the overall vibes.
Start
The starting machine needed to match as closely as possible the first PC I ever had. I have a suitable socket 478 board, with only about a 1GB of SDRAM installed. We’re going to try to use the glorious Intel integrated “eXtreme” graphics.
It was badly in need of a thorough cleaning and the power supply tested bad. I may have bent a few pins on the Pentium 4 but it was worth setting it up nice and happy with a new heatsink fan. This board is old enough that it cannot use USB flash storage as a boot device, necessitating the use optical discs!