Iceweasel now Firefox in Debian Jessie Backports

If you have the release version of Iceweasel installed from Debian Backports, you will notice an error message when updating:

Failed to fetch http://mozilla.debian.net/dists/jessie-backports/Release Unable to find expected entry 'iceweasel-release...

This is because Iceweasel is no more and Firefox has taken its place, as I described in my previous post.

Changing the sources.list file to the entry given by the Debian Mozilla team now installs Firefox, as the above screenshot shows.

Now I just have to try to uninstall Iceweasel without uninstalling the whole of Gnome...

Update: "Debian stable will receive Firefox ESR after Iceweasel/Firefox ESR38 is end-of-lifed, in about 3 months." Glandium.

Backports integrated in the main archive

From Debian News:

The Debian project is pleased to announce that the backports service for the next stable release Debian 7 (codename "Wheezy") will be part of the main archive. Backports are packages mostly from the testing distribution (and in few cases from unstable too, e.g. security updates) recompiled in a stable environment so that they will run without new libraries (whenever it is possible) on the Debian stable distribution. While as for now this service was provided on a separated archive, starting with wheezy-backports the packages will be accessible from the regular pool. The users of "Wheezy" will have to add to their sources.list file this entry:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main

Spell check in Libre Office

This may just be a Debian Squeeze backports thing, but the spell checker in Libre Office doesn't work out of the box, even thought the spell checker dialogue appears and says it's checked the spelling.
The answer is to install the appropriate dictionary extension and restart. (Solution found on the Debian Forum.)

Update: This advice still applies in Debian Wheezy: I used it just now. The link is actually to the Open Office extension site, but the download is recognised by Libre Office as a Libre Office extension.

Update: see this more recent post for a better solution.

Libreoffice arrives in Squeeze backports

I'm using an old Lenny machine at the moment and not my usually Squeeze laptop, but this is something I'm going to try as soon as I get back to it.

Details on the Debian forum.

Update: Official announcement and installation instructions on debian.org.

Linux kernel wonder patch hits Debian Squeeze

Linux kernel 2.6.38 has arrived in Debian backports. I installed it using the guide at backports.debian.org. Linux kernel 2.6.38 contains a much-hyped wonder patch.
I rebooted and observed... no noticeable difference in performance. But then I wasn't running a HD movie, compiling a complex program and running a 3D game stress test- if you do, you might.
The patch is also reported to improve web page load times with a busy CPU, by non other than... Linus Torvalds.
Now if only I weren't such a slacker my CPU might be busy enough to test this, but no.... CPU usage at about 5%.

Upgrade kernel from backports in Debian Stable

Debian Stable (currently Lenny) is, as the version name implies, stable. If there are any annoying bugs, I haven't come across any, and I haven't experienced any crashes or lock-ups in the OS itself. Some of the packages in Stable are, however, rather long in the tooth- they haven't been updated for a couple of years or more.
Recently I've been using Debian backports to update versions of some applications- Pidgin, Transmission, Open Office. I'd come across a few recommendations to upgrade the kernel, but had trouble finding a simple guide to doing so. There are hundreds of kernel entries in the list of software packages in Debian Lenny: which one to choose? The best guide I found was this one.

For an example one package I recommend updating on a desktop system is the Linux kernel. Debian ships Linux kernels that are geared towards server use by default. This is fine if you are running Debian on a server, and if you are, I strongly suggest you stick with the default kernel. However, there are other kernels available that are optimised for desktop use...

The guide goes on to recommend a couple of kernel packages that are not in the current list of packages- so I guess they've been updated. I went ahead and installed linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.5-686, Linux 2.6.32 for modern PCs.
This seems to be the kernel for duel-core processors. There are many different kernels for different computer architectures. I'm guessing "bpo.5" stands for backport (something) 5- but if any reader knows better, or of a guide to choosing the best kernel for a particular computer, please leave a comment.
UPDATE: A comment informs "bpo.5" stands for backport.org.