Enabling Debian 6.0 LTS Security Support

This announcement is for Debian 6.0 (AKA Squeeze / TurnKey 12) users who have not yet upgraded to Debian 7.0 (AKA Wheezy / TurnKey 13):

~# cat /etc/issue.net
Debian GNU/Linux 6.0

Support for security updates to Debian 6.0 officially ended on Saturday May 31 2014.

As you may have heard, for the first time Debian is experimenting with a five year Long Term Support (LTS) program that will extend support until Feb 2016:

https://www.debian.org/security/2014/dsa-2938

Good news for procrastinators. The catch is that if you're still using Debian 6.0 you have to manually enable your system to receive LTS updates.

If you don't do that then the next time there is a remotely exploitable security vulnerability your system could get compromised.

For example, the previous version of TurnKey (TurnKey 12.X ) based on Debian 6.0 no longer receives automatic security updates. Those of you that still have systems running Debian 6.0 have three options:

1. Manually enable LTS updates on your Debian 6.0 system:

   ~# apt-get install debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring
   ~# cat>>/etc/apt/sources.list.d/security.sources.list<<'EOF'
   deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ squeeze-lts main contrib non-free
   deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian/ squeeze-lts main contrib non-free
   EOF
   
   ~# apt-get update
   ~# apt-get upgrade
   

   Check which packages on your system are not supported:

   ~# apt-get install debian-security-support
   ~# check-support-status
   

2. Use TurnKey's backup and migration system (TKLBAM) to migrate your data and configurations from a TurnKey 12 based system to an equivalent TurnKey 13 based system, which is based on Debian 7.0.

   The advantages:

   • If anything breaks you don't have to fix it in place and you still have the original system up and running. Less pressure.

   • Forces you to test your backups.

   TKLBAM is built into all TurnKey systems. If you're using plain old Debian you can install TKLBAM with this one liner:

   wget -O - -q https://raw.github.com/turnkeylinux/tklbam/master/contrib/ez-apt-install.sh \
   | PACKAGE=tklbam /bin/bash
   

3. Upgrade Debian 6.0 in place to Debian 7.0:

   https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUpgrade

   You can upgrade TurnKey 12 based systems to Debian 7.0 the same way you would upgrade any other Debian system. Remember that under the hood TurnKey is just a preconfigured, customized version of Debian with a few extra packages (e.g., like TKLBAM).