Debian Linux Versions
From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support
Each major version of Debian GNU/Linux also has a code name as well as a version number. The code name is often used instead of the version number.
The Debian system version or release is separate from the Linux kernel version, though a Debian release includes within it a set of specific kernel versions. (Check Linux kernel release version using the uname -r command.) A release of Debian incorporates packages providing all of the software on the system, including a default kernel for a computer architecture (e.g. 32-bit PC ["i386"] or 64-bit PC ["amd64" for most CPUs]) plus perhaps some specialized alternative kernels. Debian packages are versioned, and updates are provided to fix important problems or add neccesary new features. (Eventually these updates are collected and a new revision of the major Debian release is defined.) In any individual installation of Debian, only a subset of many available packages from the release are installed.
Note what version your system is using by referring to the information displayed at the login display on the console, or by looking at the contents of the /etc/debian_version file:
cat /etc/debian_version
The versions are:
- Debian 3.x
- Codename "sarge"
- Last revision 3.1r8 April 12, 2008
- Installer CD image available at http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/3.1_r8/
- Packages are available at http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/
- Debian 4.x
- Codename "etch"
- Last revision 4.0r8 April 9, 2009
- Packages are available at http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/
- Debian 5.x
- Codename "lenny"
- Last revision 5.0.8
- Installer CD image available at http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/5.0.8/ (use i386 for 32bit PCs)
MobileRobots currently (as of August 2011) uses a standard Debian 5.0 ("lenny") OS with some minor configuration changes on new Versalogic EBX-37 Mamba and Corvalent 965ATX computers. Previously a custom OS based on Debian 3.1 (sarge) was used on the older Versalogic EBX-12 Cobra and Corvalent Phoenix computers.
We provide most of our software as Debian packages for Debian 3.x 32-bit, Debian 5.0 32-bit, or Debian 5.0 64-bit, or as generic compressed tar archive (.tgz) built with a specific GCC compiler (see GCC Compiler Versions), as well as installers for Windows.
Search keywords: debian version versions versian versians linux unstable stable testing sarge etch lenny 3.1 3.0 4.0 5.0
