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Debian Wheezy is now in RC: it’s time to safe upgrade Debian Squeeze to Wheezy on your Acme System Aria G25 SoM board! In the official Acme Systems website you can see a detailed instruction to migrate Debian 6.0 Squeeze to Debian 7.0 for a FOX board, but in Aria I’ve some problem to complete the upgrade due the python error. To avoid any issue I’ve followed this steps:

1. Enable swap

Connect to your Aria board console using a SSH connection and open the file /etc/fstab and remove the # char from this line:

#/dev/mmcblk0p4 none swap sw 0 0

Save and reboot the FOX by typing:

debarm:~# reboot

2. Set new repositories

Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list and replace all the words squeeze in wheezy.

This is the old contents of /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian squeeze main                                
deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian squeeze main                            
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main                            
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main

This is the new content:

deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian wheezy main                                
deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian wheezy main                            
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main                            
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main

Note that the .it. in the urls within the /etc/apt/sources.list file stand for Italy so it might change to your own country’s two letter abbreviation.

3. Launch the upgrading

In your console type:

debarm:~# apt-get update

and update python to new 2.7 version that is the default python interpreter in Wheezy:

debarm:~# apt-get install python

Now you can upgrade your distribution:

debarm:~# apt-get dist-upgrade --force-yes

Accept all the default option.
When finished (be patient!) remove the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and reboot the board:

debarm:~# rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
debarm:~# reboot

Connect again to your Aria console using SSH and type:

debarm:~# lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 (wheezy)
Release:    7.0
Codename:   wheezy

Your brand new Debian Wheezy is ready on your Aria G25 board!

NOTE If you can’t have the lab_release command you can use:

debarm:~# cat /etc/debian_version

If you want to have a ready to use rootfs archive, you can download the archive below and use it as the substitute of the rootfs archive indicated in the official instruction to make bootable your microSD card with Debian Wheeze.

Remember to check MD5:

debarm:~# openssl md5 rootfs.tar.bz2

Now follow the official instructions to create your bootable microSD.

NOTE This archive is made using the official Acme System rootfs archive with Debian 6.0 Squeeze updated to Debian 7.0 Wheeze using the previous steps. Note also that the default language is set to en_US.

UPDATE If you want make your own Debian Wheezy rootfs please follow this tutorial

About Marcello Gesmundo

I'm the founder of Yoovant company. I'm an engineer and an artist: what could be better than combine the technologies with the arts?