My apologies. With regard to Puppy Linux, ‘I’m an old foggy’. Although I’ve explored VoidPup and developed some techniques to use it in a manner ‘I like’; and have recently spent some time using VanillaDpup as a test-bed in exploring different methods of running Wine, I tend to forget about some of the potential they offer not found in other Puppys.
But before continuing to discuss that, I think it important that you know about an ‘Update’ mechanism built into Fossapup64 which hasn’t been mentioned; and which –as far as I’m concerned-- is either equivalent to ‘the newfangled stuff’, or at least adequate.
If you open Menu>Setup>quickpet fossa, you can run ‘Fossapup update’ which is maintained by 666philb, Fossapup64’s creator. Running it will install about 40 updates consisting primarily of security patches published by Ubuntu Fossa Focal, and ‘bug fixes’ for problems brought to 666philb’s attention by actual Fossapup64 users. You can view the list by Clicking quickpet’s Help>Installed bugfixes. Note that most became available when Ubuntu was, itself, perfecting Fossa Focal and Fossapup was first deployed to Puppy fans. By now, Ubuntu Fossa and Fossapup have had two years of user testing. It should be expected that additional ‘bugfixes’ would be rare; as is the case with Bionicpup64 (also by 666philb and having its own Quickpet) which has been available for 3 ½ years.
per peebee, creator of VoidPup, “See: /root/Startup/00_start_vpup
Looks like your installs want to update icu and that has been blocked by the above holds.....
You could try removing the holds (e.g xbps-pkgdb -m unhold icu ) but do this in a safe test environment in case of "consequences" https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 018#p66018.
So, my guess is that peebee has builtin some configurations which prevent a 'full upgrade'. And for good reason:
Although not writing about Voidpup, spiritwild posted: "“Just a fair warning......If you are not familiar with apt, you can fall down a rabbit hole of "wtf just happened. I'm using devuan puppy with synaptic and if you update certain files, as with any linux flavor, you will brick the whole system.” https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 205#p58205*
I recall posts to the same effect regarding Slackos, puppys binary compatible with Slackware, which, IIRC, via Puppy Package Manager, could install all the updates published by Slackware.
VanillaDPup, on the other hand, per dimkr it's creator:
"Vanilla Dpup 9.2.x is built by an automated pipeline that produces weekly builds (9.2.0, 9.2.1, ...) with the latest security and stability updates from Debian and the latest 5.10.x kernel, using a stable woof-CE tree with cherry-picked fixes from the latest woof-CE.” https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 045#p59045.
Technically, those aren't 'upgrades' they are 'updates' providing security and bug-fix patches. With all due respect to dimkr --whose expertise with Linux far exceeds any I could dream of obtaining-- those updates depend on his 'cherry-picking' from among the various improvements several Puppy devs have worked on; and an automated process --i.e. selected by a computer program without Human intervention-- to draw in those improvements the Devs at debian have produced.
"Computers, and the programs which run under them, are idiots operating at the speed of light". To Quote/Paraphrase, I think, Matthew Broderick's character at the end of a movie named 'War Games', "The only way to win is to not play the game."
To upgrade a debian system --from say 9.2.12 to 9.3 or 10.0 -whatever debian names its next iteration-- will require under debian a process something like that spelled out here, https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-upgrad ... debian-11/. In my previous post I spelled out the process of replacing one Puppy with a newer one: a procedure which --if you never write data files to your SaveFile/Folder-- never jeopardizes that data, takes less than 5 minutes and insures that you will at all times have an operating system you can boot into.
As far as I know, glibc libraries --or their equivalents-- remain foundations in Void, VoidPup, debian and VanillaDpup, and an operating system, itself, including those, can only employ one set of glibc libraries. Until an operating system's glibc libraries can no longer insure its security or provide the structure for required applications, there is no compelling reason to Upgrade that system. And when there is, upgrade means replacement.
Please forgive me if I have not been properly impressed by the glamour of the Emperor's new clothes.
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* Edit: peebee offers 'safe to use' updates to VoidPup via delta files. IRCC, some other Puppys can also be safely updated using delta files made available by their respective creators.