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I know the best solution would be to upgrade the server after Debian wheezy has reached End Of LIfe in May 2018, but is there a way to continue running an old wheezy instance and get some minimal updates still?

Maybe some external apt-sources, that still are getting maintained somewhere?

GAD3R
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rubo77
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    https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Extended, https://raphaelhertzog.com/2018/02/20/time-to-join-extended-long-term-support-for-debian-7-wheezy/? – muru Dec 17 '18 at 03:21

2 Answers2

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As indicated by muru, there is a way to get updated packages for Debian 7, through Freexian’s Extended LTS. See also Raphaël Hertzog’s blog post introducing it.

This is a continuation of the Debian 7 LTS, which stopped in May 2018. In the extended LTS, a subset of Debian 7 packages continue to receive support, on amd64 and possibly i386. The subset is determined by the sponsors of the project; to be an extended LTS sponsor, you also have to be a regular LTS sponsor. It is however possible to hitch a ride and use the extended LTS without sponsoring it, the instructions and repository are freely available:

wget https://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts/pool/main/f/freexian-archive-keyring/freexian-archive-keyring_2018.05.29_all.deb && sudo dpkg -i freexian-archive-keyring_2018.05.29_all.deb
echo deb http://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts wheezy-lts main contrib non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extended-lts.list
echo deb http://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts wheezy-lts-kernel main | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extended-lts.list

Remember to upgrade the kernel too, and set up a local package mirror.

Without becoming a sponsor, this can only be a band-aid and the resulting feeling of security will be misleading. For example, Ghostscript was dropped at the start of September...

(Freexian handles sponsorship and payments. The package maintenance is carried out by Debian developers whose time is paid for by the Extended LTS project.)

Stephen Kitt
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    you also have to add the archived wheezy sources deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free to your sources.list and create a file in ´/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/no-validity-check´ with the content ´Acquire::Check-Valid-Until "0";´ (see https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/2544/how-to-work-around-release-file-expired-problem-on-a-local-mirror) – rubo77 Oct 23 '19 at 18:08
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Officially, it looks like you have to update your official sources to archive based on this linked closed-github issues thread and this official debian note (security link).

The Freexian project mentioned in this answer (by Stephen Kitt) looks like a good option but mentions it will not be supporting a lot that is in debian and it will continue to drop select packages.

Phume
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