I am running a VM with (supposedly) Debian/Stable but it actually seems
to be stuck back at old-stable. The VM is my Samba Domain Controller.
# apt update
Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security stable-security InRelease Hit:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable-updates InRelease
Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib Sources [52.3 kB]
Get:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib amd64 Packages [53.8 kB] Get:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib Translation-en [49.6 kB] Fetched 156 kB in 0s (451 kB/s)
All packages are up to date.
# apt-mark showhold
# uname -a
Linux <server name> 6.1.0-21-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian
6.1.90-1 (2024-05-03) x86_64 GNU/Linux
apt update claims to be getting the packages from stable and apt-mark
shows there is nothing on hold but the Kernel is not the same as the
Kernels on my other Debian/Stable machines. Stable is currently at
6.12.63 on the host server. The VM has been restarted several times over
the last 6 months (every time the host server shuts down - like today
when an extended power outage shut down everything).
Does anyone have any idea on what's causing this?
Thanks.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.8
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:03:38 -0500
Gary Dale <gary@extremeground.com> wrote:

Does anyone have any idea on what's causing this?

What local proxies are you using? And is the VM set up to use the
correct one? If you use auto-apt-proxy, what does it return? (If not,
consider it.)

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.8
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:03:38 -0500
Gary Dale <gary@extremeground.com> wrote:

Does anyone have any idea on what's causing this?

Would you please give us the results of

grep -v '^#' /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*


Judging by the output from your update, I suspect that you have stable
as the version, rather than trixie. You might replace stable with
trixie, but if so be prepared to do an upgrade, sometimes a lengthy
process. That's rather drastic, so wait to see if anyone has better
ideas.

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/release-notes/upgrading.en.html

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.8
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 at 16:40, Gary Dale <gary@extremeground.com> wrote:

I am running a VM with (supposedly) Debian/Stable but it actually seems t

o be stuck back at old-stable. The VM is my Samba Domain Controller.

# apt update
Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security stable-security InReleas

e

Hit:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable-updates InRelease
Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib Sources [52.3 kB]
Get:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib amd64 Packages [53.8 kB

]

Get:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib Translation-en [49.6 kB

]

Fetched 156 kB in 0s (451 kB/s)
All packages are up to date.
# apt-mark showhold
# uname -a
Linux <server name> 6.1.0-21-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.90-1

(2024-05-03) x86_64 GNU/Linux

apt update claims to be getting the packages from stable and apt-mark sho

ws there is nothing on hold but the Kernel is not the same as the Kernels o
n my other Debian/Stable machines. Stable is currently at 6.12.63 on the ho
st server. The VM has been restarted several times over the last 6 months ( every time the host server shuts down - like today when an extended power o utage shut down everything).

Does anyone have any idea on what's causing this?

Hi, what does this say:
apt list --installed linux-image-amd64

because you need the linux-image-amd64 package
installed if you want automatic updates.

If that's not the answer, then look at
apt list --installed '*linux-image*'

and
apt list --installed '*grub*'

and
apt-mark showhold '*linux-image*'

And check your /boot/grub/grub.cfg
to see which kernel it specifies to use when booting

And maybe run 'update-grub' or whatever automatically
updates grub.cfg these days, I'm not sure.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.8
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-01-31 12:26, David wrote:

On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 at 16:40, Gary Dale <gary@extremeground.com> wrote:

I am running a VM with (supposedly) Debian/Stable but it actually seems to be stuck back at old-stable. The VM is my Samba Domain Controller.

# apt update
Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security stable-security InRelease >> Hit:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable-updates InRelease
Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib Sources [52.3 kB]
Get:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib amd64 Packages [53.8 kB] >> Get:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/contrib Translation-en [49.6 kB] >> Fetched 156 kB in 0s (451 kB/s)
All packages are up to date.
# apt-mark showhold
# uname -a
Linux <server name> 6.1.0-21-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.90-1 (2024-05-03) x86_64 GNU/Linux

apt update claims to be getting the packages from stable and apt-mark shows there is nothing on hold but the Kernel is not the same as the Kernels on my other Debian/Stable machines. Stable is currently at 6.12.63 on the host server. The VM has been restarted several times over the last 6 months (every time the host server shuts down - like today when an extended power outage shut down everything).

Does anyone have any idea on what's causing this?

Hi, what does this say:
apt list --installed linux-image-amd64

because you need the linux-image-amd64 package
installed if you want automatic updates.

If that's not the answer, then look at
apt list --installed '*linux-image*'

and
apt list --installed '*grub*'

and
apt-mark showhold '*linux-image*'

And check your /boot/grub/grub.cfg
to see which kernel it specifies to use when booting

And maybe run 'update-grub' or whatever automatically
updates grub.cfg these days, I'm not sure.

Thanks David. That first one was the problem - no linux-image-amd64.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-01-31 12:02, Charles Curley wrote:

On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:03:38 -0500
Gary Dale <gary@extremeground.com> wrote:

Does anyone have any idea on what's causing this?

What local proxies are you using? And is the VM set up to use the
correct one? If you use auto-apt-proxy, what does it return? (If not, consider it.)

I'm using the main debian repositories. Installing and running
auto-apt-proxy returned nothing.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-01-31 11:59, Charles Curley wrote:

On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:03:38 -0500
Gary Dale <gary@extremeground.com> wrote:

Does anyone have any idea on what's causing this?

Would you please give us the results of

grep -v '^#' /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

Judging by the output from your update, I suspect that you have stable
as the version, rather than trixie. You might replace stable with
trixie, but if so be prepared to do an upgrade, sometimes a lengthy
process. That's rather drastic, so wait to see if anyone has better
ideas.

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/release-notes/upgrading.en.html

I did have stable as the version, but changing it to trixie didn't fix
the problem.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)