This article is a short overview of how to use apt-pinning on Debian and Debian-based distributions (like Ubuntu). Apt-Pinning allows you to use multiple releases (e.g. stable, testing, and unstable) on your system and to specify when to install a package from which release. That way you can run a system based mostly on the stable release, but also install some newer packages from testing or unstable (or third-party repositories).

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to install Xen on an already working Debian Etch system. You can find all the software used here in the Etch repository, so no external files or compilation are needed.

This short article describes how you can search for missing packages with apt-file on Debian and Ubuntu systems. apt-file allows you to search for a file name, and it gives back the name(s) of the package(s) containing that file so that you can install the appropriate package.

This tutorial shows how to create a Debian/Ubuntu mirror for your local network with the tool apt-mirror. Having a local Debian/Ubuntu mirror is good if you have to install multiple systems in your local network because then all needed packages can be downloaded over the fast LAN connection, thus saving your internet bandwidth.