There are already a couple of guides online already about this, but none of them seemed complete or at least I had to do some extra digging to solve things perhaps unique to my setup.

Here is what I have done to update PHP5.2 to PHP5.3 using apt-get;

You will need to execute the following commands as root or sudo them.

  • Back everything up.
  • Make sure everything is backed up (seriously).
  • Add some lines to your sources list vi /etc/apt/sources.list
  # php5.3
  deb http://php53.dotdeb.org oldstable all
  deb-src http://php53.dotdeb.org oldstable all
  • Request some public keys
  gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 89DF5277
  gpg -a --export 89DF5277 | sudo apt-key add -
  • Update your system
  apt-get update
  apt-get dist-upgrade

  • (optional, I had to do this for my GD library) update php5-gd apt-get -f install php5-gd

  • Test your sites.
  • Take a new backup with your new setup.

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