Anyone install 8.1 on Debian Stable?

Anyone installed 8.1 on Stable? Did you build from source or use a
backport?

I've got a managed dedicated server at Dreamhost and trying to decide
if building from source or using a backport is a better approach.

I've had problems in the past with using backports on other servers
(problems showed up when later upgrading the server). And I'm a bit
concerned about a package conflicting with Dreamhost's management
setup. (I had 7.4 installed and after some maintenance and a
reboot the package was uninstalled.) And IIRC, the backports tend to
bring in a number of dependency packages.

If I build from source I need to update /etc/ld.so.conf to point to
/usr/local (for linking with the driver) and install my own init.d
scripts -- both of which I worry about in the managed environment.
Plus, the socket, logs, pid are all not in the standard debian
locations.

So, anyone that has been through this have any advice? There isn't
an init.d script in the distribution, right?

--
Bill Moseley
moseley(at)hank(dot)org