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Upgrade Debian release

··608 words·3 mins·
Debian Linux
Table of Contents

Prerequisites #

  1. Superuser Privileges: You must perform the upgrade with superuser privileges. Log in as root or a user with sudo privileges.
  2. Data Backup: Back up your data before starting the upgrade. If you’re using a virtual machine, consider taking a complete system snapshot.

Upgrade 11 to 12 #

Update All Currently Installed Packages #

Ensure your Debian 11 system is fully updated before the upgrade. Use the following APT commands and then reboot the system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt --purge autoremove
sudo reboot

Check for Installed Non-Debian Packages #

Inspect your system for non-Debian packages, as they might cause complications during the upgrade. You might need to uninstall non-critical software installed from external repositories.

sudo apt list '?narrow(?installed, ?not(?origin(Debian)))'

Update Software Sources Files #

Reconfigure your APT sources to point to the Debian 12 repositories. Backup current sources first, then update them to target ‘Bookworm’.

mkdir ~/apt
cp /etc/apt/sources.list ~/apt
cp -r /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ ~/apt
sudo sed -i 's/bullseye/bookworm/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i 's/bullseye/bookworm/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

non-free-firmware #

For Debian 12 onwards, all the packaged non-free firmware binaries that Debian can distribute have been moved to a new component in the Debian archive, called non-free-firmware.

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main  non-free-firmware

Upgrade to Debian 12 “Bookworm” from Debian 11 “Bullseye” #

Proceed with the full system upgrade using the apt full-upgrade command. Keep an eye on the screen for notifications and prompts during the process, and reboot the system once completed.

sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo reboot

Cleaning up Obsolete Packages #

After upgrading, remove obsolete packages from your Debian 12 system using the following command.

sudo apt --purge autoremove

Upgrade 10 to 11 #

Update Current Packages #

  1. Check for Held Back Packages: Run sudo apt-mark showhold to check for any packages that are held back, as they can cause issues during the upgrade. Unhold them if necessary.
  2. Update Installed Packages: Refresh your package index and upgrade all installed packages using the following commands:
    sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
  3. Perform a Full Upgrade: Use sudo apt full-upgrade to update your packages to the latest versions. This command may also remove unnecessary packages.
  4. Clean Up: After the full upgrade, remove any automatically installed dependencies that are no longer needed with sudo apt autoremove.

Modify APT’s Source-List Files #

  1. Reconfigure APT Sources: Open /etc/apt/sources.list and replace each occurrence of buster with bullseye. If you have other source files under /etc/apt/sources.list.d, update those as well.
  2. Using sed Command: Alternatively, execute the following sed commands to update your sources list:
    sudo sed -i 's/buster/bullseye/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i 's/buster/bullseye/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list
sudo sed -i 's#/debian-security bullseye/updates# bullseye-security#g' /etc/apt/sources.list

    deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security/updates main
  3. Set Terminal Output to English: This helps to avoid language-specific issues during the upgrade. Use export LC_ALL=C to set the language to English.
  4. Update Packages Index Again: Run sudo apt update to refresh the package index with the new sources.

Perform the System Upgrade #

  1. Upgrade Installed Packages: Begin the system upgrade with sudo apt upgrade. This step upgrades packages without requiring additional packages to be installed or removed.
  2. Full System Upgrade: Execute sudo apt full-upgrade to perform a complete system upgrade. This command resolves dependency changes and upgrades packages that were not updated in the previous step.
  3. Clean Up and Reboot: After completing the full upgrade, clean up unnecessary packages again with sudo apt autoremove. Then, reboot your machine to activate the new kernel using sudo systemctl reboot.

Confirm the Upgrade #

After rebooting, confirm that your system has been successfully upgraded to Debian 11 (Bullseye) by running lsb_release -a. The output should indicate Debian GNU/Linux 11 (Bullseye) as the distribution.