Converting Jessie to Betsy

[dejvk]

Hey,

I was thinking about converting pure Jessie to Betsy and I was not able to find anyone else asking about this. So, it is possible to seamlessly upgrade pure debian to LMDE2 just by editing sources and few package installations?

The thing is, I would like to switch to LMDE on my work computer, but I cannot spend an hour by complete reinstallation of system, and also I would like to keep my home folder and software as is. For same reason I cannot experiment with it so I'm asking if anybody successfully converted.

My current sources are only standard jessie main contrib non-free and jessie-backports main contrib non-free.

Thank you!

[xenopeek]

I think it should be possible. Steps:
1. Add the Linux Mint repositories to your sources.
2. Adjust apt pin-priority configuration to make Linux Mint have higher priority than Debian.
3. Install Linux Mint and deb-multimedia keyring.
4. Install any Linux Mint packages you want (like mintinstall, mintupdate, mintsources).

(1) Here is the contents of file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
Add the repositories you are missing.

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deb http://packages.linuxmint.com betsy main upstream import

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org jessie/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org jessie main non-free

deb http://extra.linuxmint.com betsy main

(2) Here is the contents of the file /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-package-repositories.pref

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Package: *
Pin: release o=linuxmint
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: origin packages.linuxmint.com
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: 500

And /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-extra-repositories.pref

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Package: *
Pin: origin build.linuxmint.com
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-gwendal-lebihan-dev-cinnamon-nightly
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: origin download.virtualbox.org
Pin-Priority: 700

(3) Install the package linuxmint-keyring and bypass authentication (as you can't authenticate Linux Mint packages till you have installed the keyring). Do the same with the package deb-multimedia-keyring.

(4) There are a lot of packages installed from the Linux Mint repositories, but most are for either Cinnamon or MATE. Do you intend to use either of these? Then we could give you a list.

[dejvk]

Thanks for quick reply, I'll try it soon. I would like to use Cinnamon, I have it actually installed now from Debian's repo, do you think I should purge it first or it can be smoothly upgraded by adding LM repo?

[xenopeek]

do you think I should purge it first or it can be smoothly upgraded by adding LM repo?

Good question but I haven't tried this so don't know. It will likely work either way but both might have some bumps in the road to get there.

Here is the list of packages installed from the Linux Mint repositories on LMDE 2 Cinnamon by default. So you will likely want to install all of these are upgrading your repositories. That should force installing the Linux Mint version of packages also available in the Debian repositories.

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apturl                          - install packages using the apt protocol - 
apturl-common                   - install packages using the apt protocol - 
blueberry                       - A configuration tool for Bluetooth        
cinnamon                        - Cinnamon desktop                          
cinnamon-common                 - Cinnamon desktop (Common data files)      
cinnamon-control-center         - utilities to configure the Cinnamon deskto
cinnamon-control-center-data    - configuration applets for Cinnamon - data 
cinnamon-desktop-data           - Common files for Cinnamon desktop apps    
cinnamon-screensaver            - Cinnamon screen saver and locker          
cinnamon-session                - Cinnamon Session Manager - Minimal runtime
cinnamon-session-common         - Cinnamon Session Manager - common files   
cinnamon-settings-daemon        - daemon handling the Cinnamon session setti
cinnamon-themes                 - Cinnamon themes                           
cinnamon-translations           - Translation files for the Cinnamon desktop
cjs                             - Mozilla-based javascript bindings for the 
debian-system-adjustments       - Debian adjustments specific to Linux Mint.
dmz-cursor-theme                - Style neutral, scalable cursor theme      
firefox                         - The Firefox web browser                   
folder-color-switcher           - Change a folder color                     
fortunes-husse                  - Fortunes containing quotes from Husse.    
gedit                           - official text editor of the GNOME desktop 
gedit-common                    - official text editor of the GNOME desktop 
gir1.2-cinnamondesktop-3.0      - Introspection data for CinnamonDesktop    
gir1.2-cmenu-3.0                - GObject introspection data for the Cinnamo
gir1.2-gtk-3.0                  - GTK+ graphical user interface library -- g
gir1.2-gudev-1.0                - libgudev-1.0 introspection data           
gir1.2-muffin-3.0               - GObject introspection data for Muffin     
gir1.2-nemo-3.0                 - libraries for nemo components - gir bindin
gir1.2-totem-1.0                - GObject introspection data for Totem media
gnome-keyring                   - GNOME keyring services (daemon and tools) 
gnome-terminal                  - GNOME terminal emulator application       
gnome-terminal-data             - Data files for the GNOME terminal emulator
grub2-theme-mint                - Grub2 theme for Linux Mint                
hunspell-en-us                  - English_american dictionary for hunspell  
iputils-arping                  - Tool to send ICMP echo requests to an ARP 
iputils-ping                    - Tools to test the reachability of network 
iputils-tracepath               - Tools to trace the network path to a remot
libcinnamon-control-center1     - utilities to configure the Cinnamon deskto
libcinnamon-desktop0            - Utility library for loading .desktop files
libcinnamon-menu-3-0            - Cinnamon implementation of the freedesktop
libcjs0e                        - Mozilla-based javascript bindings for the 
libgail-3-0                     - GNOME Accessibility Implementation Library
libgtk-3-0                      - GTK+ graphical user interface library     
libgtk-3-bin                    - programs for the GTK+ graphical user inter
libgtk-3-common                 - common files for the GTK+ graphical user i
libgudev-1.0-0                  - GObject-based wrapper library for libudev 
libmuffin0                      - window and compositing manager (shared lib
libnemo-extension1              - libraries for nemo components - runtime ve
libpam-gnome-keyring            - PAM module to unlock the GNOME keyring upo
libpam-systemd                  - system and service manager - PAM module   
libsystemd0                     - systemd utility library                   
libtotem0                       - Main library for the Totem media player   
libudev1                        - libudev shared library                    
libyelp0                        - Library for the GNOME help browser        
linuxmint-keyring               - GnuPG key of the Linux Mint repository    
mdm                             - MDM Display Manager                       
mint-artwork-cinnamon           - Default artwork for the Cinnamon edition o
mint-artwork-debian             - Default artwork for Linux Mint            
mint-backgrounds-debian         - The desktop backgrounds made for Linux Min
mint-backgrounds-maya           - The desktop backgrounds for Linux Mint 13 
mint-backgrounds-nadia          - The desktop backgrounds for Linux Mint 14 
mint-backgrounds-olivia         - The desktop backgrounds for Linux Mint 15 
mint-backgrounds-petra          - The desktop backgrounds for Linux Mint 16 
mint-backgrounds-qiana          - The desktop backgrounds for Linux Mint 17 
mint-backgrounds-rebecca        - The desktop backgrounds for Linux Mint 17.
mint-backgrounds-retro          - Backgrounds from early versions of Linux M
mint-common                     - Common scripts and resources for Linux Min
mint-flashplugin                - Metapackage for Adobe Flash plugin        
mint-flashplugin-11             - Adobe Flash plugin 11                     
mint-flashplugin-steam          - Flash plugin for Steam                    
mint-info-debian-cinnamon       - Necessary information about the Linux Mint
mint-mdm-themes                 - Linux Mint MDM Themes                     
mint-mdm-themes-gdm             - Linux Mint MDM Themes                     
mint-mdm-themes-html            - Linux Mint MDM Themes                     
mint-meta-debian-cinnamon       - Set of packages installed by default in th
mint-meta-debian-codecs         - All the packages required for multimedia s
mint-meta-debian-core           - Core Linux Mint packages                  
mint-mirrors                    - Linux Mint Repository mirrors             
mint-search-addon               - Enhances the results given by Google      
mint-themes                     - Mint themes                               
mint-themes-gtk3                - Mint themes for GTK3                      
mint-translations               - Translation files for Linux Mint          
mint-user-guide-cinnamon        - The Linux Mint User Guide - Cinnamon Editi
mint-x-icons                    - Mint-X Icon themes                        
mintbackup                      - Home Directory Backup Tool                
mintinstall                     - Software Manager                          
mintinstall-icons               - Icons for the Software Manager            
mintlocale                      - Language selection tool                   
mintnanny                       - Domain blocker for Linux Mint             
mintsources                     - Software Sources configuration tool       
mintstick                       - write .img and .iso files to USB sticks   
mintsystem                      - Linux Mint System Base Package            
mintupdate                      - Update Manager                            
mintupload                      - Uploads files on the Internet             
mintwelcome                     - Welcome screen for Linux Mint             
mintwifi                        - Collection of drivers for you to configure
muffin-common                   - window and compositing manager (data files
nemo                            - file manager and graphical shell for Cinna
nemo-data                       - data files for nemo                       
nemo-emblems                    - Change a folder or file emblem            
nemo-fileroller                 - File Roller integration for Nemo          
nemo-folder-color-switcher      - Change a folder color                     
nemo-share                      - Nemo extension to share folder using Samba
plymouth-themes-mint            - Linux Mint Plymouth theme                 
python-central                  - register and build utility for Python pack
python-nemo                     - Python binding for Nemo components        
python-sexy                     - python language bindings for libsexy      
synaptic                        - Graphical package manager                 
systemd                         - system and service manager                
thunderbird                     - The Thunderbird email client              
totem                           - Simple media player for the GNOME desktop 
totem-common                    - Data files for the Totem media player     
totem-mozilla                   - Totem Mozilla plugin                      
totem-plugins                   - Plugins for the Totem media player        
ttf-ubuntu-font-family          - Ubuntu Font Family, sans-serif typeface hi
udev                            - /dev/ and hotplug management daemon       
yelp                            - Help browser for GNOME  

Here is the list of packages as something you can cut & paste as argument to "sudo apt-get install" command to install them in one go.

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apturl apturl-common blueberry cinnamon cinnamon-common cinnamon-control-center cinnamon-control-center-data cinnamon-desktop-data cinnamon-screensaver cinnamon-session cinnamon-session-common cinnamon-settings-daemon cinnamon-themes cinnamon-translations cjs debian-system-adjustments dmz-cursor-theme firefox folder-color-switcher fortunes-husse gedit gedit-common gir1.2-cinnamondesktop-3.0 gir1.2-cmenu-3.0 gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-gudev-1.0 gir1.2-muffin-3.0 gir1.2-nemo-3.0 gir1.2-totem-1.0 gnome-keyring gnome-terminal gnome-terminal-data grub2-theme-mint hunspell-en-us iputils-arping iputils-ping iputils-tracepath libcinnamon-control-center1 libcinnamon-desktop0 libcinnamon-menu-3-0 libcjs0e libgail-3-0 libgtk-3-0 libgtk-3-bin libgtk-3-common libgudev-1.0-0 libmuffin0 libnemo-extension1 libpam-gnome-keyring libpam-systemd libsystemd0 libtotem0 libudev1 libyelp0 linuxmint-keyring mdm mint-artwork-cinnamon mint-artwork-debian mint-backgrounds-debian mint-backgrounds-maya mint-backgrounds-nadia mint-backgrounds-olivia mint-backgrounds-petra mint-backgrounds-qiana mint-backgrounds-rebecca mint-backgrounds-retro mint-common mint-flashplugin mint-flashplugin-11 mint-flashplugin-steam mint-info-debian-cinnamon mint-mdm-themes mint-mdm-themes-gdm mint-mdm-themes-html mint-meta-debian-cinnamon mint-meta-debian-codecs mint-meta-debian-core mint-mirrors mint-search-addon mint-themes mint-themes-gtk3 mint-translations mint-user-guide-cinnamon mint-x-icons mintbackup mintinstall mintinstall-icons mintlocale mintnanny mintsources mintstick mintsystem mintupdate mintupload mintwelcome mintwifi muffin-common nemo nemo-data nemo-emblems nemo-fileroller nemo-folder-color-switcher nemo-share plymouth-themes-mint python-central python-nemo python-sexy synaptic systemd thunderbird totem totem-common totem-mozilla totem-plugins ttf-ubuntu-font-family udev yelp

You can check the list of packages installed from the Linux Mint repositories with this command:

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aptitude search "?narrow(?installed,?archive(betsy))"

[MALsPa]

The thing is, I would like to switch to LMDE on my work computer, but I cannot spend an hour by complete reinstallation of system, and also I would like to keep my home folder and software as is. For same reason I cannot experiment with it so I'm asking if anybody successfully converted.

I'll be surprised if converting saves you any time in comparison to a fresh LMDE installation, all things considered. If you try it, do let us know!

[dejvk]

xenopeek: Thanks again, your response is very helpful.

MALsPa: The main difference is that upgrading can run on background (with restart maybe), but reinstallation forces me to sit there and watch it unable to do my work.

[MALsPa]

Oh. Yeah, hadn't thought of it that way.

[dejvk]

So, upgrade worked like a charm! It took about 30 minutes to complete.

Few comments: I also had to install deb-multimedia-keyring package as deb-multimedia is not present in original debian sources. Some collisions appeared during installation, probably because I already had installed both Cinnamon and XFCE from Debian repos, but aptitude seemed to handle them correctly. Then I simply dist-upgraded rest of packages and restarted system. I didn't encounter any other problem.

So thank you again!