Change debian to LMDE

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hongchengni

Change debian to LMDE

Post by hongchengni »

I'm eagerly waiting for LMDE3, and now since new machines arrived, I cannot wait any longer.

So I wonder, may I install debian stretch first, and when LMDE3 arrives, I simply add the additional mint repositories?

Would this break anything? Thanks!
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freewilly

Re: Change debian to LMDE

Post by freewilly »

I was hoping the same thing.

After installing Stretch on a laptop with Cinnamon, I appreciate the work the Mint team puts into Mint and LMDE. The process of getting stuff to work like wireless and VPN is more work than on mint and making Cinnamon in mint a seamless experience, everything just works and Cinnamon just looks and acts better on Mint and LMDE2.
kevinthefixer
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Re: Change debian to LMDE

Post by kevinthefixer »

In order to do that safely, I think I'd use a separate partition for /home and leave an extra partiton for installing the LMDE3 system later. Then when the time comes you can install LMDE3 on the extra partition and simply point the installer to the same /home partition. That should at least prevent the magic smoke from getting out of your hardware, and you'd end up with a dual-boot system.
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axisofevil
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Re: Change debian to LMDE

Post by axisofevil »

Don't forget about all those hundreds of hidden files in /home which contain your preferences.
The list of files produced by Debian will not be the same as LMDE.

Be careful that UID's & GID's match between the two distro's or you will have access problems... etc
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sdibaja
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Re: Change debian to LMDE

Post by sdibaja »

I agree with the above. I have tried that in many ways, I made huge mess, several times.
There are a few things that are rather easy to borrow from Mint, Mintstick is one.

@hongchengni I suggest you just go ahead and install Debian Stretch alongside what you have now.
I recommend using one of the Live Non-Free images here:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... -firmware/
use the desktop of choice. Some are very lean, some are rather fat. Personal choice.
It may not be for you, but at least you will know. It is more work, and there is a learning curve.
Peter
Mate desktop https://wiki.debian.org/MATE
Debian GNU/Linux operating system: https://www.debian.org/download
kevinthefixer
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Re: Change debian to LMDE

Post by kevinthefixer »

There is always a "learning curve". It's a bit steeper with straight Debian as opposed to Mint or LMDE. Steeper yet if you mix the two. I still think all the fuss over having the latest versions is just that, fuss. I love Stretch on my nu2u laptop, but LMDE2 is going to stay firmly planted on my workhorse desktop for some years yet, because it does the job. Quite well and with a minimum of touble and "fuss". When LMDE3 launches I'll looik at it, but I lean toward lean DEs rather than Cinnamon. Will XFCE be an option? But I see no hurry, and IMHO rushing a job this size would be a recipe for disaster. Apparently the LMDE team agree.
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Arch_Enemy
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Re: Change debian to LMDE

Post by Arch_Enemy »

sdibaja wrote: Thu Mar 29, 2018 4:38 pm I agree with the above. I have tried that in many ways, I made huge mess, several times.
There are a few things that are rather easy to borrow from Mint, Mintstick is one.

@hongchengni I suggest you just go ahead and install Debian Stretch alongside what you have now.
I recommend using one of the Live Non-Free images here:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... -firmware/
use the desktop of choice. Some are very lean, some are rather fat. Personal choice.
It may not be for you, but at least you will know. It is more work, and there is a learning curve.

See my signature. After my second "WHOOPS" with Arch I split the disk and put /home in it's own partition.
It CAN cause issues, like the few I had when I came to Mint from Arch, but just going through the config files and locating the offending ones is not that tough. And it would probably work much easier going from Debian to Mint since they are much closer to each other.

BTW, almost all the issues I had were with the configuration of my desktop. Everything else worked fine. I'm still on that same installation.
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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sdibaja
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Re: Change debian to LMDE

Post by sdibaja »

to each their own. find what you like and use it.
Peter
Mate desktop https://wiki.debian.org/MATE
Debian GNU/Linux operating system: https://www.debian.org/download
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