How to prepare for keeping LMDE2 after EOL?

[BrunoMiranda]

Hi guys!

I still want to keep LMDE2 after it's official EOL, at least until I have LDME3 configured to the point I find it suitable for production. Or keep LMDE2 if I can't get my old look&feel on LMDE3 /EndOfRantAboutNewGUIdesignTrends

So for what I've seen around and willing to compile it all here under this thread for clearness and easiness of access, all we need to do is make sure we have the Debian repos activated, uninstall Firefox and manually install Firefox-ESR, and we're good to go until June 2020. Right? Or do you have anything else to add?

So,

- Make sure we have the Debian repos activated:

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deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports main

has to be on your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jessie-backports.list


- Manually install Firefox-ESR and a language pack if needed (in my case, Portuguese):

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sudo apt update
sudo apt install firefox-ESR firefox-ESR-l10n-pt-pt

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sudo apt purge firefox

I'm using Sync and in my case FF-ESR got all the settings immediately from the old version and assumed it as the current device. Needed do nothing. Neat!


And then I assume you're good to go until June 2020.

Am I right or missing something? Let me know if there's anything to add here. Thanks!

[kukamuumuka]

+1
Installing Firefox ESR to LMDE 2 -> viewtopic.php?f=241&p=1553160#p1552806

[Turin_27]

Thanks!

I've tried LMDE3 and it really is still a beta, it's not polished enough. It has many bugs (various programs that take a long time to close... Firefox doesn't integrate dictionaries, and there's no way to disable spell checking), it's slow to run and slow to startup. Oh, and Timeshift integrated so thoroughly I find it atrocious; that software is terribly invasive to me (eat too much space, hang up the system, if you don't configure it make default backups too often).

I had already decided to stay a while longer at LMDE2, even if that meant running out of updates for a few months.

Please don't forget to mention your experiences doing this, I'll be commenting as well.

Edit: Oh, something important. The only compelling reason that I see to jump to LMDE3 is the kernel update (to 4.9), because we're really very behind in LMDE2 (at or near to 3.16). Is there any way that conserving LMDE2 we can jump to 4+? I suspect that I asking something stupid, excuse my ignorance, I have very little experience with kernels.

[BrunoMiranda]

I've tried LMDE3 and it really is still a beta, it's not polished enough.

Thanks for letting me know At the moment, I'm keeping myself in LMDE2. My system is so heavily modified (and I didn't write down all the changes I've made) that it cannot upgrade, it brakes. Besides this, just now I've been able to change the horrific MacOS-like windows' contour and buttons style, with almost no contrast between the active window and the other ones. If I wanted a MacOS style, I'd get one! /end rant about the current GUI design trends
It'll take me a long time to get LMDE3 up to my comfort, so meanwhile I'll keep on driving on LMDE2.

Is there any way that conserving LMDE2 we can jump (kernel) to 4+?

If you go to Synaptic (the packet manager) you'll find linux-image-4.9.0-8-amd64 there. Make sure to install the same version of the linux-headers, specially if you'll need to compile anything or run Virtualbox.
At the moment I am running 4.19.0-12.2-liquorix-amd64 of the Liquorix Kernel (it's not on the repos by default).
If you install any new kernel, it will automatically update grub so you can choose which version to boot (it will default to the newest).

To know which kernel you've booted into, run from a terminal:

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uname -r

After you make sure the new kernel boots and works, including drivers, suspension and hibernation, you can go to Synaptic again and uninstall (purge) the old kernel.

Always make sure you have at least one kernel that boots or you won't be able to boot your OS.
If you screw up (and sometimes it happens, I'm doing it all the time!) you can boot from a USB boot ISO, chroot (entering as root) into your OS and fix the Grub boot loader. That's already some advanced stuff but not impossible at all and it's a good exercise for you to learn how to get back on your feet and learn more about how your OS works. If you have backups and your data is on another partition, you can treat your OS like chewing gum.

Let me know if you need some help.

[Turin_27]

Well, since no such advanced version of the kernel appeared in the update manager, I assumed it wasn't available. I said I was asking something stupid hahaha

I'll find a way to do this that you told me about the kernel. And also about upgrading the system via Debian. I'll be commenting ; )

Btw, sorry for my english xD

[Fred Barclay]

Well, since no such advanced version of the kernel appeared in the update manager, I assumed it wasn't available. I said I was asking something stupid hahaha

I'll find a way to do this that you told me about the kernel. And also about upgrading the system via Debian. I'll be commenting ; )

Only kernel 3.16 is available in the primary repositories for Debian Jessie. You can add the "backports" repositories and then install kernel 4.9 from them (I used to do this when I used LMDE 2).
Instructions for adding backports are here. Make sure you install the linux kernel meta-package instead of specifying the exact package so that you'll continue to get updates. This should wo

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sudo su
echo "deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jessie-backports.list
exit
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -t jessie-backports linux-image-amd46 linux-headers-amd64

Cheers!
Fred

[KBD47]

Your plan sounds right. Many people go through all the trouble of upgrading just to upgrade without any real need to do so. Having said that, LMDE3 is pretty sweet. Using it right now.

[Turin_27]

I have a few questions about kernels and headers, but I will ask them in another post, so as not to distort the one here.

For my part, I already created the file "jessie-backports.list", in the "/etc/apt/sources.list.d" location, with the content "deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports main".

In "/etc/apt/sources.list.d" I can see another files, one of them called "official-package-repositories.list", which inside have this text:

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

My question is, ¿what is the difference between the "http://http.debian.net/debian", content in "jessie-backports.list", and the "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian", content in "official-package-repositories.list"?

[Fred Barclay]

My question is, ¿what is the difference between the "http://http.debian.net/debian", content in "jessie-backports.list", and the "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian", content in "official-package-repositories.list"?

There's not much practical difference between the two. One uses http, and the other uses ftp. Other than that (and the fact that the two servers are probably in different locations), they should be identical.

This might be interesting if you want to learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_website

Cheers!
Fred

[Turin_27]

My question is, ¿what is the difference between the "http://http.debian.net/debian", content in "jessie-backports.list", and the http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian, content in "official-package-repositories.list"?

There's not much practical difference between the two. One uses http, and the other uses ftp.

Thanks Fred!

So, since the difference is only about the internet protocols, if in the new file, the "jessie-backports.list", I put the "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian" link, instead of the "http://http.debian.net/debian" link, is actually the same, right?

[Fred Barclay]

As long as "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian" actually provides jessie-backports, you should be good to go.

[Turin_27]

Well, I got updates today, so it looks like the job went well ; )