LMDE based on Wheezy. Is it possible?

[Kimaster]

Hi! I would like to know if is possible to have a Linux Mint Debian Edition based on the recent Debian release I'm talking about Wheezy.
I was thinking of downloading the regular LMDE and pointing the sources to Debian Stable rather than Testing. But as I'm new in this I guess is not THAT easy and some other work must be done. Maybe way too much work...
I'll be using Xfce as my DE so if Wheezy is packed with 4.8 that will be the version I installed.
I just want a rock solid system with the usability of Linux MInt.

[wayne128]

Hi! I would like to know if is possible to have a Linux Mint Debian Edition based on the recent Debian release I'm talking about Wheezy.

I was thinking of downloading the regular LMDE and pointing the sources to Debian Stable rather than Testing

If you are asking whether it is possible to convert LMDE-xfce to tracking Debian Wheezy repos, then the answer is YES.

However, you need to realise these
1. the latest LMDE-xfce iso was release in 201109, some 1.5 year ago.
Too many things have been upgraded since then in Debian Wheezy.

2. LMDE-xfce has quite some gnome apps installed.

So when you convert the released repos to Debian Wheezy, you are going to face a fair amount of issues such as some gnome stuff added, even gnome-shell is most likely going to be added and changing some configuration to xfce.
Also do not be surprise if the 'upgrade' had 800M-1G size and can take extremely long time to do especially over slow internet connection.

In other words, expect 'a lots of work' plus many hours on download, upgrade, re-download, etc

I'll be using Xfce as my DE so if Wheezy is packed with 4.8 that will be the version I installed.
I just want a rock solid system with the usability of Linux MInt.

I think it is much easier to start from Debian Wheezy, then mintify those 'missing things' you want to add.

[Kimaster]

Hi wayne, thanks for the reply. I like your advice.
Can you specify on "mintify"? Which would be the packages I have to download, for example, mintMenu, etc.? Are these packages available in debian wheezy repositories?

[rop75]

Yoyu can have a LMDE based on Debian Wheezy until the next UP is released. Actually, LMDE is currently based on Debian Wheezy. If what you want is to get the (security) updates that the Debian Wheezy users get everytime they upgrade their system, the only thing you have to do is editting your sources.list:

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import backport romeo
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy contrib non-free main
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates contrib non-free main
deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org/ wheezy main non-free
# deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main contrib non-free

Despite the fact that the backports repo is empty at the moment the wheezy backports repo should always be commented. Just uncomment that repo if you are interested in download / update one package, download / update the package you're interested in, and once the package is installed /updated, comment that repo again

Please, be aware that when the next LMDE update package is released, LMDE will change, and will be based on Debian Jessie. When that happen you should delete the first line (deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import backport romeo), otherwise you will end up breaking your system

[wayne128]

Hi wayne, thanks for the reply. I like your advice.
Can you specify on "mintify"? Which would be the packages I have to download, for example, mintMenu, etc.? Are these packages available in debian wheezy repositories?

@Kimaster,

Check this thread.

HOWTO: Convert Debian Wheezy XFCE to LMDE XFCE

Postby maxibuntu » Sun May 06, 2012 7:01 pm

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 7&t=101438

[Reorx]

Excellent info - thank you gentlemen...

[tbplayer]

I think it is much easier to start from Debian Wheezy, then mintify those 'missing things' you want to add.

This is what I did recently, although I started with a base system of sid and then went Mint.