If you would like to be notified of available updates the day they become available, open the Software & Updates application and set the following options:
Are you unable to get a list of updates?
You may run into the following error message when checking for updates for the first time:
Unable to get list of updates:
Failed to update metadata for lvfs: checksum failure: failed to verify data, expected yJcztsgVmmvtkn9na5YyQVdyqFNIXlzYUgrACKX
Run the following command to fix the issue:
$ fwupdmgr --force refresh
Enable unattended upgrades
If you would like to enable the automatic and unattended downloading and installation of security upgrades, run the follwoing command:
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades
Configuring unattended-upgrades
Automatically download and install stable updates? Yes
Network manager detects and configures network interfaces to automatically connect your system to available networks. By default, however, it will only recongnise network interfaces not declared in /etc/network/interfaces.
Use the following command to open /etc/network/interfaces:
$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
Delete or comment out any configuration details for the primary network interface.
Use the following command to open /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf:
If you would like neofetch to display every time you open a new terminal, open .bashrc with the following command:
$ nano ~/.bashrc
Add the following text at the end of the file:
# use Neofetch to display information about the system
if [ -f /usr/bin/neofetch ]; then
clear && neofetch;
fi
Apply the changes with the following command:
$ source ~/.bashrc
Hide the snap directory
The snap directory in your home folder is not supposed to be accessed manually. Use the following command to hide it from view:
$ echo snap >> ~/.hidden
Hide the Desktop directory
The Desktop feature was disabled in GNOME 3.28. While this decision was not universally popular, developers pointed to the fact that, as an unmaintained feature, it stood the way of other improvements. Use the following command to hide the associated Desktop folder from view:
Debian GNU/Linux was first released way back in 1993 and has been under active developement ever since. Today, the Debian Project unites thousands of contributors from across the globe with the aim of producing “an operating system distribution that is composed entirely of free software”. www.debian.org
These instructions offer a straightforward path to a GNOME 3.38 desktop running on amd64 hardware. You need a reasonably fast connection to the Internet, an Ethernet connection to your router and a Debian CD image, written to a bootable USB stick. Consider using the unofficial firmware-11.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso, which “includes non-free firmware for extra support for some awkward hardware”.
Debian GNU/Linux will be the only operating system installed on your computer. Ensure that all of your data is safely backed up elsewhere because formatting your storage device will lead to the loss of all data. Before you begin, decide on an encryption passphrase to encrypt your storage device and a user password to secure your user account. In addition to Debian packages, Flatpaks and Snaps will be enabled as well.
Installing the base system
Step 1
After booting the system from the USB stick that you have prepared, continue by selecting the text based installer.
Step 2
Keep English as the language for the installation.
[!!] Select a language
Language: English
Step 3
Select United States as the location for your system. This will also set United States as the default locale for the system environment. You will have an opportunity to set additional locales and adjust time zones at a later point during the installation.
[!!] Select your location
Country, territory or area: United States
Step 4
Use the keymap that is the correct one for your particular keyboard.
[!!] Configure the keyboard
Keymap to use: your keyboard
Step 5
If your system has multiple network interfaces, set your Ethernet interface as the primary interface to use during the installation.
[!!] Configure the network
Primary network interface: choose your Ethernet interface for installation
Set the hostname for your system. In this example, we use debian as the hostname.
[!] Configure the network
Hostname: debian
Continue
[!!] Partition disks
Partitioning method: Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM
Be careful to select the correct target device for your system.
[!!] Partition disks
Select disk to partition: your target disk for installation
Choose to keep all files in one partition.
[!!] Partition disks
Partitioning scheme: All files in one partition (recommended for new users)
Now write the changes to disk.
[!!] Partition disks
Write the changes to disk and configure LVM?
Yes
You may skip the overwriting of the disk with random data by selecting Cancel. Please be aware, however, that skipping this step will cause a reduction to the quality of the encryption.
Step 8
Enter your encryption passphrase.
[!!] Partition disks
Encryption passphrase: your encryption passphrase
Continue
Confirm your encryption passphrase.
[!!] Partition disks
Re-enter passphrase to verify: your encryption passphrase
Continue
You probably want to use the maximum available space for partitioning the disk.
[!!] Partition disks
Amount of volume group to use for guided partitioning: max
Continue
Step 9
Write the changes to disk.
[!!] Partition disks
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
Confirm writing the chages to disk.
[!!] Partition disks
Write the changes to disks?
Yes
Step 10
Do not scan additional installation media.
[!] Configure the package manager
Scan extra installation media?
No
Select your archive mirror country from the list.
[!] Configure the package manager
Debian archive mirror country: your country
Select the archive mirror from the list. For the fastest downloads, use the site that is closest to you.
[!] Configure the package manager
Debian archive mirror: mirror closest to you
You probably won’t need to configure an HTTP proxy:
[!] Configure the package manager
HTTP proxy information (blank for none): leave empty
Continue
Step 11
The Debian Popularity Contest attempts to map the overall usage of Debian packages with information from installed systems, such as yours.
[!] Configuring popularity-contest
Participate in the package usage survey?
Yes
Step 12
Choose standard system utilities from the list of predefined software collections and deselect all other entries.
[!] Software selection
Choose software to install:
[ ] Debian desktop environment
[ ] GNOME
[*] standard system utilities
Continue
Step 13
Remove the installation media before booting into your new system.
[!!] Finish the installation
Installation complete
Continue
Installing the GNOME desktop
You have now successfully installed Debian GNU/Linux on your computer. As yet, there is no graphical user interface.
Step 14
Enter your encryption passphrase to boot into the system for the first time. In this example, the encrypted disk is labelled sda3_crypt.
Please unlock disk sda3_crypt: your encryption passphrase
Log into the system with your username and user password.
Debian 11 GNU/Linux 11 debian tty1
debian login: bullseye
Password: your user password
Step 15
Install a minimal GNOME desktop by entering the following command. You will be asked for your user password to gain sudo privileges:
$ sudo apt-get install --assume-yes gnome-core
If you are installing into a virtual machine, use the following command to enable copy and paste between host and the guest:
$ sudo apt-get install --assume-yes spice-vdagent
Step 16
Restart your system.
$ sudo reboot
Step 17
Enter your encryption passphrase to boot into the system.
Please unlock disk vda3_crypt: your encryption passphrase
From within the GNOME desktop, open Firefox ESR from the Activities menu and re-open these instructions at edafe.org/debian-howto.
Step 19
GNOME power options by default are unfavourable. Open the Settings application from Show Applications under the Activities menu and adjust the power options.
Power Saving
Settings > Power > Power Saving > Automatic Suspend
Suspend & Power Button
Settings > Power > Power Button Behaviour: Power Off
Step 20
Continue by setting the following keyboard shortcuts:
File manager
Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Home folder
Shortcut: [Super + f]
Web browser
Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Launch web browser
Open a terminal with [Super + t] and, where applicable, use copy and paste to enter the commands set out on this page. Be careful not to miss any punctuation.
Set the time zone for your area.
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Configuring tzdata
Geographic area: your area
Ok
Configure locales for all the languages that your system is going to be used with. Use UTF-8 locales wherever possible.
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
In this example, German and Japanese locales are generated in addition to the default locale for the system environment.
Configuring locales
Locales to be generated:
[*] de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
[*] en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
[*] ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8
OK
Keep en_US.UTF-8 as the default locale for the system environment.
Configuring locales
Default locale for the system environment:
en_US.UTF-8
OK
Step 22
Add the non-free and contrib repositories to enable the selection of packages that do not meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines or otherwise depend on such packages for their operation.
By default, Debian installs the Extended Support Release (ESR) version of Firefox. The Extended Support Release is updated with major security or stability fixes. The Snap package, on the other hand, installs the Rapid Release version of Firefox. In contrast to the ESR, the Rapid Release receives major updates at least every four weeks. Both versions can be used concurrently and are availble on your desktop as Firefox ESR and Firefox Web Browser, respectively.
Step 26
Enable the installation of applications from Flathub with the following command:
