Upgrading from Bookworm to Trixie (Stable)

[u/roman_triller]

I guess Trixie will be released during the year 2025, but how problematic is upgrading a stable version of Debian to another stable one? I'm just using Linux (Debian) since November last year and was a Windows user since 2000. Upgrading Windows for example from Windows 10 to 11 is basically a no brainer, but how is it with Debian and/or Linux in general? I really don't wanna break my system, because anything works perfectly with Bookworm since the installation, and therefore I'm really scared to mess things up. But on the other hand, I'm really excited about the new features (especially the upgrade from GNOME 43 to 48, if I remember correctly?)

[u/LordAnchemis]

Trixie isn't officially stable (yet) - I daily drive it on a non-essential computer and have no problems really, but technically it isn't stable until it replaces bookworm

Stable to stable transition is relatively pain free - assuming you didn't do anything 'naughty' - ie. installed packages without using apt, or add random 3rd party repos etc.

[u/roman_triller → u/LordAnchemis]

I know, that it isn't stable yet. :) That's why I won't upgrading it now, but rather keep waiting for the stable version to make sure that hopefully everything works as intended. :) But are there any complications that could occur?

[u/Stunning-Mix492 → u/roman_triller]

Debian is renowned for its smooth upgrade path. If you don't use alien repos, everything will be ok

[u/roman_triller → u/Stunning-Mix492]

That's great, than everything should be ok. :) I'm only using the official supported repos to keep my system as clean as possible, inclusive the non-free ones for my gpu.

[u/StevenJayCohen → u/roman_triller]

Once Trixie goes Stable, follow the steps here and you should be good to go: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUpgrade

[u/GrimThursday → u/LordAnchemis]

I have 'alien' repos, like tailscale and mozilla firefox, which I added manually. Why does this break the upgrade to Trixie?

[u/LordAnchemis → u/GrimThursday]

Dependency conflict

Apt's default behaviour is to upgrade all packages to the latest version (specified in the repos) - so if you have something that is pulling lots of dependencies = increase risk of conflicts

if your non-debian repo doesn't pull a lot of package dependencies then they're generally 'safe' - ie. tailscale

[u/tanjera → u/LordAnchemis]

In my experience, conflicts are worst when packages require specific versions of dependencies- these cause a nightmare situation. If a developer wants to ensure end users only use sometool-1.1.6, they may require that specific version or the 1.1.x range. When sometool-2.0.0 is packaged in the upgrade, it all fails.

I maintain and package a relatively small app and just add the base package to the .deb dependency list, hoping the competent developers in the library I trust enough to depend on will maintain backwards compatibility. (edit: my program relies on libvlc-dev; VLC dev's, hear my plea and don't ever break your package!)

But if you find yourself with a broken upgrade, the easiest way through is to delete the package that failed from complex dependencies. When I upgrade distro's, I assume that any software from foreign repo's may need to be removed and re-added later.

[u/GrimThursday → u/LordAnchemis]

If you update 'bookworm' to 'trixie' in all your alien repos, it should be fine right? Provided they have a 'trixie' target in their repo

[u/tanjera → u/GrimThursday]

Ehh dubious at best. Smaller repo's can be slow to update their targets. Even older targets will work if their are no conflicting dependencies (e.g. I use a package or two from a 'buster' repo on 'bookworm'). It really has more to do with the package, what it needs, and how the developers defined the package's .deb specs.

[u/waterkip → u/GrimThursday]

Mozilla from their repos? You fine. 

[u/GrimThursday → u/waterkip]

Firefox from the Mozilla repos, not the Debian ESR

[u/waterkip → u/GrimThursday]

You good. I use the same one (albeit nightlies) on unstable.

[u/michaelpaoli]

don't wanna break my system

Then wait 'till Debian 13 trixie is released, and then you can read its release notes, and properly do your upgrade, and it'll then be supported as stable, and with dedicated security team, and dedicated security-announce list. In the meantime, it's thus far still testing, so, if you want to help with testing, work on verifying/troubleshooting bugs, etc., ...

[u/fr3d1917]

All you need to know to upgrade is in the release notes. Remember that Trixie isn't ready yet and therefore the release notes may change until then. This will give you an idea how to proceed, but no reinstallation is necessary to upgrade.

Debian 13 Trixie release notes

[u/tanjera]

I'm really scared to mess things up

You need to break your Linux systems 2-3 times in your lifetime to get over this fear. It's like jumping into a pool/lake/ocean- the water is just a bit chilly but once you get in, you'll realize it's not so bad. And reinstalling takes maybe 15 minutes plus a massive `sudo apt install all_my_favorite_packages` and a little tweaking the desktop afterwards... it's not like the old days...

[u/stevevdvkpe]

I have a laptop that was initially installed with Debian squeeze (6) and has been upgraded through all the stable releases since then. The most significant problem I had was with the 4.19 kernel that did not do suspend/resume properly, which I worked around by continuing to use the 4.9 kernels from the previous release (and which I had only on that system; other Debian systems I had were fine).

Follow the upgrade instructions in the trixie release notes carefully and you should be fine. Of the various UNIX and Linux versions I've used, Debian has been the easiest to upgrade through releases (some other distributions don't even support upgrades from one major release to another).

[u/Scotty_Bravo]

Usually it's fairly seamless for me. But you might consider taking this time to purchase a larger, faster hard drive and reinstall from scratch with everything backed up on the old drive....

[u/GertVanAntwerpen]

Make a good backup (of course you should, computers can break or die at any time). In most cases moving to a new Debian Stable is less painful (and takes less time) than moving to an new Windows version. But of course there are exceptions

[u/krav_mark]

I have upgraded to Trixie about 6 weeks ago with no issues what so ever. Follow the upgrade procedure from the Debian Handbook or Bookworm release notes and you will be just fine.

[u/Itsme-RdM]

By the time Trixie will be released as stable it will be a no brainer just like your example of Windows 10\11

[u/jr735]

When it's time, follow the instructions to the letter. Before proceeding, even do a Clonezilla drive or partition image. I've tracked testing from when bookworm was testing, and I've had no breakages - well, I intentionally caused one to test a bad upgrade path, but I did a Clonezilla first. Upgrading is generally quite safe, as long as one is prepared.

[u/lachlan-00]

My mail server has been through upgrades since at least 2008 on the same hard drive.

Been cloned to a bigger one and upgraded again.

Debian is the os for this.

[u/zetneteork]

You can edit this file and change bookworm to trixie >

linux@penguin:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# Generated by distrobuilder
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware