How to Upgrade Debian 10 to 11 using Command Line
How to Upgrade Debian 10 to 11 using Command Line. In this post, we will explain about Debian 11, its new features then show you how to upgrade from Debian 10 to 11.
What is Debian 11?
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Debian 11 is the upcoming major release of the Debian operating system. It’s not a new version but rather an update to Debian 9 (Jessie) and Debian 10 (Buster). Hence, Debian 11 (codenamed “Buster”) will be the first Debian release ever to be supported by the Debian Security Lab, and it is expected to ship with new software packages and updated hardware drivers.
Among other things, Debian has been noted for its long support cycles, meaning that once a new version is released, there are no major updates to worry about for at least five years.
There are many reasons why one may choose to use Debian 11: stability and reliability, security features, variety of packages, etc.
Debian 11 comes with ARM EABI (armel), 64-bit little endian PowerPC, 64-bit little endian MIPS, IBM System z (s390x), and several other desktop environments. There are also several mobile phone distributions based on Debian 11, such as Debian Moblin (based on Debian Gnome), Debian Sailfish OS (based on Debian Xorg), and others.
New Features in Debian 11
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Check out the list of new features found in the major release of the Debian 11 operating system.
Enhanced Printer and Scanner Features
A new ipp usb package are available in Debian 11. Also, the new release is designed using vendor neutral IPP over USB protocol that supports the latest printers. As a result, Debian will now support a wide variety of modern printers without any driver. Also, SANE’s autonomous backend makes it simple to use scanners.
Updated Packages
The new version contains 11,294 new packages out of 59,551. To be exact, it contains 5,434 packages after removing the obsolete (9,519) and updated (42,821) ones.
The Debian bullseye also contains various ready to use software applications and package updates, such as Linux kernel 5.10 series, Apache 2.4.48, PostgreSQL 13, Calligra 3.2, LibreOffice 7.0, Inkscape 1.0.2, Emacs 27.1, Vim 8.2, Perl 5.32, PHP 7.4, etc. Over 30,000 source packages were used to create all of these finished software packages.
Debian has consistently remained steadfast in its pursuit of being The Universal Operating System, thanks to this enormous collection of packages and broad architecture compatibility.
Offers Newer Desktop Environment Versions
Moreover, Debian 11 provides a new version of the desktop environment that offers stability, clarity, and different flavours. KDE Plasma 5.20, GNOME 3.38, LXDE 11, LXQt 0.16, Xfce 4.16, and MATE 1.24 are among the desktop flavors available. You may not get the most recent cutting edge distributions, such as Fedora or Arch/Manjaro.
Inspiring Theme and Wallpaper
All in all, Debian 11 also comes with a new theme inspired by the Bauhaus movement. You can find the new cool theme throughout Debian 11, including the installer, login window, and Grub menu.
Bauhaus is a German art and design movement from the twentieth century that means “building house.” The Bauhaus movement was centered on an abstract, geometric style with little emotion or sentiment. Its modern aesthetic continues to have a huge influence on designers, architects, and artists.
exFAT Support
An extensible File Allocation Table (exFAT) is a filesystem used basically for flash memory devices. SD cards and USB flash drives are an example of flash memory devices.
The new version of Debian now supports the exFAT file system. The filesystem in serspace implementation provided by the exfat fuse package is no longer required for mounting the exFAT filesystem. ExFAT comes in handy, thanks to kernel 5.10. The exfatprogs package also includes tools for checking and creating an exFAT.
Linux Kernel Information
Debian 11 is compatible with the Linux Kernel 5.10 LTS. The previous version (Debian 10 Buster) was released with Linux Kernel 4.19. But, Debian 11 comes with a newer kernel. The latest Linux Kernel Information includes fixing new bugs, new hardware support, and better performance. Given the Debian lifecycle, this is the ideal kernel for the Debian bullseye.
Now it is the main part of this article How to Upgrade Debian 10 to 11 using Command Line.
How to Upgrade Debian 10 to 11 using Command Line
In this section, we will show you how to upgrade Debian 10 to Debian 11 via command line.
Step 1 - Perform System Update
Before upgrade to Debian 10, it is recommended to backup all your data to external drive or take a snapshot of your existing operating system.
Next, update all your packages to the latest version using the following command:
apt update -y
apt upgrade -y
Once all the packages are updated, remove any unwanted package and package cache using the following command:
apt clean
apt autoremove
Next, restart your system to apply the changes.
reboot
Step 2 - Change Debian Default Source
Next, you will need to edit the Debian 10 default source file /etc/apt/sources.list and replace all Debian 10 codenames with Debian 11 codenames.
First, verify codenames of your existing operating system using the following command:
lsb_release -a
You should see the following output:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Release: 10
Codename: buster
Next, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file using the following command:
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Find and replace the codename buster with bullseye as shown below:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main
Save and close the file when you are done.
Step 3 - Upgrade Debian 10 to Debian 11
At this point, your system is ready for update to Debian 11.
First, update all system package cache with the following command:
apt update -y
Once all system package cache is updated, run the following command to upgrade all installed packages:
apt upgrade -y
You will be asked whether you want the services to be automatically restarted during the upgrade.
Further, you will also need to answer several other questions, like whether you want to keep an existing configuration file or to install the package maintainer’s version. The upgrade process will take some time depending on your internet speed.
Once all the packages are upgraded successfully, you will need to run the following command to perform a full system upgrade:
apt full-upgrade -y
This command will install some additional packages and remove obsolete packages. Once the upgrade process is complete, remove the unnecessary packages with the following command:
apt autoremove -y
Finally, restart your system to apply the changes.
reboot
Step 4 - Verify the Upgrade
After restarting the system, log into your system again and run the following command to verify the new Debian version using the following command:
lsb_release -a
You should see the Debian 11 version in the following output:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Release: 11
Codename: bullseye
Things to Do After Upgrading to Debian 11
After upgrading to Debian 11, you will need to make your server secure before using it in the production environment. In this section, we will show you some tips and tricks to secure your server.
Setup System Hostname
To identify your server from the pool of servers, it is a good practice to change your server hostname to meaningful name. For example, if you are using your server for hosting a website then it should be webserver.
Run the following command to change your system hostname to webserver:
hostnamectl set-hostname webserver
After changing the system hostname, you can verify the new hostname with the following command:
hostname
Create a Sudo User
For security reasons, you should not use the root user account for your server management. You should create a new user and grant sudo privileges to perform the administrative tasks.
First, create a new user called adminuser with the following command:
adduser adminuser
After creating a new user, provide sudo privileges to new user with the following command:
usermod -aG sudo adminuser
Secure OpenSSH Server
SSH is a secure shell protocol used by system administrator to manage and control system over the internet. By default, the SSH server listens on port. For security reasons, it is a good idea to change the SSH default port 22 to some other port like 9091.
You can change it by editing the SSH configuration file:
nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Find the following line:
#Port 22
And, replaced it with the following line:
Port 9091
You should also set PermitRootLogin to no to disable the root SSH login:
PermitRootLogin no
Save and close the file then restart the SSH service to apply the changes:
systemctl restart ssh
Thank you for reading How to Upgrade Debian 10 to 11 using Command Line. We will conclude.
How to Upgrade Debian 10 to 11 using Command Line Conclusion
In this post, we explained how to upgrade Debian 10 to 11 using command line. You can now enjoy the latest features that is provided by the latest Debian 11 version.
Debian is a Linux distribution that is known for its stability and wide range of packages. It has a strong focus on being free, which includes freedom from proprietary software, as well as freedom to use the operating system for any purpose.
