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Successful migration to Debian

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jmgibson1981
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Successful migration to Debian

#1 Post by jmgibson1981 »

This morning I finished my migration from Ubuntu to Debian. The only Ubuntu left in my home is a single lxc container for my mythtv backend (I don't compile unless absolutely required).

I have found yesterday afternoon / this morning that the only problems I've had are simply my own lack of knowledge. I never realized how much Ubuntu did for me. So many little things. I've solved each issue I've had save one, and that one is mostly irrelevant.

Everything is up and running and smooth as silk.

I am running my main server / htpc in the living room direct boot to kodi. LTSP provides pxe boot images for kodi in the bedrooms. All media is shared via mariadb on the host. Have got a fully functional pxe install server running as well. Apt-cacher-ng, transmission, minecraft servers in ramdisks, print server, dhcp / dns all on host. Storage managed by mergerfs / snapraid. And a mythtv backend in an lxc container.

Loving it. So many little issues I could never solve on Ubuntu don't even seem to exist on a pure Debian build.

Wheelerof4te
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#2 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Welcome to Stability :)

Debian is not that much harder than Ubuntu, it is a myth. Once you add contrib and non-free repos (if you need to, that is), it becomes as usable as any version of Ubuntu.
Not to mention you get timely and complete security and bug updates to a wider range of applications than in Ubuntu. Only one example would be VLC, which was updated to version 3.0 in Debian, but is still insecure 2.x version in Ubuntu 16.04.
No modified ugly orange GNOME, it's pure upstream look and feel.
Have fun exploring Debian. You will find it's very capable for almost any task. If you have problems, just open a thread.

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#3 Post by HuangLao »

Congratulations! :D

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#4 Post by CwF »

Awesome setup!

Do you happen to have TV tuners in that container?

kevinthefixer
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#5 Post by kevinthefixer »

CwF wrote:Awesome setup!

Do you happen to have TV tuners in that container?
If so, it's possible to run Ubuntu's binary of Me-TV in Stretch:
https://translate.google.com/translate? ... rev=search
I prefer it.

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#6 Post by sunrat »

People gain 5 IQ points on average by switching from Ubuntu to Debian. :mrgreen: Congratulations!
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

kevinthefixer
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#7 Post by kevinthefixer »

sunrat wrote:People gain 5 IQ points on average by switching from Ubuntu to Debian. :mrgreen: Congratulations!
Wow! Add that to the 30 you get from switching from Windows to Ubuntu and you've really got something!

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mike acker
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#8 Post by mike acker »

yep

it's a bit on the sad side but it seems the MINT project is having a bit of trouble keeping up with kernel updates. it's my impression -- "FWIW" they are handicapping their project by tying their work to Ubuntu. I think they'd do well to drop their Ubuntu based releases and concentrate on their LMDE offering. but -- it's their project, not mine.

I'm running a straight Debian 9.4 now, having switched from LMDE/2 about a year ago

the only thing I notice is -- some "KDE" related programs -- e.g. Kate, Gwenview -- don't seem to run as well as they did in LMDE (graphics are quite right) . but then I'm not so sure I really want anything to do with KDE type of environment anyway. an X-Window desktop should stress simplicity. it's mainly just a program launcher and graphics service; if it does those things well -- it's "All Good".
Viva la Resistencia

Wheelerof4te
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#9 Post by Wheelerof4te »

mike acker wrote: I think they'd do well to drop their Ubuntu based releases and concentrate on their LMDE offering. but -- it's their project, not mine.
That's the real reason Clem is holding on to LMDE - if Canonical would fail at any point in tme, he will have a ready replacement. I think he said so himself in one of his blog posts.

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mike acker
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#10 Post by mike acker »

Wheelerof4te wrote:
mike acker wrote: I think they'd do well to drop their Ubuntu based releases and concentrate on their LMDE offering. but -- it's their project, not mine.
That's the real reason Clem is holding on to LMDE - if Canonical would fail at any point in tme, he will have a ready replacement. I think he said so himself in one of his blog posts.
yes

supposedly the Ubuntu based MINT realizes important advantages by making use of the Canonical PPAs. but then we are getting into the whole area of software maintenance - which has always been a bit of a headache

so far -- the APT program seems to be sufficient for Debian although in some cases I do my own updates -- LibreOffice, in particular. Where the software is offered in a .deb package -- like LibreOffice -- or on the Backports -- like DarkTable -- the update is not difficult

To my thinking -- the software that communicates with the net -- is the most critical to be up to date. Obviously -- web browsers and e/mail readers. entertainment programs are also likely to be net users such as music and video players. I've been thinking for some time it might be best to run these entertainment programs in a container -- like firejail.

Computer security should focus not only on the question "what do you want to do?" -- but also: "What program do you want to use to do this?"
Viva la Resistencia

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debiman
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#11 Post by debiman »

kevinthefixer wrote:
sunrat wrote:People gain 5 IQ points on average by switching from Ubuntu to Debian. :mrgreen: Congratulations!
Wow! Add that to the 30 you get from switching from Windows to Ubuntu and you've really got something!
35 - that itself is almost enough to survive! nerds for president!
:D

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#12 Post by CwF »

Well if I get some Me-TV running in a VM I can get a few of those 30 points back! Unfortunately I can't eliminate Windows, I guess I'll settle for partial credit...but really cheaters should get some credit for creativity. Maybe a few points using apt in windows? Apt, aptitude and synaptic was exactly my over the top vote for Debian. Maybe I' get a point for my own repository...

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#13 Post by kevinthefixer »

All kidding aside, it's completely beyond me why it's so popular to run perfectly fine OSs inside a Windows wrapper. If I must have Windows as well as a sane daily driver, I far prefer to dual-boot. Or, well, at last count my main desktop had 5 different boot options. None is in a virtual machine.

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#14 Post by CwF »

...for me all options are available always from the same trackball. Furthermore, each process has the equivalent of a very decent desktop all to itself without affected others. Dual boot can't do that.

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#15 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

kevinthefixer wrote:it's completely beyond me why it's so popular to run perfectly fine OSs inside a Windows wrapper.
^ This.

Doing it the other way around makes perfect sense though: we are forced to have a Win10 system in my household (the shame!) and it is far preferable to run that execrable excuse for an operating system virtualised so that it cannot take control of the hardware during one of it's random (and ridiculously lengthy) forced update cycles and leave us without a computer for hours at a time :x
deadbang

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#16 Post by Danielsan »

Wise decision!

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#17 Post by piperdan »

I too just installed Debian Stable (yesterday). So only 24 hours old :D Installation was easy, other than a little workaround to modify /etc/sudoers to give my own user account sudo permission. Its looking good. First time using KDE Plasma. Pretty nice and plenty quick on my machine.

Most applications I like are readily available after installing synaptic, except that I'm going to need a newer version of hplip than 3.16 (currently the highest version available in the stable repository) to get my wireless printer to work. Version 3.17 worked before for me, so I'll need to install that somehow.

Previous recent installations:
MX Linux: I also like very much. Just wanted to try a more modern KDE experience.

Linux Mint Sylvia 18.3: Also very good. Cinnamon is very nice and polished. Installed on my wife's and mother's computers and they enjoy it.

Slackware 14.1: Installed just for the challenge and for some learning experience.

Cheers

kevinthefixer
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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#18 Post by kevinthefixer »

Piperdan, you'll like Stretch if you're the kind of guy that installs Slackware "just for the learning experience". There is a more elegant (and easier) way to give your user sudo permissions (I like to have staff permissions also, allows me to write to /usr, and I think my user should be able to do that): as root,

Code: Select all

adduser piperdan sudo
In terminal you can switch to root with

Code: Select all

su
I know it's a little late but...

Edit: Oh yeah, you'll probably want to belong to group lpadmin so you can add printers and such. CUPS has strange permission requirements for security reasons, won't let root do it.

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Re: Successful migration to Debian

#19 Post by eor2004 »

mike acker wrote:yep

it's a bit on the sad side but it seems the MINT project is having a bit of trouble keeping up with kernel updates. it's my impression -- "FWIW" they are handicapping their project by tying their work to Ubuntu. I think they'd do well to drop their Ubuntu based releases and concentrate on their LMDE offering. but -- it's their project, not mine.

I'm running a straight Debian 9.4 now, having switched from LMDE/2 about a year ago

the only thing I notice is -- some "KDE" related programs -- e.g. Kate, Gwenview -- don't seem to run as well as they did in LMDE (graphics are quite right) . but then I'm not so sure I really want anything to do with KDE type of environment anyway. an X-Window desktop should stress simplicity. it's mainly just a program launcher and graphics service; if it does those things well -- it's "All Good".
Me too switched from LMDE 2 to debian a couple of years ago, I learned a lot about debian with LMDE, OTOH me too had issues with the plasma 5 version of debian, it was very sluggish on my system and suffered from freezes from time to time, reinstalled debian with Gnome 3 and everything is working faster than the plasma 5, well... not everything is working, I have some issues with virtualbox right now, but it is not a show stopper, the strange thing that baffles me is that I have installed on the same system other distros with plasma 5 and they have worked fine!
Debian 12 Gnome on a MSI H61M-P25 (B3) PC & on a Dell Latitude E6410 & HP EliteBook 8540p Laptops.
LMDE 6 on a Panasonic ToughBook CF-C1 Laptop.
Bodhi Linux 7 on a HP Compaq DC5750 Small Form Factor PC.
Windows 11 on a Intel DH55TC PC.

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