Would it be possible to switch from Ubuntu to Debian without having to reinstall the whole system?
I hope something like updating sources to debian unstable and doing apt-get upgrade should just work, but am afraid to try it on the running system.
Looking at the way Canonical is operating, as a Linux Mint Cinnamon user, I sure am glad they're building for a "if Ubuntu was ever to disappear" world.
"Its goal is to ensure Linux Mint can continue to deliver the same user experience if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. It allows us to assess how much we depend on Ubuntu and how much work would be involved in such an event. LMDE is also one of our development targets, as such it guarantees the software we develop is compatible outside of Ubuntu."
I think in theory at least if your username is anthropodie, you should be able to copy /home/anthropodie to an external hard disk just for backup, install your new distro, set up your new user and copy your user home directory back. Anyone tried this?
It would be slightly more work involving parted (or whatever partition manager you prefer) to create a new partition, resize existing partitions, etc., but quite doable (if tedious and time consuming).
/home is kept intact. After installation of apps on new setup I don't even have to configure them most of times because they can find their config directories in /home/myuser/
Instead I backup my home dir with borg backup to drives/cloud.
I have a script to borg mount my most recent borg backup, so when I set up a new OS install, I just run the script and copy my files over from my backup to my computer's SSD.
I love this method because I can easily install a different SSD, switch to a new computer, or just do a clean OS installation very easily.
It worked quite well for me, although there were a few issues (for instance, I didn't get kernel updates anymore, and when I fixed that, the Wifi driver was missing). There are probably still a few issues that went undetected and might cause problems later.
It's certainly possible, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're willing to spend quite some time on it. And don't count on it working at all. (And backup your data. I didn't, and got lucky, but in retrospect, that was irresponsible.)
A good idea? No. If you need to ask, you will have regrets.
A fresh install would be faster, easier, safer, and more secure.
Arch actually has a guide to do it from within the other Linux, which seems crazy and fun. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Install_Arch_Linux_from_exi...
It's not as crazy as it sounds, after all installing a Linux system is a matter of populating the rootfs, and passing kernel+initrd images to the bootloader. Just regular file system operations, apart from actually installing the bootloader to the MBR.
You can install Debian-based distros the same way using the "debootstrap" script.
You mean copying bootx64.efi onto the ESP, right?
It's 2022... MBR is beyond ancient at this point!
I've been using Arch since 2003 and am still salty about the loss of the text guided installer.
0. If you have Windows, a bit tiny work to correctly setup secure boot and UEFI
1. Create partitions manually, carefully. For best results I use seperate disks but windows installer still fucks up.
2. Mount and chroot
3. Install packages
4. Install a network manager
5. Reboot
6. Install a favorite login and desktop manager and if have any nvidia drivers
7. Reboot to ensure nvidia drivers load (F** you secureboot)
8. Install a nice font (sorry, yes)
9. Audio mostly works out of the box but if not install pulseaudio or something else.
10. Install yay or any AUR helper to install non-official packages in AUR.
11. Occasionally run pacman -Syu to update system to be not left behind a lot. There are no fixed releases like Ubuntu 22.04 or sth.
It looks complex, I know, but it's fun and there are literally every package with almost latest versions in Arch and if not, in AUR which helps a lot.
* Your Firefox can't read the HTML attachment you opened from Thunderbird because we messed up the sandboxing.
* Popup: Close your Firefox to update it. Oh, also, unless you manually run the update, it will just tell you to close it as soon as you reopen it. Some variants of the update command will also tell you no updates are available unless Firefox is closed.
apt-get purge snapd --yesInterestingly, snap has a service that self-heals, so that if one tried to hack it, it will overwrite the changes. That's... quite malwarish, I'd say, and very unusual in the Unix world.
Regarding hacking it: it's necessary because once snapd is installed, the ubuntu upgrader will sync on every update, so snap is not a service that can be just disabled.
Personally, I've switched to a plain old .tar.gz extracted in a folder to fix Canonical's snap obsession because Snap'd Firefox doesn't play nice with some debuggers I was using. Same with Chromium; quite a pain.
Had similar problems before, so I guessed it was some snap bullshit. This page seemed to confirm it https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1290489
Followed the instructions here https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-d... , and then it worked as normal.
Out of curiosity, how did you do it? I ended up downloading the firefox tar from their website and setting that the default browser. Could not find any trustworthy deb packages.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w...
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-d...
This method will:
- Install from the Mozilla PPA.
- Automatically update Firefox.
- Let you install third party integrations (I needed keepassxc).
Side bonus: I'm also not getting the annoying "You need to update Firefox popups" that are super cryptic and don't explain that you apparently need to close Firefox then, I don't know, wait a few minutes, I guess, for stuff to update in the background.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-d...
what do you mean?
I nuked Ubuntu and installed Arch.
Microsoft and Windows are totally safe for now+15 years.
Saving files and images both work for me.
Need to multiply two numbers, it's faster to do on paper than to wait the app to launch.
Thankfully they walked back on that one.
Also e.g. the "Whiteboard" program which replaced the older "Sketchpad" program in Windows 10 tablets. The Sketchpad opened even before I released the button on the pen, while the Whiteboard crap just takes forever to open, then takes forever to "login to Microsoft account", then takes forever to load anything...
The tech industry is absurdly dedicated to chasing trends. As an example, most people have forgotten the reason you probably don't have a headphone jack on your phone is because Apple wanted to shill wireless headphones and the entire industry turned on its heel in response.
If I'm elsewhere in GUI tho, Meta+C (shortcut I have for the calculator app) is faster than firing off terminal, starting bc, then closing it up after oneline calculation.
.. at least, it should be faster ;-)
Disclaimer: bc implementer. I'm biased. I use bc for all of my calculation. And Mac doesn't have my bc.
I didn't have any problem with this. But your case may be what they're solving by moving from Pulseaudio to Pipewire (see Ubuntu Kinetic 22.10).
Ubuntu is moving closer and closer to Microsoft with each passing year.
But I miss a bit Ubuntu...
I don't know why the default location couldn't have been in `/usr` or `/opt` or something, or ideally simply been configurable.
* Oh, you want to install a package, here are two very distant versions in snap and apt. Select one!
* Oh you selected snap, sorry now all program starts are slow now because we need to mount compressed disk for sandboxing.
* Oh, this snap does not support sandboxing, here install with --classic flag.
I use macOS daily, but when I need Linux, I use Arch btw (meme) but seriously it's much more clear.