I have a Debian server which embarrassingly is still on version 10.13. Normally to upgrade several releases you'd upgrade 10 to 11, 11 to 12, 12 to 13. Version 11 support ends at the end of this month, does this mean I have to upgrade to it in the next few days?

I'm also concerned about things breaking. Mainly web and mail servers. They have a lot of config and a new version installed with the upgrade could be incompatible.

What is the safest way to do it, and hopefully with the least downtime. To swap to a new server would be expensive and difficult.

Hi, I'm not new to debian, since I work with it. I decided (since proton works so well) to get debian 13 trixie on my gaming laptop (after years of windows I'm sick of it). I followed the DebianWiki guide and install the 550... proprietary drivers for my GeForce 2060.

I used the "simple" method, so no backports or nvidia installer but for one of my games (The Alters) I get a problem with the light, they don't stop flickering. One of the solution I found on google said that updating the drivers to the latest version could fix the problem so I tried, but for drivers newer than the 550... version I needed to use backports. End of the story, I messed up my drivers and now I have a fresh debian installation running.

Now, before I brake my drivers again, which of the three method proposed by the wiki is the more "stable"?

It's really that important to update my drivers since I have a 2060?

Does anyone know a reason?

This is a genuine question, I wasn't able to find an answer on the Debian wiki, on the mailing lists or on the Debian community forum.

I am currently sporting the 550 driver line which is considered outdated and unsupported by NVIDIA. Games both native and Proton work OK although the latest version of DXVK requires a newer version of the drivers.

Yes, I know I can use the official NVIDIA repo to install the latest drivers. Technically these drivers are meant for the Debian 13 stable release, not for Sid - but people report they work OK.

But that is not the question, I am just curious about the reason.

Hi everyone,

My MacBook Air 6,2 (2013) uses significantly more power when streaming the same video on Debian compared with macOS Catalina.

System specs

• MacBook: MacBookAir6,2
• CPU: Intel Core i5-4250U
• GPU: Intel HD Graphics 5000
• RAM: 4 GB
• Storage: 251 GB
• OS: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
• GNOME: 48
• Display server: Wayland
• Kernel: 6.12.90+deb13.1-amd64

Power consumption

When streaming the same video under macOS Catalina, power draw is around:

6–9 W

On Debian 13, I'm seeing:

11–16 W

So Debian is using roughly 5–7 W more, which has a noticeable impact on battery life.

I have already set up auto-cpufreq, so basic CPU power-management tuning is already in place.

For example, are there any browser/VA-API settings, codecs, GPU acceleration options, kernel parameters, or other tweaks that have made a noticeable difference for you?

If anyone has experience getting good battery life and efficient video playback from a 2013 MacBook Air running Debian/Linux, I'd especially appreciate your advice.

Thanks!

Debian is cool, stable, everything works - well, the 2 packages in the repo. I come from Arch, and I love the system, but goddamn I need to use a one liner for TAILSCALE. As if tailscale is not famous enough that one of the repo maintainers could add it.

Sorry for the short rant, over now lol

Recently I downloaded the weekly testing branch of Debian, and after reading the documentation, watching YouTube videos, and hearing other people's opinions, I got completely confused about which repositories need to be added and which should be commented out.

On Debian testing, after looking at the configs in /etc/apt/sources.list, I see that the Testing, Testing-security, and testing-updates repositories are connected.

Question:

1. Why is the updates repository needed in the testing branch if packages already migrate from Sid within 2–10 days, and it hasn't been updated for about a year? The same crap with security, where it hasn't been updated since 2023 except for the Release file and its key.

2. How do you properly upgrade from Stable to Testing? Which repositories need to be commented out or edited, why is this necessary, and what are the downsides? In the official documentation I saw that updates should be commented out, and testing and testing-security should be left, but digging deeper on the official Debian website I noticed an excerpt from an article that says that testing-updates and testing-security should be commented out, leaving only Testing. After watching YouTube, hearing people's opinions, and even asking AI, I got completely confused because someone says that testing-updates should be commented out, another says testing-updates and testing-security, and the rest say that these repositories should not be commented out.

Retbleed warning spectre v2 mitigation leaves cpu vulnerable to retbleed attacks, dataleak possible! This is the warning i get when i boot the installation on the install+live usb. Alot of acpi errors too, and also says SGX is disabled or unsupported by bios. Any help? I have an intel i5 7400 if that helps. Updt: its on the normal netinst usb too.

I'm used to backspace as quick navigation method to go back to previous folder in the past. But in the recent distribution the option has been removed and i had to use alt+left arrow to do the same. Which i find very difficult and often use the mouse to navigate back. Is there any way to bring back this option? (also i'm not considering other file managers since i'm used to nautilus)

Thanks

Long time Debian enjoyer here, switched to Ubuntu when i got my new GPU a year ago because I was convinced it's a smoother experience running the 5090 on Ubuntu. Not loving Ubuntu and wondering how much "trouble", if any, I'm willing to put up with to get back on Debian. LLM's tell me it could really only become a headache during system updates. Any first hand experience? I don't game or anything, just use the CUDA, various ML tasks etc.

I'm running Debian 14 forky as a Proxmox VM for testing purposes only. The latest updates to Gnome broke one of the VPN types: Cisco compatible (vpnc). My OpenVPN and Wireguard VPNs all work fine. Also, vpnc runs fine from the command line, but in Gnome it appears to not even try to activate the Cisco vpnc VPNs. I use Debian for work to manage a lot of remote equipment, so VPN's are huge part of my daily workflow. That's why I'm running testing in a LAB. I want know it works well when it's time to go live sometime next summer.