What to Do After Installing Debian 12

By Rogelio Interino on Tue Sep 03 2024

Debian 12 “Bookworm”

The Debian project released its final version of Debian 12 on June 10, 2023. After two years of development, this release is powered by the long-term supported Linux Kernel 6.1 LTS.

Desktop-Debian


Steps After Installation

1. Add Repositories to sources.list

Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file using your preferred text editor (e.g., nano or vim) and add the following lines:

# Official Repositories
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main

# Security Updates
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

# Multimedia Repositories
deb https://www.deb-multimedia.org bookworm main non-free

Install Multimedia Keyring

Before updating, run the following commands to ensure secure repository handling:

apt-get update -o Acquire::AllowInsecureRepositories=true
apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring

2. Update the System

Keeping your system up to date is essential. Run this command to update and upgrade all packages:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

3. Install Basic Packages

Install essential tools and packages for development and system management:

apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r | sed 's/[^-]*-[^-]*-//') build-essential make automake cmake autoconf git aptitude synaptic curl apt-transport-https qapt-deb-installer

Update System PATH

To ensure proper functionality of dpkg, update your system’s PATH variable. Replace **user** with your username:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin' >> /home/**user**/.bashrc

4. Install Firmware

During installation, Debian may display a list of missing firmware. You can:

  1. Search and install these firmware packages via Synaptic Package Manager.
  2. Identify missing firmware using the following command:
dmesg | grep firmware

Install the required firmware through Synaptic or the terminal.


5. Install Media Codecs

For multimedia support, install the following codecs:

apt install w64codecs w32codecs libdvdcss2 gstreamer1.0-libav


Follow these steps to set up your Debian 12 system for optimal performance and usability. Happy Linuxing!

Built by Bishal at Skillaroo,
Source code on Github