Are you looking for a quick way to upgrade Debian 11 to Debian 12? Look no further, this guide will take you through all the steps for upgrading Debian 11 to Debian 12. Debian 12, codenamed “Bookworm”, has just been released! Read more about this new release on the release news page.
Table of Contents
Upgrading Debian 11 to Debian 12
This guide applies to upgrade of both Debian 11 desktop and server versions to Debian 12.
Backup your Debian 11 System Data
Well, it is always a good idea to backup any data, not just your Debian 11 data when you are about to upgrade it to Debian 12. Backup will always save you just in case something happens during upgrade that may cause system failure. It ensure you have a copy of your data which you can always access and recover any that was damaged.
Backup process is out of this scope.
You may want to check how to backup Linux systems using tools such as BackupPC.
Login to your System via Physical Console
Personally, I wont recommend any system upgrade to be done via SSH. What if you loose connection in the middle of upgrade? You brick your system!
So, use physical console or any direct access method.
Run Full System Update
Ensure that your system is up-to-date by executing the commands below.
Hold on, before we can ran upgrade, let’s confirm our Debian 11 system details;
hostnamectl
Static hostname: debian11
Icon name: computer-vm
Chassis: vm
Machine ID: a417481aacd84ee19371d9b5e109cf12
Boot ID: 3300de73894747b1808316e1c4895158
Virtualization: oracle
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-8-amd64
Architecture: x86-64
The OS and the current Kernal details;
- Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
- Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-8-amd64
Debian Version;
cat /etc/debian_version11.3Now, proceed with system repositories update.
apt updateRun system upgrade;
apt upgrade --auto-removeOnce that is done, run the smart upgrade;
apt dist-upgradeReboot the System
Once the upgrade completes successfully, reboot the system to effect all the upgrade changes.
systemctl rebootAfter system reboot, one thing to note is that my system has now moved to Debian 11.7 from Debian 11.3 after update.
Let’s move on to see how to now upgrade Debian 11.
Update System Repositories
In order to upgrade from Debian 11 to Debian 12, we need to update the current system repositories from Debian 11’s repos, bullseye, to Debian 12’s repos, bookworm.
These are my Debian 11’s current system repositories;
grep -ir bullseye /etc/apt/sources.list | grep -vE "^#"
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
So, we need to update them as follows;
sed -i.bak 's/bullseye/bookworm/' /etc/apt/sources.listThe repos now look like;
grep -vE "^#|^$" /etc/apt/sources.list
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
Similarly, if you have custom repos in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory, then update them accordingly.
Optionally Install Non-Free-Firmware Repositories
Non-free-firmware repositories provide packages that requires a user to explicitly accept end user license agreement before a package can be installed. These repositories are usually required to install packages relating to various hardware such as WiFi controllers, Bluetooth, Graphics, Sound, e.t.c especially on Desktop systems.
If you therefore have non-free firmware installed it is recommended to add non-free-firmware to your APT sources-list. To install such repos, update the sources.list file as follows;
cat >> /etc/apt/sources.list << 'EOL'
# Non-Free-Firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates non-free non-free-firmware
EOL
Remove bullseye-backports Repositories
If you have any bullseye-backports repositories installed, it is recommended to remove them from source-list files before the upgrade. If you really need them, you can add back after the upgrade.
grep -irl 'bullseye-backports' /etc/apt/sources.list* |\
xargs -I {} sed -i '/bullseye-backports/s/^/#/' {}Upgrading Debian 11 to Debian 12
It is time to upgrade!
Run system package cache update;
apt updateNext, perform minimal system upgrade to only update the existing packages without installing any new packages in the system
apt upgrade --without-new-pkgsDuring the upgrade process, you will get apt-listchanges new!
Go through the news and press q to exit when done reading, -:)
You will also be prompted on whether to restart some services during upgrade. Accept (yes) and move forward.
Do full system upgrade now from Debian 11 to Debian 12;
apt full-upgradeDuring upgrade, you will receive prompts on whether to override configurations of old packages with new configurations. For example;
Configuration file '/etc/nginx/nginx.conf'
==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation.
==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** nginx.conf (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
For me, I will choose to keep currently-installed version configs.
Review the prompts and proceed appropriately.
Reboot the System
Once the upgrade is done, reboot the system.
systemctl rebootVerify System Upgrade
Once the system boots up, launch a terminal and start to check if everything is okay. Including any services that you might have installed on the previous OS version.
For us, let's check some basic system information.
hostnamectl
Static hostname: debian11
Icon name: computer-vm
Chassis: vm 🖴
Machine ID: a417481aacd84ee19371d9b5e109cf12
Boot ID: 934ad7ae1e2a4679b8aedb7eedc6697b
Virtualization: oracle
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-9-amd64
Architecture: x86-64
Hardware Vendor: innotek GmbH
Hardware Model: VirtualBox
Firmware Version: VirtualBox
We are now on Debian 12;
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-9-amd64cat /etc/debian_version12.0And that is it! You have successfully upgraded your Debian 11 system to Debian 12.
That closes our guide on upgrading Debian 11 to Debian 12.
