{"id":2691,"date":"2020-04-12T19:05:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T17:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.lobobrothers.com\/how-to-upgrade-debian-stretch-to-debian-buster\/"},"modified":"2025-02-06T15:13:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T14:13:36","slug":"how-to-upgrade-debian-stretch-to-debian-buster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tech.lobobrothers.com\/en\/how-to-upgrade-debian-stretch-to-debian-buster\/","title":{"rendered":"How to upgrade Debian Stretch to Debian Buster"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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<\/p>\n

The time has come<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n

This time we will upgrade our lab machine from Debian 9 to Debian 10, it’s about time. Before upgrading any operating system it is advisable to have a backup of the system or at least of the data that we do not want to lose, because although it is a simple process, any failure in the upgrade process can leave the operating system totally damaged, as for example a power outage or hardware failure.<\/p>\n

The update does not overwrite anything in the \/home directory, but it is possible that some applications or desktop environments will be overwritten with new values, for example, if you have the custom application bar, you will lose it and you will have to customize it again or find out where the customization is stored and once the system is updated, overwrite the new one.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that during the upgrade there will be services that will be stopped so if it is a production system, plan for it, because also as the kernel will be upgraded it is necessary to reboot. If the upgrade is done remotely (only if we do not have desktop environment installed, because otherwise it will fail), make sure that we can reach the machine in case of any unforeseen event, if it is a physical machine I recommend doing the upgrade in-situ, if it is virtual simply have access to the hypervisor. Why do we say this? There is a risk of losing the network when the previous system uses eth0,wlan0 nomenclature once upgraded to Buster.<\/p>\n

Note: You cannot upgrade from older versions without having previously upgraded to Debian 9.<\/p>\n

LET’S START<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In our case being a lab machine in VirtualBox we will simply take a snapshot, selecting the machine and clicking on Take, we will give it a name for example PreUpgrade, with a description if we want like “Before upgrading to Debian 10”.<\/p>\n

\"snapshot<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Once we have a backup copy and we have made sure that in case of any inconvenience we will always be able to access our virtual or physical machine, we proceed by opening a terminal to check what third party software we have installed that does not use the pure Debian 9 repositories.<\/p>\n

sudo aptitude search ‘~i(!~ODebian)’<\/p>\n

If for any reason you cannot find the command<\/p>\n

sudo apt install aptitude<\/p>\n

And we launch the previous command again.<\/p>\n

This would return us a list of obsolete or third party packages, where the obsolete ones would be advisable to uninstall and the third party ones to verify that they have support for Debian 10, moreover, to avoid possible conflicts the best thing is to uninstall the list that returns us before proceeding with the update and to reinstall what we need after completing the update. Also, if you have packages installed from trial versions, switch to their stable versions or remove them.<\/p>\n

\"aptitude<\/p>\n

In our case we have no obsolete or third party packages so we proceed first to update our current Debian 9<\/p>\n

sudo apt update<\/p>\n

sudo apt upgrade<\/p>\n

sudo apt dist-upgrade<\/p>\n

We check that we have no consistency problems or broken packets.<\/p>\n

sudo dpkg -C<\/p>\n

sudo apt-mark showhold<\/p>\n

Before proceeding with the upgrade if we have obtained inconsistencies or broken packages it is necessary to fix it, for this you can see details with<\/p>\n

sudo dpkg –audit<\/p>\n

Or use the following command to view the detail of all packages installed on your system<\/p>\n

sudo dpkg -l | pager<\/p>\n

Once all this is done with our Debian 9 system updated and any package problems fixed we proceed to update the repositories, making a backup first<\/p>\n

sudo cp \/etc\/apt\/sources.list \/etc\/apt\/sources.list.back<\/p>\n

Then we replace the repositories from Stretch to Buster in a simple way in the file \/etc\/apt\/sources.list<\/p>\n

sudo sed -i ‘s\/stretch\/buster\/g’ \/etc\/apt\/sources.list<\/p>\n

This command will replace the word stretch with buster in \/etc\/apt\/sources.list, so in our case.<\/p>\n

deb http:\/\/ftp.es.debian.org\/debian\/ buster main
\ndeb-src http:\/\/ftp.es.debian.org\/debian\/ buster main<\/p>\n

deb http:\/\/security.debian.org\/debian-security buster\/updates main contrib
\ndeb-src http:\/\/security.debian.org\/debian-security buster\/updates main contrib<\/p>\n

# stretch-updates, previously known as ‘volatile’
\ndeb http:\/\/ftp.es.debian.org\/debian\/ buster-updates main contrib
\ndeb-src http:\/\/ftp.es.debian.org\/debian\/ buster-updates main contrib<\/p>\n

We do the same with the other lists if you have checked the support with Debian 10, although we recommend that these lists are moved to another directory and once updated proceed to introduce the updated lists.<\/p>\n

sudo sed -i ‘s\/stretch\/buster\/g’ \/etc\/apt\/sources.list.d\/*.list<\/p>\n

We update the package index<\/p>\n

sudo apt update<\/p>\n

This will return the number of upgradable packages at the end of the list and we should run the following if we want to see them<\/p>\n

sudo apt list –upgradable<\/p>\n

Finally, we perform the upgrade<\/p>\n

sudo apt upgrade<\/p>\n

The list of new changes will appear, press q<\/strong> to continue.<\/p>\n

\"apt-listchanges\"<\/p>\n

And the next screen if we want to restart the services without asking, in our case we say yes because we foresee any incident or if it were a production server would be communicated its intervention to whom it corresponds.<\/p>\n

\"services<\/p>\n

To conclude<\/p>\n

sudo apt dist-upgrade<\/p>\n

And we restart to check that everything has been successful.<\/p>\n

You can remove the packages that are no longer needed with<\/p>\n

sudo apt autoremove<\/p>\n

But we are not going to leave it there, we will finish by updating the kernel to the latest version from the sources, taking advantage of the fact that we have the backup copy just made and in case of production systems it is planned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Upgrade the kernel to the latest stable version kernel-5.6.3<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
WARNING!!!<\/strong> In Debian 10 with “su<\/strong>“, your PATH may not contain directories where many administration commands are located, so we have to start with “su<\/strong> -“. If we want “su” to work as usual we must edit the file \/etc\/logins.defs and add the line ALWAYS_SET_PATH yes<\/strong> to be as follows<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"always<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Another way would be to run<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
export PATH=$PATH:\/usr\/local\/sbin:\/usr\/sbin:\/sbin<\/div>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And to be persistent<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
echo ‘export PATH=$PATH:\/usr\/local\/sbin:\/usr\/sbin:\/sbin’ >> \/root\/.bashrc<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Having clarified this point, it is not currently necessary this process of updating the kernel in many cases, being able to use package managers, but since we are going to create a post, we see more interesting to learn how to compile a kernel.<\/div>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

WARNING2!!!<\/strong> First of all, compiling a kernel from source requires a few GB free, 25 in this case, so make sure you have space available.<\/p>\n

First we install dependencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

sudo apt install gcc libncurses5-dev dpkg-dev bison flex git fakeroot build-essential ncurses-dev xz-utils libssl-dev bc build-essential libncurses5-dev fakeroot rsync libelf-dev<\/p>\n

We download the latest kernel from https:\/\/kernel.org<\/a> in \/root\/kernel for example being root, in this case we are not going to do it in \/tmp as in other posts, in case we want to reconfigure later, since we have to reboot and in \/tmp it would be deleted.<\/p>\n

cd \/root\/<\/p>\n

mkdir kernel<\/p>\n

cd \/root\/kernel<\/p>\n

curl -lO https:\/\/cdn.kernel.org\/pub\/linux\/kernel\/v5.x\/linux-5.6.3.tar.xz<\/p>\n

Unzip it<\/p>\n

tar -xvf linux-5.6.3.tar.xz<\/p>\n

We enter the directory<\/p>\n

cd linux-5.6.3<\/p>\n

We launched<\/p>\n

make menuconfig<\/p>\n

Where a configuration gui will appear, we will not go into details so we choose General Setup but take a look at it.<\/p>\n

\"make<\/p>\n

After selecting General Setup, we select Local version -append to kernel release<\/p>\n

\"make<\/p>\n

we enter .config<\/p>\n

\"enter<\/p>\n

Now Save\/Exit\/Exit<\/p>\n

To avoid an error updating in this way, in the .config file that has just been created we will comment out the lines containing CONFIG_SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS in a quick way<\/p>\n

sed -i ‘s\/CONFIG_SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS\/#CONFIG_SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS\/g’ .config<\/p>\n

And we build the package<\/p>\n

make deb-pkg -j2<\/p>\n

Remember that with the -j flag we will indicate the processors we have available to make it faster. When it asks you the question of the certificate simply enter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This process will take a while, you can have a coffee or three while. When it finishes, we will find the .deb in the top level, therefore we execute<\/p>\n

cd .. && dpkg -i linux-*.deb<\/p>\n

We reboot and if everything went well, we write in a terminal to check our kernel.<\/p>\n

uname -a<\/p>\n

\"uname<\/p>\n

Now we can delete the old kernel or leave it, at the moment I recommend to leave it in case you have any problem with the new version.<\/p>\n

If during all this process you have had some kind of problem write us with the error that gives you or what is the failure that you are having and we will be happy to help you.<\/p>\n

Note: When you have already compiled to your liking delete the folder that we created \/root\/kernel to have the 25GB that occupies.<\/p>\n

A pleasure, live the present.<\/p>\n

TL.<\/p>\n

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FAQs<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to modify sources.list file to upgrade to Debian Buster?<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t

The file should be edited with:<\/p>\n

nano \/etc\/apt\/sources.list<\/p>\n

And replace all references to “stretch” with “buster”, for example:<\/p>\n

deb http:\/\/deb.debian.org\/debian buster main contrib non-free
\ndeb http:\/\/security.debian.org\/debian-security buster\/updates main<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Yes, once the update is complete, it is recommended to reboot your system to ensure that all services and the updated kernel are working properly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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It is recommended to run:<\/p>\n

apt autoremove<\/p>\n

to remove unnecessary packages. If some software stops working, you can search for a compatible version in Buster’s repositories or consider alternatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Time varies depending on the number of packages installed, internet connection speed, and computer hardware.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t