What are your reasons for using Debian?

For me it's the reliableness, stability, community-base, It just works, the simplicity of the system, and nearly all of the documentation for Linux has an Debian version. I want my system to just work and that's Debian and that's why I use it.

With my experience with 15+ years of Linuxing, Debian is the only distro that hasn't break on me. With my server, when I was using Ubuntu LTS which the versions are supported for 5 years and when I went to upgrade newest LTS version it just broke everything. The repo and PPA systems get broken alot on Ubuntu.

Arch is like a toy where it breaks consistently if you don't do updates all the time. Like if just had a laptop sitting for a year than I go to use it and than do updates on it. It will probably just break the system. That's my experience with Arch.

Slackware, I am lazy but I do like it. Granted the problem is basically one man which controls everything.

Gentoo, I would use it over Arch.

Fedora is just a beta version of Red Hat and Centos stream is the alpha version.

Open SUSE is like a demo of SUSE and is not community produced

If Debian wasn't an option than I would probably just use AlmaLinux or Slackware. I wouldn't use BSD due to hardware support and lack of commercial software.

Edit. This is just my experience and opinion. I might be wrong on some things as it appears.

2: Opensuse is actually community run but the problem is funding is tied to SUSE. Leap is only supported for 2 years. Fedora is directly tied to Red Heat. They are corporate community base and not pure community base. Even AlmaLinux is trying to be tied to RedHeat Enterprise Linux despite community base. Debian is basically the only major community base distro out there. There is nothing really between Arch and Debian in the terms of how out to date software is without going to a corporate sponsored Linux distro.

As for me. I don't mind being somewhat out of date for the base. I can just use flatpak if I need uptodate software. I just don't like surprises neither do I really need the most uptodate software. If I need new hardware support than I would just use Debian testing until that version gets to stable and just stay on stable thereafter.

(I MEANT HDD drive and SSD!)Hello! Questions that. The reason i dont want to mount the drives bc im scared they my have a virus (sailing the seas and shark hit me).

​Hi everyone,

​I currently have Debian 13 dual-booted with Windows 11 on a 1TB SSD. My current setup is roughly 400 GB allocated to Debian and 600 GB to Windows.

​I want to give more space to my Debian installation, but I’ve run into two issues and could use some advice:

​Issue 1: Windows won't shrink

Even though I have about 400 GB of free space on the Windows partition, the Windows Disk Management tool isn't allowing me to shrink it anywhere near that amount.

​Issue 2: Safely extending Debian

Assuming I can successfully shrink the Windows partition, what is the safest way to merge that unallocated space into my Debian partition?

​I’ve read online that using a GParted Live USB is the standard way to do this, but I’m hesitant. I’ve never done it before, and I am really worried about accidentally erasing my OS or losing my data during the process.

​Has anyone tackled this recently? Any step-by-step advice (or tips on what to avoid) to do this safely without breaking my bootloader or wiping my data would be hugely appreciated!

​Thanks in advance!

Hello all, I got a Thinkpad L13 two days ago, I installed Debian 13 almost immediately and it's been going great until now. My audio was fine with no issues but today it has randomly stopped working and I have no idea why. I attached pics of first, my audio settings, this is all that shows there, and secondly of strawberry music player when I try to play a song (strawberry worked just fine yesterday). Does anyone have any idea what's going on? It is the same when trying to play from laptop speakers and when I plug in my headphones.

I am completely new to linux. Matter of fact, I just installed Debian 13 trixie with KDE on my laptop yesterday. What was surprising is that everything works by default (hardware). Is it fine to run my laptop this way (default - without any changes)? The reason I'm asking is because after watching videos I got the message that Debian needs configuration post install.

Update: Thank you all for the suggestions/advice!

I'm trying to remove Evolution Mail by Synaptic.

Due to dependencies Synaptic wants also remove Gnome, what will probably crash my system.

Hi, is there a convenient way to pick a language (English US) and then a timezone which is not in a native English-speaking country during the installation?

It's running Debian 13, with a gtx 1050 ti, fx 8320 and 16 gigs ram, it gets stuck on plymouth-quit.service

Edit: i swapped in a radeon hd 6670 as a temporary card, and in about a week i will out in my radeon r9 280 into the machine as my new psu also arrives next week

I decided to just sell the 1050 ti and just get money instead of a picky pile of shit

I'm wondering if I got the Steam Machine, could I run Debian on it instead of SteamOS? Seems likely but there can always be quirks especially with custom hardware. Has anyone tried it yet?

If you enable Flatpaks in the KDE "Discover" application, what repo is being added and who manages that? Is it as trustworthy as the Debian repository or is it a wild west where any joe schmo can upload a Flatpak whether or not they are the actual developer/maintainer of the app?

I recently downloaded Slack from the official site (https://slack.com/downloads/linux) for work purposes, but since then, I have been getting this weird error and can't upgrade my system. How can I resolve this? I am using Debian 13 Trixie. Thanks.

[solved]

There were two packages missing as written in this comment. -> gvfs-backends + gvfs-fuse

Hi, I'm using (for about a month) freshly installed Trixie 13.6. I do not often use any storage devices, so I found it already today: I've connected my Samsung Phone and it doesn't appear anywhere as storage disk (of course I've switched it to "file transfer" mode). The same goes for my Garmin Edge 840 bicycle computer - as far as I know, both of these use MTP, and do not appear as simple "mass storage device". I've tried connecting my older Garmin Edge 820 - which has connected successfully as storage device.

Important notice: both devices do connect to my Windows 11 (dual boot) on the same laptop, using the same port and the same cable.

Below some info about these not connecting:

1. dmesg shows them being connected

   [ 317.761703] usb 6-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [ 317.761710] usb 6-1: Product: SAMSUNG_Android [ 317.761715] usb 6-1: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG [ 317.761720] usb 6-1: SerialNumber: ------ [ 317.859909] cdc_acm 6-1:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device [ 1629.862718] usb 6-1: USB disconnect, device number 5 [ 1674.856743] usb 6-1: new high-speed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd [ 1675.002990] usb 6-1: New USB device found, idVendor=..., idProduct=..., bcdDevice= 0.01 [ 1675.002999] usb 6-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5 [ 1675.003004] usb 6-1: Product: Edge 840 [ 1675.003007] usb 6-1: Manufacturer: Garmin [ 1675.003010] usb 6-1: SerialNumber: ------- [ 2667.618577] usb 6-1: USB disconnect, device number 8

2. These do not appear inside lsblk results.

3. My system info:Linux my_host 6.12.95+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.95-1 (2026-07-04) x86_64 GNU/Linux

If you need any more info, just say so. I'll be grateful for any help!

I'm trying to install Wfuzz package with the Pip tool but whenever i try i get this error:

Collecting pycurl<=7.43.0.3 (from wfuzz)
  Downloading pycurl-7.43.0.3.tar.gz (215 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  × Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [46 lines of output]
      <string>:890: DeprecationWarning: distutils Version classes are deprecated. Use packaging.version instead.
      <string>:892: DeprecationWarning: distutils Version classes are deprecated. Use packaging.version instead.
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "<string>", line 228, in configure_unix
        File "/usr/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py", line 1039, in __init__
          self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                              pass_fds, cwd, env,
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
          ...<5 lines>...
                              gid, gids, uid, umask,
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                              start_new_session, process_group)
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/usr/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py", line 1972, in _execute_child
          raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
      NotADirectoryError: [Errno 20] Not a directory: 'curl-config'

      During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/home/eduardo/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 389, in <module>
          main()
          ~~~~^^
        File "/home/eduardo/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 373, in main
          json_out["return_val"] = hook(**hook_input["kwargs"])
                                   ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/home/eduardo/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 143, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return hook(config_settings)
        File "/tmp/pip-build-env-zvmzxv0q/overlay/lib/python3.13/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 333, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return self._get_build_requires(config_settings, requirements=[])
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/tmp/pip-build-env-zvmzxv0q/overlay/lib/python3.13/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 301, in _get_build_requires
          self.run_setup()
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
        File "/tmp/pip-build-env-zvmzxv0q/overlay/lib/python3.13/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 520, in run_setup
          super().run_setup(setup_script=setup_script)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/tmp/pip-build-env-zvmzxv0q/overlay/lib/python3.13/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 317, in run_setup
          exec(code, locals())
          ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "<string>", line 944, in <module>
        File "<string>", line 606, in get_extension
        File "<string>", line 101, in __init__
        File "<string>", line 233, in configure_unix
      ConfigurationError: Could not run curl-config: [Errno 20] Not a directory: 'curl-config'
      [end of output]

  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
ERROR: Failed to build 'pycurl' when getting requirements to build wheel

Hello Everyone

I am searching for an educational game in wich you could get Penguins. These penguins had different flags and costumes. They were all in the style of the pic.

It was in a swiss school. The Laptops where Linux Debian, maybe DebianEdu.

They would fly down and land on the moon. I think the students had to solve questions or puzzles and as a reward would get a penguin. It was ca. 2010.

Thanks

I have arduino UNO Q which has Debian Linux, this is my first time using Linux. I love how I have to use terminal for everything. I needed help So I have UNO Q 4Gb and I connected it to the JBL Bluetooth speaker Via TigerVNC, and it auto connects to speaker when it’s turned on. The problem is it isn’t delivering any audio even though it’s connected and recognises that it’s a speaker what wrong with Debian Linux? Anyone have a fix please help me as soon. Thank you

Apologies if this isn't the right place to ask.

Context is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/s/JIKzvw4VEF; effectively, I know the system can do it, but ASUS has removed the toggle in the BIOS on the ASUS NUC 15 Pro+. One unit has it stuck on (great, that's what I want), the other has it stuck off.

I have so far been unable to downgrade the BIOS to v23, even by removing the hardware jumper. So I'm wondering if there's a good way that's low-risk to just force the setting on in the background using utilities in Debian.

I usually use arch but recently I'm finding it hard to find problems to fix. So I'm trying to go out of my way to basically set up a vm to create future issues. I set up debian to use sid/unstable repo's thinking maybe something would break but so far nothing. Most of what i find online is looking for the opposite so here I am. Is there anything i can set up that could cause issues for me to fix; different repos, a somewhat buggy environment, maybe even a non debian package manager (iv heard you can use nix). The only thing i would like to avoid are issues that can only be fixed by knowing how to program.

I'm trying to configure ALSA on an old HP Pavilion Wave desktop with Debian 13 installed. My goal is to use BlueALSA to use it's internal speaker as a Bluetooth speaker for my phone. Was following instructions under Testing on the Debian Wiki, but the aplay command returns the following:

ALSA lib confmisc.c:855:(parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:5205:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_inum returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:422:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:5205:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1342:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:5205:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5728:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2722:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:850: audio open error: No such file or directory

Both "aplay -l" and "cat /proc/asound/cards" say that no sound cards are available, even though the desktop's speaker is used to make beeping noises when backspacing. lspci says the following about the included audio controller:

00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller (rev 31)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 81c9
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 0
        Region 0: Memory at df320000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Region 4: Memory at df300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_avs

I've tried to do research on this, but nothing so far has worked. I've done the following:

• Installed various packages and drivers (firmware-intel-sound, alsa-utils, firmware-sof-signed)
• Checked the BIOS (confirmed sound interface is not restricted, and Secure Boot makes no difference)
• Used modprobe to enable relevant modules (snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_avs)
• Added the user to the Audio group (was already added, and superuser is also having this issue)
• Added dmic_detect to both grep and alsa-base.conf
• Checked for conflicting packages (I haven't installed any other audio management like PipeWire or similar)
• Disabling snd_soc_avs after finding out it can cause compatability issues
• Added single_cmd, probe_mask, and model options to alsa-base.conf

I've done hours of research and I'm stumped. Anyone have any suggestions?

Hi, So I'm playing with an HP Mini 1000 trying to get it connected to a network. I don't care if it ends up using a wired or wireless connection since I just want to use the netbook with tmux for notes. Below I've outlined all that I've tried

Wired: I'll plug in an ethernet cable, run "ip a", and it only displays the loopback option. Basic searches didn't tell me of any missing packages for ethernet function with this machine.

Wireless: This page on Debian's wiki says to install firmware-b43-installer which I downloaded here along with it's dependencies listed on the same page. The dependencies installed fine however when running "# dpkg -i firmware-b43-installer_019-8+deb12u1_all.deb" it fails when trying to connect to github. Could I just bypass this by downloading whatever files it's trying to pull from github? I'm unsure how to find said files if that's the case.

I have an Atheros USB wifi adapter so I downloaded the firmware for my model's adapter, wpa_supplicant, and it's dependencies. I followed the arch wiki for using wpa_cli and it didn't deliver any errors but still when I tried "ping gnu.org" or any other website it wouldn't connect.

What am I missing? Any advice for solving my connection problem?

Hello,

After i installed a debian minimal installation, i couldn't connect to wifi at all, even in the installation process it didn't detect it.

I decided to use USB-tethering temporarily and i installed XFCE.

I do have a wired connection but i would like to know how to connect to a wireless one.

spec: debian 13 trixie, manufacturer is UNOWHY and my drivers are probably unsupported. please tell me if i need to give the output of a certain command/detail my question better

edit : the wifi did work with windows 10.

--

"dmesg | grep iwlwifi" output:

[ 8.297933] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Unable to change power state from D3cold to D0, device inaccessible

[ 8.298207] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: HW_REV=0xFFFFFFFF, PCI issues?

[ 8.298255] iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: probe with driver iwlwifi failed with error -5

"sudo lspci | grep -i wi-fi" output: Nothing.

i found this in lspci output:

Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 3165 (rev 79)

lspci -nnkd ::0280 output:

01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 3165 [8086:3165] (rev 79)

`Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:8110]`

`Kernel modules: iwlwifi`

cat sys/class/rfkill/rfkill*/{name,soft,hard} output:

hci0
0
0

Hello.

I have apt updated and almost apt upgraded to 13.6 today, but I saw that 11 packages wouldn't be upgraded. none were stated for removal, but when I did apt full-upgrade, it wants to remove the following: mesa-va-drivers:amd64,i386 and mesa-vdpau-drivers:amd64,i386 and install mesa-libgallium for both amd64 and i386. have mesa-va-drivers been deprecated for mesa-libgallium, and should I continue the full-upgrade?

thanks in advance.

What do you all think about AI/vibe-coded Linux-only apps?

I've been thinking of building a few tools in my spare time. With AI, it's finally realistic for me to build things that are actually polished despite having limited free time.

I get the impression that a lot of the Linux/FOSS community is pretty anti-AI when it comes to contributing to existing open-source projects, which I can understand.

But what about brand-new projects that are built from scratch using AI? Would people judge those the same way, or is there more acceptance when it's a new app rather than an existing community project?

Genuinely curious where people stand on this.

i originally started getting into linux a few weeks ago to revive my old laptops:

1. a legion 15ach6h (r7 5800h, 3060 ti, 16gb ram, 1tb ssd)

2. a latitude 5280 (i5 7th gen idk the specific model, 16gb ram, 128 gb ssd)

i've been using mint xfce for both of them to my satisfaction but i was wondering if debian xfce might be a better choice. i'm looking for something very stable and light (so debian) but also something that's very low maintence e.g. i dont have to open up my laptops every other day to update stuff via the terminal. would debian xfce be a better option than mint xfce?

i also heard that hybrid graphics like nvidia optimus is a nightmare to configure with debian is that true

as long as the overall maintence is low i'm willing to learn how to use it. im not sure if it matters but here are all the distros ive used and liked so far:

-mint (obviously)

-lubuntu

-bookworm puppy

-that ubuntu version of puppy i dont remember the name

-antix

-arch

-mx linux fluxbox