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Table of Contents
Hello. Lets make Debian fun again and learn how to do other cool stuff too. This domain can't receive emails so don't reply to emails. Check your junk if you get a mail from this site. The email was setup really cheaply, sorry. Email Peter (peter at allebone dot org) if you need help. He is a registered user here.
To easily find this page again just use either a search engine and search for “Make Debian fun again” and it will be one of the top results or use https://tinyurl.com/MakeDebianFun - either works fine.
This is a site for Debian testing users to hangout and learn together (and ubuntu+1 users too although ubuntu+1 is a little less stable and more like sid to be honest but we welcome you anyway or you might want to look at rhino linux which is a fun project).
Most of the guides may be written as if it was only for Debian but if this is the case, the instructions should also work on Ubuntu. If they do not, the instructions will mention Ubuntu specific differences to achieve the same task somewhere in the instructions. If you find some issue just let someone know so we can test and figure out why its not working and update appropriately. If you need some guide that doesn't exist just ask and if someone can do it we will create one. You can email if need be.
The objective of this kind of guide is to push the limits of what's possible and go further in learning and experimenting for newish users to Linux that just the normal, install your distro and use it until the next release. That's dull and everyone does that. Your learning path is too slow to do things that way. We need to be challenged now! We want to live on the edge and figure out how to have a beautiful experience on testing and get more up to date stuff! Its possible, and its a hard road, but its our road dammit, and we are going to live it. I believe it shouldn't matter if you are new to Linux. You can STILL install experimental builds and get down and dirty with the veterans of Linux. After all why not? Too much gatekeeping goes on in the world to be told what you cant, or shouldn't do. Lets embrace just going for it and living on the edge. I believe anyone can have fun on Linux and live on the bleeding edge and anyone can fix whatever they break.
With this in mind we install either Ubuntu+1 (maybe rhino linux if you want that) or Debian testing (once you are comfortable you can move to Debian Sid if you like, however testing is still very up to date so it works well for learning and also doesnt have unstable phases like when perl is updated and sid is unusable for like 2 weeks) in this guide, and in addition it has ideas for other things to try out. I have also ensured when things did not work, instead of going and changing the instructions so you don't see what happened, I have instead corrected issues and problems so that you can fully see how to repair borked systems when need be. This should help you to troubleshoot better if in a situation where all hope seems lost, and hopefully provide a glimmer of light to assist repair. The guide is for learning, not a sanitized guide of perfection where you just copy and paste commands without learning anything or any pitfalls that might befall you. Its good to know how to fix things that are broken.
Also, anyone can contribute if you want. Its an open wiki so feel free. Also try to show different ways to do the same tasks from time to time not always the same way so everyone can see how many ways there are to do things under linux. Sometimes its nice to do things 'wrong' then show how to fix them as well, as it gives a better explanation as to what's happening and shows everyone how to recover from mistakes).
Debian (And Maybe A Little Bit Of Ubuntu) Section
This section just links to the following places:
The Initial fun stuff - install:
Find Media
Actual Install
Some Extra Packages
Fix My System To Be Like The Guide Section
The Initial fun stuff continues after the install:
Timeshift
Upgrade
Firefox
Firewall
Theme
Backup
How To Backup Debian Or Ubuntu
This is the basic section complete, just getting your basics right is great as you now have a secure, stable system to build on. You will be surprised how few problems you have when everything is done correctly to begin with. Once you are happy you can move onto the next section.
Main Section
Once you have the system setup with the basics like correct partitioning, @, @home, timeshift and deja dup for a daily backup of home, and it all nice and secure and how you want it, then here are some extra things you might or might not want to do but can be fun:
ZramSwap
Swappiness
Virt-Manager
Overclocking For Games
SecureBoot
Visual Studio and other useful snaps
Enterprise/Server section
Here guides relating to server or business will exist. For example how to install Ubuntu LTS for a desktop dev in a work environment or how to install Debian Server (no GUI) etc.
Set CPU Scaling No GUI
Convert a Physical Machine to a Virtual Machine
Other Cool Stuff Section
Here guides relating to other cool stuff will be added such as a cool firewall like OpnSense or other cool things not related to the other sections.
Reattach to Disconnected SSH session
I want to make a usb key that boots with just the ISO of the distro I downloaded
Tune Ext4 to give you a bit more space
Maintaining a Testing install - Checking repositories/packages installed are clean
Convert BTRFS metadata to dup if not already setup that way
Add BTRFS no_holes filesystem feature if missing
Notes
BTRFS Note
Secure Boot Note
Rolling Rhino Note
QUESTIONS
