Debian 13 was released last week. This article offers some tips to help you get the most out of your new Debian desktop.
Enable Additional Repository Areas Debian’s package repositories are organised into separate areas (or components) like main contrib non-free non-free-firmware , etc. non-free contains packages whose licences are not FOSS
contains packages whose licences are not FOSS contrib contains dependencies of non-free packages contrib and non-free are not enabled on a Debian system since they contain non-FOSS packages. You can enable the non-free areas to get access to additional packages such as nvidia-drivers , aac-enc , faac , etc Edit /etc/apt/sources.list as shown below: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware deb http://security.debian.org/ trixie-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware #deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware #deb-src http://security.debian.org/ trixie-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware #deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware #deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Add sbin folders to your PATH If you try to reboot your Debian system by typing reboot in the terminal you will get the following error: Error Debian has a long-standing tradition of separating system administration tools from regular user programs. Regular users don’t have /usr/sbin in their environment’s PATH variable. This means that your terminal doesn’t know where to find the executable file for the reboot command when you type reboot in a terminal. You need to type the full path to make it work. /usr/sbin/reboot This can be inconvenient when you are the only user on your computer and wish to run administrative tools without jumping through hoops. Add a single line at the end of your bashrc file ( ~/.bashrc ) to add the sbin folders to your PATH. export PATH = " ${ PATH } :/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
Add yourself to System Groups Debian adds new users to a limited set of system groups in order to restrict their privileges. This is good for security, but inconvenient when you are the only user on your computer. You can check the groups you belong to using the groups command: Default groups If you are the admin for your computer, you can add yourself to some optional groups to make your life easier. sudo usermod -aG adm,crontab,input,kvm,lpadmin,render,staff $USER What these groups do: Group Purpose adm Access log files in /var/log and system monitoring tasks without needing sudo crontab Running the crontab command to view, create, and edit scheduled jobs input Changing some input settings (mouse and keyboard) without needing sudo kvm For running VMs using Virt-Manager and KVM lpadmin Manage printers and print jobs without needing sudo render Give access to a rendering device like graphic cards staff Add and modify files in /usr/local without needing sudo vboxsf Accessing shared folders from inside the guest OS in VirtualBox VMs vboxusers USB passthrough (connecting USB drives to VirtualBox VMs)
Use Cloudflare DNS for quicker web browsing A DNS server acts like a phone book for the internet. When you type a website address like google.com into your browser, your computer doesn’t know where to find it. It first sends a request to a DNS server, asking for the website’s numerical IP address (e.g., 142.250.191.46). The DNS server then provides that address, allowing your computer to connect to the correct web server and load the page. An installation of Debian 13, by default, uses DNS servers of your local ISP which are usually very slow. Google and Cloudflare provide public DNS servers that are much faster. A fast DNS server can make your internet feel quicker because it reduces the time it takes to find the website’s address before any content can even begin to load. To use Cloudflare’s DNS servers on your system, edit the file /etc/systemd/resolved.conf and add 2 lines for DNS and FallbackDNS under the section [Resolve] . [ Resolve ] DNS = 1.1.1.1#cloudflare-dns.com 1.0.0.1#cloudflare-dns.com 2606:4700:4700::1111#cloudflare-dns.com 2606:4700:4700::1001#cloudflare-dns.com FallbackDNS = 8.8.8.8#dns.google 8.8.4.4#dns.google 2001:4860:4860::8888#dns.google 2001:4860:4860::8844#dns.google Restart the service systemd-resolved to apply the changes: sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved
Switch to local mirrors for faster packages downloads Debian’s update servers have mirrors worldwide, so choosing one closer to your geographical location can lead to much faster package downloads. Switching to a local mirror will let you maximize your internet speed and get updates as quickly as possible. There are many ways to select and use the fastest mirrors. We will install and use Nala. Nala is a prettier frontend for APT that makes it easier to install packages from the command line. It has the same syntax as APT. Run the command given below to install Nala from its official repository. sudo apt install -y nala Run the command sudo nala fetch to search for the fastest mirrors in your geographic region. sudo nala fetch When prompted for a choice enter 1 2 (one-space-two) and hit Enter. It will use the first two fastest mirrors in your region. Nala - Test Mirrors Nala - Select Mirrors
Enable Snap and Flatpak Debian is a stable distribution where the software in each release remains unchanged throughout its 5-year lifespan. Packages do not receive major updates or new features - only bugfixes and security patches. While this is great for having a stable and reliable system, it is not so great when you want to use the latest and greatest software. That’s where Snap and Flatpak come to the rescue. Run the following commands to add support for Snap and Flatpak packages: # snap sudo apt install snapd # flatpak sudo apt install flatpak sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo You can search and install software using syntax similar to Apt. sudo snap search mission-center sudo snap install mission-center I prefer Snaps over Flatpaks since they take up less disk space. Each snap package is an XZ-compressed archive that is mounted to a loop device and used directly, instead of unpacking the files and wasting disk space.
Install GNOME Software Centre Linux lacks a good FOSS GUI for browsing and installing Flatpak and Snap packages (not considering paid apps like Appy which can do all this and more). GNOME Software is the closest option available. GNOME Software Run the following commands to install the Snap and Flatpak plugins for GNOME software. sudo apt install gnome-software sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-snap The first time you open GNOME Software, you’ll need to wait a minute for it to download package information and app icons. Once the initial download is complete, your experience will be much smoother. GNOME Software installs software updates in offline mode when you shutdown your computer. This is similar to how updates work on Windows and can be extremely annoying as a Linux user. Offline Updates Disable offline updates with the following command: dconf load -f / <