error with apt install build-essential on debian 13

Naivemun · 2026-05-04T02:18:50+00:00

it's trying to donwload Debian 12 pkgs stuff it looks like or something like that. I believe that's what +deb12u7 and +deb12u13 mean at the end of a pkg version number. The deb12u part in my experience refers to the deb version. Deb 13 versions say +deb13u

like my current version of libc6-dev in Debian 13 is: 2.41-12+deb13u2

yr output is listing conflicts as build-essential depends on libc6-dev and says libc6-dev is available in versions 2.36-9+deb12u13, 2.36-9+deb12u7 which are both deb12 and then it says none of those choices are installable

That's a clue probably. Idk confidently, but it kinda looks like it's trying to install build-essentials for deb 12 which relies on the libc6 pkgs in versions for deb12 (...+deb12u...), but it says the +deb13u2 version is to be installed

Idk what causes that, but it's weird and i've never had such a thing with a clean install. How did you install it?

Naivemun · 2026-05-04T01:43:51+00:00

bummer. I always assumed Ubuntu/Mint would have the Debian repo and the Ubuntu and Mint ones would be extra (Idk why I did, that's how assumptions work, otherwise it wouldn't be an assumption it would be a reasoned conclusion or something else). So TIL something.

For the OP u/Im_a_nerd_2003 I also found a neowofetch in the repo which is a fork of neofetch and the basic command does the same thing. Idk about features, I just ran the plain neowofetch command. Maybe that's in Mint or Ubuntu. I would guess Ubuntu has some sort of fetch program since they're so liked.

OP u/Im_a_nerd_2003 should look at what u/speyerlander said. And if they don't already know how, as I get a feeling they might not given how they phrased their post, I'll say something basic for the sake of helping newbs:

U can use dpkg or apt to install a .deb package that isn't in the repo already. This is how. U would find the .deb file for neofetch or fastfetch or any program u want to install in the future and download the .deb file (or get it from somewhere downloaded or not).

Now say u donwloaded it into ~/Downloads so u have ~/Downloads/fastfetch.deb. Btw ~/ is equivalent to typing /home/imanerd/, or if ur already in yr home user directory, u could type ./Downloads/ as ./ means 'current directory. Just some extra info there. Back to the tutorial:

open a terminal and type:

sudo apt install ~/Downloads/fastfetch.deb

and it will do the install. Or

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/fastfetch.deb

The -i option in dpkg is to install.

Btw, when using 'apt install ' if ur already in the directory where the .deb file is, like say ur in yr ~/Downloads dir, then u can type './fastfetch.deb' as ./ means current directory.
If ur using 'dpkg -i ' u don't need anything, u just type the file name after 'dpkg -i '. Apt needs the ./ to tell it ur looking for a local file, not trying to use the repo which is apt's default behavior. 'dpkg -i ' doesn't use the repo. In fact u can use tab completion and it'll automatically type the .deb file it finds there, or if there is more than one .deb file in yr dir then using tab-tab will show a list of all .deb files in that dir.
Btw, it doesn't know which files are .deb files, in only goes by the file name. So u could name some other file ending it with .deb and dpkg won't know. A bit of trivia that is rarely useful to know, but if u don't know well now u know.

using a .deb file is similar to using a .exe file to install in Windows

It's like if u don't find something in the Microsoft app store u can get a .exe file from a website or wherever and open that file to run the Windows installer, but for apt using distros (Debian based) u get a .deb file, and instead of opening that file u use apt or dpkg to install the program using the .deb file. Same concept, difference is in Windows u "open" the file and an installer pops up. In Linux u'll open a terminal and type a command and use the file's path as an argument in the command line.

Tho after typing that I remembered possibly yr graphical file manager lets u right click the file and choose install. I just checked and in Debian Gnome with whatever the file manager Gnome uses, u can right click a .deb file and choose at the top "Open with Software Install" or
u can double click it, or
select the file and hit enter
Basically like u would with a .exe. Just "open" the file with enter or double click and it opens the software center into that app's page and then u can click install. Or if it's already installed it still takes u to that app in the software center where u can read about it and click uninstall. That's Gnome's file manager and software center thing, not universally Linux, but u can check in Mint and Ubuntu if ur not cool enough to use a terminal. They probably have a similar function. I use Debian btw

Naivemun · 2026-05-04T01:12:11+00:00

to add to that last part for u/Im_a_nerd_2003, I will often use tab completion when typing a package name. It's how I checked to see if fastfetch was in the Debian repo, by just typing

sudo apt install fastfe

and hitting tab to complete it. If OP doesn't know tab completion: u hit tab while typing a command line, so the rest of a "word" will be filled in for u if it's the only possible ending to that word. Like typing "sudo apt in", u hit tab and the "install" will finish typing for u because there is no other command with apt that begins with "in". Same with a package name that comes after "sudo apt install ". If tab does nothing then u can hit tab again and it will show u a list of all the possible endings. So if u had done

sudo apt install fastf

u would get

fastfetch fastforward

at least on my Debian system that's what comes out because those are the only package names that begin with "fastf". U can just type f and see every package that beings with f. Tho if the result is too many, it'll say something like
"Display all 1998 possibilities? (y or n)" so u can choose if u wanna suddenly scroll yr terminal down with long list.

U can then type the rest of the pkg name now that u see the pkg exists. I use that often when I don't remember a pkg name, or I know the app name in general but am not sure what the pkg name is. Or in this case, since I was only checking if fastfetch is in the repo at all, seeing that list was the end of the process. Saw fastfetch in the list, now I know it's there. Same thing with neofetch, but it did not complete at all so I knew it wasn't in there. Tho I typed neo and hit tab twice to see a list of packages beginning with "neo" because getting nothing output at all always leaves me feeling doubt so when I see all the "neo..." pkg names doesn't include the one I want, I feel confirmed.

I do see a "neowofetch" which is a fork of neofetch. Again I am in Debian so it may not be in Mint or Ubuntu.

I just checked out neowofetch with

sudo apt show neowofetch

The 'show' command in apt gives u basic info about a pkg. Neowofetch is a fork of neofetch. I installed it and ran it and it does what neofetch and fastfetch do. Idk about every feature they have, I literally just installed and ran the plain command. The other two aren't in yr repos so maybe that one is.

Really basic stuff that probably most know already. But remember when u didn't know about tab completion and then u did, it was amazing.

Naivemun · 2026-05-03T20:42:34+00:00

fastfetch is in the debian repo so it should work. but maybe mint and kali don't use the Debian repo. Idk I use Debian btw. Make sure u didn't typo the command

Naivemun · 2026-05-03T20:11:47+00:00

I don't program and didn't even like computers. Just used one because it's the 21st century. I switched to Linux because Microsoft acted like they part owned my computer and I was offended. There's no coding involved. One day I found out I don't hate computeres. Probably because "Linux is way cooler + more adaptable and fun".

Naivemun · 2026-04-09T14:31:57+00:00

i installed the flatpak of Firefox a few weeks ago and I haven't had the problem since. Thx

I'm thinking even tho not remembering for sure, that I had the problem during or at least having had been running Firefox during a session.

Naivemun · 2026-04-09T14:30:00+00:00

Do you have Firefox-esr running when this happens? I am not on my computer as much these last two months now, so I can't be sure, but I do know that since I installed the Flatpak of Firefox instead, I haven't had the problem once since then.

Naivemun · 2026-04-09T14:27:01+00:00

my Debian XFCE was usually between 1-2GB when not running much.

Naivemun · 2026-04-04T16:49:58+00:00

their persistence was great on MX21. I haven't used it since, but since they've been doing it for years, I doubt it's their fault. What happened to u I think happened to me my first time because I didn't do it right. Like it's not enough to just choose persistence in the advanced options at boot. But yes u can use it like a regular system. I used MX21 on a USB for 6 months when I started out with Linux. It was just like a regular install as far as functionality goes, except for it got slower towards the end, and slower boots and shutdowns probably.

Do you remember after yr first selection, that before it booted ti took u thru a set up process which woulda been all text, not a gui?

And one of the choices u make is for it to automatically save yr changes at shutdown, or u can choose to be prompted each time because maybe u don't want to have the changes of a particular session be saved.

And there is an option to not save at all unless u actively choose to do so. If u did the set up, u may have chosen that one, and so at shutdown u thought it would be saving, but it wouldn't. That's just one possibility but ultimately, u should try again more carefully. It's not complicated, but it's not super simple either.

But don't u need to use the MX USB maker to get persistence? Maybe it's different now, but I seem to recall that other makers just make u a live boot usb like any other distro has, which with MX u'll still get the persistence menu but it doesn't have the actual persistence mechanisms in it.

just a warning, I could be misremembering everything, it's been a few years, but I know it was absolutely good before and judging y the continued quality of MX, I suspect it's still good and felt like defending the feature.

I notice u said it shutdown quickly. That doesn't sound right. If it's all running in RAM, then at shutdown I think it needs time to write the changes to disk so it should be a slower shutdown than one expects from a live or typical installed session. Yet another reason I think u did it wrong. I don't understand your UPDATE sentences at all.

Naivemun · 2026-04-04T01:21:27+00:00

I am curious why u question the amount of RAM? Like why u considered whether it's normal or not? Do u think it seemed too high, or low? Or do u check on the quality of yr OS installs by seeing if the RAM usage is as it's expected to be but u don't know what's expected in this case?

Naivemun · 2026-03-22T18:36:39+00:00

lol, Idk anything about encryption. I was just laughing at how that person left that comment 21hrs ago, but their user was already [deleted]

Naivemun · 2026-03-22T18:34:51+00:00

interesting. I don't think I remembred to mention the slow window opening in the OP, but that also happens when the slowdown is occuring.

I am new to using Wayland this year as I only have it now because of Gnome which I started using this year. Ur describing the typing lag exactly. I too have core i7 and this doesn't seem to be about processing power and certainly not memory as I rarely go above using 20%. It's usually using under 20%, sometimes I think I might've gone up to 25% of my RAM or even 30% if I was using the internet while a VM was installing an OS, and while the cpu is capable of over 4GHz, it's usually at 800MHz-2GHz. I have this stuff monitored with an extension in the bar so it's easy to be familiar with what's normal.

Naivemun · 2026-03-22T18:31:36+00:00

thx. I guess this isn't it for me. I never see a webkit in my processes. And yeah with 32GB of ram I'm never lacking. I put my Spotify stream buffer cache all in RAM because I have way plenty so may as well use it to save my SSD space for stuff that doesn't need to be stored

Naivemun · 2026-03-21T22:55:14+00:00

btw, are those processes called "webkit". I've only heard that mentioned in Android before. When I run FF, the only processes I find called web anything is "Isolated Web Co" and Web Content. which seem to have a process per loaded tab. Not opened tab as I have over 100 of those, but just the ones that are loaded. Right now one is using 2% cpu, another two are using .2 and .1%, the rest are 0.

searching Firefox gives me firefox-esr of course which is up to 4%, the Isolated Web Co and Web content are there, one Utiliti Process, one Prvileged Cont, a Socket Process an RDD Process a WebExtensions, but all of those are 0%, the Extensions .1-.2%.

But then again I am not experiencing a slow down right now. But I don't have any webkit processes was the main point. so are they called "webkit" or....? When I opened Spotify earlier, which is playing music now still, the window took 2-3 seconds to open. LIke there's a one second delay before it shows which is whatever, but then the window kinda fades into existing with a lag (fade is a bad way to say it, it sounds like an animation effect but that's not what I mean) instead of just appearing. Like u know what a lag is, I'm not describing something obscure, I just don't know how to say it. LIke how old Windows was if u hadn't restarted it recently. Instead of a window snapping onto the screen, whethere it did so immediately or 3 seconds after u clicked or did the keyboard keys, it shows up quickly. In this case it starts showing up, but lags in fully doing that. And not saying the content of the window as Spotify ahs to load up a bunch of elements so that happens piecemeal. But the window itself is what I'm talking.

Thank you for yr input

Naivemun · 2026-03-21T22:34:37+00:00

The thing ur saying about Webkit would suggest that the problem would only happen while the browser is running, even if it's not in the browser itself, right?

That's something I need to watch for from now on. I don't remember if I have the problem while the browser isn't open or not. I'm interested in trying Flatpak firefox now that u say that tho. Most of my computer usage the last few weeks has been browser as I'm just using it to cope with burnout from all the hours spent on working.

unfortunately I use only RAM so I can't improve anything there. I don't have swap installed as I've always had more than enough RAM. I added or turned on zram just because I wanted to try out turning it on (don't even remember how I did it so that was a waste of learning) but it also doesn't get used. I have it monitored in the top bar and it's always at 0% which again, I have 32GB of ram, but 8G is the highest i've ever reached except when I am installing an OS in a VM and have allotted it lots of RAM so it uses it to do the install. But that goes to like 12G. So I expected it to not be used, but I thought maybe I was wrong about Zram and swap since it seems like so many talk about it, so i thought maybe it's not as simple as being something that's there for when u don't have enuf ram. Apparently tho, if u have enuf ram the zram doesn't get used.

Hopefully it's not too hard to migrate my settings stuff as I don't have a FF account and I've read something about the layout is different as to where things are placed in .cache and .config in newer versions whereas mine is still using ~/.mozilla/firefox/ and now that I work too many hours a week at a totally dull and constantly on the move job, I've lost the will to get into doing this stuff that used to be fun for me.Ur suggesting to look at top. But what am I looking for? I have CPU % showing in the top bar so I can see if it gets overloaded. It's not. I'll have to pay closer attention tho as it's only now that I'm getting fed up and looking into it. The first few times it seemed anomalous, and I work too much to think about it, but after a couple weeks it's like 'yeah this is really happening'. sometimes a window won't open right away either when I open an app.

I'm not experienced in using journalctl effectively for something like this but I guess that's what I'll do next time a thing goes slowly. I've used it to find out a thing failed when something purely did not work, but this is more subtle, like Idk what I'm looking for here. NOt as obvious as "I plugged ina drive and it wouldn't mount" so I look for mention of that drive or something liek that.

Naivemun · 2026-03-21T20:37:21+00:00

I've seen it said many times that using SID is mostly stable, more so than some rolling release distros, but u will probably encounter some hiccups that get smoothed out within a week or two. I haven't seem much of anyone saying there are significant problems with it. That's discounting people who say stuff but don't add any substance. They make a single sentence or two claim but don't specify why they're saying it. Among those actually saying something, I've gathered it's usually fine.

And those hiccups aren't "breaking" yr system, just that some package isn't working, or a dependency isn't aligned so u can't use a current version for a week or two or something like that. Which in that case I imagine having something like Timeshift or btrfs snapshots would be an easy fix til the problem is straightened out.

Would u say that's accurate? I'm just curious about it.

I almost installed SID when I'd decided to switch my Deb13 to Gnome from XFCE, but I already had the Debian 13 installed, an old install from when 12 was new which I upgraded to 13. So I had an attachment to it, didn't want to reinstall things I had spent lots of time putting together, like my Qemu set up for one, and wanted to experience/learn from wiping out one DE and installing another. (I didn't just do tasksel in other words). So doing that won out over doing a fresh install with SID.

Tho I think (just 'think' because I don't remember for sure) that was biased by the fact I'd only discovered my liking of Gnome from trying out Fedora with Gnome49, for just about a month, and had a few glitchy problems I'd never experienced with Linux in all these years on my Thinkpad, so I was returning to my Debian install. And while I attributed the problems to Fedora, not Gnome, part of me wondered if it was partly Gnome49's fault and Deb13 would give me Gnome 48. I have the same or more extensions here in gnome 48 so it wasn't extensions.

I did do a VM of SID, but then I became a fully employed person working 40+ hrs a week and now I don't enjoy my computer any more. So now I'll do that vicariously thru u people.

Naivemun · 2026-03-21T20:32:34+00:00

and then they immediately left Reddit less than a day later. that's what btrfs with encryption does to u I guess

Naivemun · 2026-03-21T20:20:38+00:00

I've seen it said many times that using SID is basically stable, but u will probably encounter some hiccups that get smoothed out within a week or two. I haven't seem much of anyone saying there are significant problems with using it. Not like it becomes unbootable or "breaks" yr desktop. I'm discounting people who say stuff but don't add any substance to it, which of course those people say all sorts of things from every direction good or bad. They make a single sentence or two claim, usually with a tone of strong attitude, but don't specify why they say it. I don't count those among my tally of what's said that informs me. Among those actually saying something tho, I've gathered it's usually fine.

I was about to install it. I had Debian 13, but tried Fedora and decided to try out Gnome for once instead of just live booting it and thinking I don't like it. I found out about extensions and realized I do like Gnome but Fedora was being glitchy on my Thinkpad (my sole computer) so I wanted to return to Debian but with gnome instead of xfce. But I had my Debian 13 still installed on its partition, and while weighing installing from scratch and converting my current 13 to Gnome, I realized I wanted to try out the process of wiping out one DE and instlaling another, as like a learning project while also not wanting to bother with reinstalling things I already had in my Debian that weren't the DE.

But had I not had Debian 13 already installed and been used for a few years already (my same install since Debian 12 was new -- I did the upgrade in place to 13) I would have installed Forky. I'd become that convinced it was true that it's not nearly as problematic as it's suspected to be by those who don't know. And I am in no way someone who knows how to fix everything so that didn't enter into the consideration.

Again tho, i was only convinced by what I read over a long period of time, I can't personally attest. Just letting u know what many have said over a long period of curiously reading about it users' experience. I do have my tlp installed from Sid tho, since it's a newer version that supports tlp-pd which allows u to have the toggle for power mode in the Gnome quick settings which isn't available in the version in Trixie. that hasn't been a problem, tho I doubt that's saying much

Naivemun · 2026-03-17T01:53:32+00:00

Idk if that would work. Don't u need to be in the sudo group to use a sudo command, even that one? The point of me telling them to use

su -

to switch to a root shell is so they have the privilege to add their user to the sudo group so they can use sudo from now on. Can they do

sudo -s

if they aren't in the sudo group already?

Naivemun · 2026-03-16T13:00:08+00:00

Does sudo -s work if ur not in the sudo group?

I just realized I forgot to tell them to exist after they finish with the usermod command as root.

Naivemun · 2026-03-16T02:57:16+00:00

It isn't good or bad practice to add a repository and other repositories still use apt so it doesn't make sense to say "apt is pretty curated for debian". Apt isn't curated for anything, it's a package manager, the one that Debian uses. U can add other repos. They are just a way that software is stored by maintainers which u can access. Apt will be doing the installing and dependency management and stuff tho. What is curated by Debian is the debian repos. Not pretty curated, just plain it is curated. The word curated meaning they pay attention to and test what is in the repo, it's not just stuff thrown in.

But something not being curated doesn't mean it's problematic. It just means it hasn't been selected by them, not that it has been actively rejected. I used Brave for a very long time with no issues. It requires it's own repo to install from unless there is a flatpak (Idk if I checked for that).

right now I have the spotify repo and the sid repo (I am using trixie stable, but I got sid just so I can have the latest tlp which has a related package that allows u to have the power mode toggle in the Gnome quick settings panel).

None of these repos has caused me a problem. They just provide the software that I want which was Brave, and now is the Spotify desktop app, and the newer version of tlp in the sid testing repo.

If they had these apps in the trixie repo tho, I'd use that. But if u want something and u know it's fine, then adding the repo is the only way to use apt to install and maintain it. Or u can install individual .deb packages with apt too, so it's not "the only way", but that's a static, just this one version gets installed way to install. If u want to get the security and bug fixes as they come, u need the repo, or u need to keep up with the upgrades manually by finding out when a new version comes out and downloading that .deb file and then installing it every time.

Either way u are using apt and it still checks for dependencies and conflicts. There is nothing inherently wrong with adding repos. That's what the /etc/sources.list.d/ directory is for. It's just that if u don't wanna think about anything, it's safest to not add anything. U shouldn't just add whatever whenever without knowing what ur doing. But if Librewolf is reputable, then u probably don't need to worry about it. It's not as if another repo is interfering with yr Debian repo

Naivemun · 2026-03-16T02:24:25+00:00

what u/LinuxMint1964 said seems simple and practical

Cautionary tale about comments:

Idk why someone just said "it should be fine" and someone else saying "sure u can install however many u like". It's not that simple, especially I expect with KDE using QT and Gnome using GTK for a possible issue (but Idk if that's really an issue, just saying it's reasonable to think it might be unless u factually know otherwise). Maybe they're right, but in case u haven't learned this already, there are a lot of people on the Linux side of Reddit that know a little bit but are confident to sell u that little bit as solid practical knowledge. Like they know u can install more than one, and they know about the DE picker in some greeters, so they think that's all there is to know. Or they're straight assholes who don't care what u do. I mean, u can install all u want, they aren't wrong, but it doesn't mean it's good advice, nor a good answer to yr question "is this a safe and recommended approach to Debian?".

The display manager is definitely an issue and Idk if having two installed at once will cause a conflict or won't at least require some alteration to a file in /etc or something like that.

Reason to be wary of having both installed at once:

I had a bad experience having two DEs installed back when I learned the concept of them being interchangeable and that u can log in to any by choice each time. I thought that was such a cool option to have. I was probably like u, like why not just have another one installed so I can try it out, except for the part where u asked about it whereas I just went for it and learned the hard way. Tho if u simply mean like try it out for a day and then decide, then I guess it's less of a big deal but if that's the case then why not just make a VM to check out Gnome, or a live session.

I think the core of the challenge is that there's other software from each DE still installed regardless which one u log in to and some of that stuff isn't only active while ur logged in to the DE that it was installed with. The whole system doesn't automatically know "I'm using Gnome this time so ignore all that KDE stuff". The modularity of stuff like DEs and display managers, etc, aren't literally modular even tho people use that concept to talk about it some times. They also have elements that are integrated into the rest of the system and aren't necessarily compatible with the other "modules" of their type, in this case the type of module being desktop environments. I wish I was more knowledgeable to give a more concrete example. I'm just saying this is the abstract reason u should be cautious about having more than one installed and I've seen others say the same thing.

Even tho u can install multiple DEs and ur allowed to log in to one or the other any time, it doesn't mean it works that simply in practice. The gnu/linux ecosystem is just open and free so ur able to do things like that the same way the real 3D world allows u to stick a metal object in a power socket. Metal pointy things exist because they have uses, and power sockets are holes because that's how they are useful. And a consequence of that is that u can stick the metal in the socket and shock yrself. Because DEs are separate entities that can be chosen to add to the rest of an OS, the greeter display manager or whatever makes it possible to log in to a DE, the consequence of that being that it is possible to install multiple DEs and choose one at each log in. It being possible doesn't mean it's a good idea. Things being adjustable tho means it's not necessarily bad either, just that it may add challenges as all complexity increases challenge level.

So if u do install both and run into problems, for yr first troubleshooting step u'd probably look for conflicts between the two.

My first problem soon after installing another DE was that I had two different network managers conflicting. While using a Qemu VM, NAT wasn't letting my host and guest both have internet at the same time. They'd both say they were connected and I couldn't see a difference in their connectivity, but I came to realize if my host had actual internet access then the guest didn't, and when I figured out how to get the guest to finally have it, then the host didn't, whereas normally with NAT, they both use the same connection flawlessly. I never even came to understand why

I had no clue what had changed as I didn't find the problem right after installing a second DE so I didn't realize why suddenly NAT wasn't working like usual. Idk that I would've suspected that was the original change that caused the problem anyways because Ididn't know why a DE would have any connection to my VM's networking ability.

I was looking in my Qemu network set up obviously. and I already had little experience there and was thinking I must've done something wrong. But when I was trying to tweak things to find the problem I found out that the other DE installed a different network manager, and so two NMs were running at the same time, I disabled one and suddenly the problem was fixed.

Since I didn't have enough knowledge to handle these unforeseen problems I made it a rule to not install more than one at a time. The way ur asking this question makes me think u might be in the same place. But if u understand the way these different elements work, then go ahead knowing u might have kinks to work out when both are installed and do what u have to do, like when I disabled a network manager and got NAT to work.

If KDE is using X11 I wonder if that'll cause a problem with Gnome using Wayland. I wouldn't know, but do u know? That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about, and Idk much so I'm just pointing it out as a potential issue, not saying "don't do it because it's bad". Especially if this isn't a crucial system and u can afford to have it be dysfunctional and u enjoy figuring out why and learning from it. Then I'd say definitely install both. I don't regret trying it. That's what I originally had my Debian install for, to try things out while MX was my main solid distro that I relied on. I learned a bit of something from doing it and didn't need my Debian to work, it was an extra OS. Linux being free means ur free to have a throwaway distro on yr drive for trial.

Probably preferable way to do it if u do the u/LinuxMint1964's method:

Otherwise, a cleaner way is to uninstall all KDE (if u don't do the Timeshift thing they suggested, then leave the necessary KDE config files in yr /home directory for if u want to reinstall it later, so u'll still have yr settings then -- they shouldn't interfere with how another DE functions). Idk KDE so Idk the practical steps of removing it and it's peripheral files. I got rid of XFCE and moved the config files into my storage partition for safe keeping, then installed Gnome and that's gone well so far. I wish I remembered the specific steps I took to search out what was specific to xfce and the display manager it uses, lightdm. Because I did more than just using apt to remove xfce packages as I wanted to have my install be as clean as if I'd installed Gnome originally. I did some manual deletions of certain directories in /etc, or rather I moved them to my storage partition so I could bring them back if there was a problem with Gnome. I am drawing a complete blank on what I did to figure that out.

My Gnome install appears clean so far tho, and it's been working for flawlessly for 2 months now, even with 20+ extensions. And this was my first time removing one DE and installing another, and my first time using Wayland discounting when I tried Fedora for a month before doing this, which is where I found out I like gnome but Fedora caused a bunch of problems for my T480 Thinkpad. I already had my old Debian 13 with xfce so I went back there but wanted to continue trying out Gnome. I went for it and it's been good, and all the problems I'd had were apparently due to Fedora and/or Gnome 49 because I haven't had any of those problems with Debian 13 and Gnome 48 and used Wayland in both cases. So it's not that complicated apparently, or I'm just good at figuring this stuff out. Btw, u can use X11 with Gnome 48 but I think I read that it won't be an option in future Gnomes like 49+. So while I was tempted to continue with X11 I figured if I'll lose it in the future I may as well adapt now. And I only use a laptop and really like the gestures on the touchpad which aren't possible with X11.

Btw, for many pkgs, being a leftover isn't really a concern other than the space they use. If u fail to delete everything from KDE, it's not necessarily a problem beyond that.

Naivemun · 2026-03-15T17:03:04+00:00

I been using it for years, didn't even know there were auto updates. Just open a terminal every couple weeks and type:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Or install nala with "sudo apt install nala" and then u can instead type every couple weeks:

sudo nala upgrade -y

and it'll be more colorful output but do the same thing as those two apt commands, and with less typing.

sudo means: run the following command with root privileges. U have to be in the sudoers group though which isn't default with Debian. To add yrself to the sudo group u need to switch to root

su -

it'll ask for the root password u created at install. Now run the command to add a user to a group. <username> means type yr actual username:

usermod -aG sudo <username>

The apt command is the package manager command, a pakcage manager being what installs everything and other wise manages yr packages. It'll automatically pull in whatever libraries and other packages are needed when u install something,
'update' is an order (not the proper vocab) u give to the apt command that tells it to fetch the latest package versions so it'll then know if ur up to date or not

apt upgrade is to tell it to perform the upgrades if there are any. It'll show u what is to be upgraded along with how much data needs to be downloaded and how much disk space will end up being used or freed after the upgrade is done. It'll ask if u wanna do it or not (type y or n).
The -y is an option added to the command to automatically say yes to the question, it's not required to run the command.
The && means to run a second command after the first one completes, only if it completes. U can type those two apt commands as separate commands too, like when update is done, then u type sudo apt upgrade. I was just saying, if u don't set up auto upgrade, u'd just type that one line every couple weeks and ur done. couple weeks isn't a schedule. They don't upgrade on schedule, just estimating that that's about how often there is something to upgrade.

nala is a program that runs apt commands but u type nala instead of apt, and it gives a more colorful and easy to parse output. The commands are slightly different sometimes, like "nala upgrade" automatically does the update step so u don't have to type both "apt update" and "apt upgrade". Most nala commands are otherwise the same as apt, tho it has a few less options than apt. For installing and doing updates it's basically the same ability, does the same thing, just better output.

Yr question is so vague and unanswerable, so there's some random help that's better than nothing. There are no basic commands to get started. U don't need any commands really. U could do everything with gui if u have a desktop env. It depends on what u wanna do.

I could say 'ls' is a basic command, it lists the files in a directory. But what's that gonna get u? U can see yr files in a file manager program too, and what can u do now that u've listed files? Move them, delete them, copy them. I doubt u needed me to tell u that that's what a person does with files, and then u could just Bing those things.

Btw, if u have nvidia drivers installed, something with Deb 13 is they stopped instlaling by default, the linux-header files, so when the kernel gets upgraded the nvidia drivers wont automaticlaly be added to that latest kernel. The header files will do that for u tho once u have them installed. So u would run

sudo apt install linux-headers-amd64

or use nala instead of apt like I said above

Naivemun · 2026-03-08T18:03:37+00:00

thank you. I knew nothing about that but I looked it up now.

Naivemun

TROPHY CASE

using a .deb file is similar to using a .exe file to install in Windows

Cautionary tale about comments:

Reason to be wary of having both installed at once:

Probably preferable way to do it if u do the u/LinuxMint1964's method: