Debian / Linux / Mint

debian 12

whbeebe4 Comments

Debian 12/Bookworm hit a hard freeze before a final release three days ago. I downloaded an ISO, installed it as a KVM/QEMU virtual machine via Virtual Machine Manager 4, using my modest Linux Mint 21.1 system as a host system.

As you can see via neofetch, Debian 12 beta is running with the 6.1 version of the Linux kernel. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this, and the use of this kernel may help explain how well it works as a VM. Other little items I noticed:

  • The Papirus icons are now part of the Debian repos. I was able to install those icons, and then select them, using apt and the regular settings app without having to install anything extra. I much prefer this icon set over just about any other. I’ve got it installed on my Linux Mint system, and I install it, along with the Cinnamon desktop, on every other distro I work with.
  • Python is 3.11.2. This is the latest release of the 3.11 series, which is the highest current release.
  • gcc/g++ is version 12.2. This is the highest current release.
  • git is version 2.39.2. The highest current release is 2.40.0. I won’t quibble about the difference.

The only problem I’ve encountered so far is installing PowerLine. As you can see I did install it, but in order to do that I had to create a Python virtual environment, then install the Python package powerline-status inside that virtual environment. I modified my login environment to automatically activate that environment, at which point everything works, both on the shell as well as in vim. Since this is a beta version I’m going to assume that it might get fixed before final release, or possibly soon after.

If I had to use one word to describe this upcoming release, it would be “polished.” I’ve finally come around to the Debian way of the Linux world, having gotten here via Ubuntu and Linux Mint, especially LMDE 5. I like all the updated tools that Debian 12 is bringing to the party. Linux Mint is unfortunately tied to the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS release train. I would hope that LMDE will step up to Debian 12. If it does, that means that LMDE will actually be ahead of Linux Mint, at least in the near future.

4 thoughts on “debian 12”

  1. Always good to have a look at what’s coming… as for the issue with powerline, could it be this one? https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1021812
    Package search alone is golden in Debian:
    https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages – then to
    https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=powerline&searchon=names&suite=testing&section=all – from there to
    https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/powerline – and finally,
    https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=powerline;dist=unstable

    If this is not your issue, then please consider an additional bug report. And knowing Debian, I guess it will be another 3 months or so until the release (after the fixing of release-critical bugs…

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  2. You know what I hate about updates? It’s how they always throw in surprises that ruin something you really liked. For example GIMP has gone bad for me; I do not like the way it looks and operates on certain functions anymore. Most recently I was nagged to update Mint, but I have declined for fear of how much change there would be. The “this is much better” seems to always come with a price of “why did they ruin that?”

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    • I’m running Mint 21.1 without problems. I’m going to update to 21.2 when it’s released in April. I don’t expect anything to be ruined.

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