Debian Upgrade form Stretch to Buster - Ralph's Open Source Blog

Today I updated my Debian system on my working mashine form Stretch to Buster. This is just a short reminder for myself. I followed the blog form nixcraft here.

1. Check version

First check your current version and note if you need it for fixing problems later.

$ lsb_release -a
 No LSB modules are available.
 Distributor ID: Debian
 Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 9.12 (stretch)
 Release:        9.12
 Codename:       stretch
$ uname -mrs
 Linux 4.9.0-12-amd64 x86_64

2. Update installed packages

First bring your strech up to date by updating all your installed packages

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt full-upgrade
$ sudo apt --purge autoremove

3. Update /etc/apt/sources.list file

Now you can update your debian package source list from stretch to buster. First check your current versions:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

Now you need to replace the strech references with buster. This can be done quickly with the sed command:

$ sudo cp -v /etc/apt/sources.list /root/
$ sudo cp -rv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ /root/
$ sudo sed -i 's/stretch/buster/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
$ sudo sed -i 's/stretch/buster/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

You can verify our new list

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

Finally update you new package list

$ sudo apt update

4. Minimal system upgrade

In the next step you perform a minimal system update to avoid removing to much packages.

$ sudo apt upgrade

Answer question about restart of services wit ‘yes’

5. Upgrading Debain 9 to Debian 10

No you can run the real upgrade to Debain 10.

$ sudo apt full-upgrade

…this will take some time…

6. Reboot and Verification

Finally reboot your system…

$ sudo reboot

…and check the new version

$ uname -r
$ lsb_release -a

7. Clean up

Rund the autoremove command to get rid of old packages:

$ sudo apt --purge autoremove

Thats it! Have fun with fine tuning your new Debian Buster!