Debian 13 is out [Solved]

[dolphin_oracle]

There is no set schedule, but I think we are pretty close. There are a couple of key components to finish, and we are still dealing with debian's removal of cgroup v1 support from the kernel. There were some non-obvious effects to the build system besides the discontinuation of systemd-shim. This happend during debian's RC2 phase, so I think we can be given some leeway on beta timing. Luckily we had a backup plan already or it would have taken longer.

We are close, just not quite there. I'm sure there will be plenty of bugs to find during beta phase

[capnkirby]

In reading the review on Distrowatch for Debian 13, the article mentioned the need for an increased boot partition:
"Before starting the upgrade, make sure your /boot partition is at least 768MB in size, and has about 300MB free. If your system does not have a separate /boot partition, there should be nothing to do."
Is this going to be the case for MXLinux? I ask as mine is not nearly that big at this time.

Thanks,
Capn

[dolphin_oracle]

In reading the review on Distrowatch for Debian 13, the article mentioned the need for an increased boot partition:
"Before starting the upgrade, make sure your /boot partition is at least 768MB in size, and has about 300MB free. If your system does not have a separate /boot partition, there should be nothing to do."
Is this going to be the case for MXLinux? I ask as mine is not nearly that big at this time.

Thanks,
Capn

/boot is not the same as the ESP.

our default /boot I think is 1GB. its only needs to be separate from / if you are using encryption. the initramfs files for the kernels are getting pretty big, and you need to be able to hold more than 1 kernel (3?) so the increased size doesn't surprise me.

[AK-47]

There is a new option in the installer for host-specific initramfs in the boot section, which will greatly reduce the images by only including the modules needed for the host it's being installed for, rather than being a generic fit for all. On my system it reduces them from 80MB to 18MB. The extra space may be more precautionary, during the upgrade I suspect it creates some temporary files while it builds the initramfs images.

[capnkirby]

Awesome, thanks!

[sisqonrw]

It's great that you exist. Without you, there wouldn't be such a great distribution. Thank you so much.

[rijnsma11111]

It'll be ready when it is ready.

That is the solid way to go! I have had more than enough problems with other Linux brands in former days because of too early releases.

[entropyfoe]

AK-47,

Agree on the RC. I wrote, many install the RC, and go on. I think Mepis 12 beta2 was run as a daily driver by some here on the forum for many years!

But I don't, I think the most stable result comes from installing the tested FINAL version

Yup, if you have a late RC, synaptic will upgrade it to final status, often that last RC is the same as the final, except for one fix, which may not even be affecting your system.

[NakedRider]

There are a lot of factors that will affect this, but usually expect several months (could be 3 months, could be 6 months, could be 9 months) for a release. This is why we do not give out release dates, because we don't have any, and we won't have any until fairly close to release time. We still have to do betas and RCs, how many betas and RCs before we are satisfied with a release will depend on any issues found during these stages.

Tight and defined release schedules work fine if the team is very large and has a structure pertinent to a large team, but even that doesn't go to plan all the time. Fedora is notorious for not heeding their own release schedule, so when a Fedora release is on time it actually is a pleasant surprise.

Please take your time. If you look at the Debian forum you will see that Trixie has numerous bugs. The one that bugs me the most is the nvidia-driver. You can no longer install it with sudo apt install nvidia-driver. Now the recommended steps from the forum:

apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential libglvnd-dev pkg-config
apt install dkms
apt install nvidia-driver firmware-misc-nonfree
update-initramfs -u

In addition the update-initramfs -u needs to be run after each kernel update - update kernel, reboot, sudo update-initramfs -u, reboot.

Some on that forum believe this is an nvidia problem. Some think some cards are no longer supported which is what they told me but -

My card is only 3 years old. I doubted it's support was already dropped. So I went to the nvidia website and my card was still listed as a Linux download. Just to make sure this wasn't a mistake I downloaded the file. The file is still there.

Also as you might know Bookworm used the 535 series of the nvidia-driver. Trixie uses the 550 driver so - I tried two non-Debian based distros both of which are using the 580 series. Both of them work after one command "install nvidia-driver". I doubt that support was removed from the 550 series but then added back for the 580 series. End result - my card is still supported and to make it work you only need one step just like it was for Bookworm and as it is with the current release of MX-Linux.

MX-Linux is a beautiful disto. In my opinion it has the most functional desktop out there. So many tools. The installation is without errors and the documentation is the best I've seen. If care is given to look into the Trixie bugs I'm sure the next release of MX-Linux will be even better.

Take your time. Test everything.

[AVLinux]

There were some non-obvious effects to the build system besides the discontinuation of systemd-shim. This happend during debian's RC2 phase, so I think we can be given some leeway on beta timing. Luckily we had a backup plan already or it would have taken longer.

I'm intrigued to know more about the particulars of this (if not here then in the Team section) I see lots of activity on the build system!