How To Upgrade Debian 10 to Debian 11

In this article, we want to teach you How To Upgrade or Update from Debian 10 to Debian 11.

After a little more than two years of development, the eleventh version of the Linux system Debian 11 was released under the code name “Bullseye”.

This is an LTS version for which users will receive support for the next five years.

In this guide, you will learn how to upgrade your Debian 10 buster to the Debian 11 bullseye.

How To Upgrade from Debian 10 to Debian 11

To upgrade your Debian 10 to Debian 11, you need to log in to your server as a root user or a non-root user with sudo privileges. To do this, you can follow our article the Initial Server Setup with Debian 10.

Now follow the steps below to upgrade your Debian buster to Debian bullseye.

Backup your Debian 10 system

First, you need to check your OS Linux version with the command below:

lsb_release -a

Output
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Release:	10
Codename:	buster

Then, you need to note down your Linux kernel version with the following command:

uname -mrs

Also, note down your Debian version:

cat /etc/debian_version

Update Local Packages

First, you need to update and upgrade your Debian 10 with the commands below:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

Then, run the command below to perform a major version upgrade of the installed packages and may remove some unnecessary packages:

sudo apt full-upgrade

Now you need to remove the automatically installed dependencies with the command below:

sudo apt --purge autoremove

Update Debian 10 to Debian 11

At this point, you need to edit the APT’s source-list files.

First, copy your all config files with the commands below:

sudo cp -v /etc/apt/sources.list /root/
sudo cp -rv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ /root/

Then, open the /etc/apt/sources.list file with your favorite text editor, here we use vi:

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

You will see the Debian 10 APT config file:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main
 
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main
 
# buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main

Change the file to the Debian 11 APT config as shown:

deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian bullseye main
deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian bullseye main
 
deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security bullseye-security/updates main
deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security bullseye-security/updates main
 
# bullseye-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian bullseye-updates main
deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian bullseye-updates main

When you are done, save and close the file.

Then, update your local package index again with the following command:

sudo apt update

Then, upgrade your system with the command below:

sudo apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs

You will see the APT listing changes and showing news about package updates. Make sure you read them. and press ‘q’ to exit.

Also, you will see the additional screen that Restarts services during package upgrades without asking. Make sure you choose the “Yes” option.

Next, you need to run the full upgrade system with the command below:

sudo apt full-upgrade

Finally, activate your new Debian 11 kernel by rebooting your system:

sudo systemctl reboot

When you are done, log in to your server and verify your Debian version with the following command:

lsb_release -a

In your output you will see:

Output
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Release: 11
Codename: bullseye

Conclusion

At this point, you learn to upgrade your Debian 10 to Debian 11 with a few commands.

Hope you enjoy your new Debian 11.

You may be like these articles:

How To Configure Automatic Kernel Updates on Linux

How To Upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 From CLI