Upgrade Debian from 9 to 10 (Stretch to Buster)

First, change the content of the sources.list file.

Backup

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

Change the content

Edit it using nano editor:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Modify its content:

deb http://ftp.tw.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free #Taiwan
deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main
deb http://ftp.tw.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main #Taiwan

(CTRL + X and “Y” to save the file).

Because mine uses a Taiwan server, it is not necessary that you have to, please choose a nearest mirror for the best downloading speed.

Upgrade by running these commands in sequence:

1. First, update the local source lists:

sudo apt-get update

2. Next, install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system:

sudo apt-get upgrade

3. Finally, run upgrade the distribution:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Check the version of Debian:

lsb_release -a

My output:

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

ISSUE: On my notebook, the upgrade had only one glitch. The obmenu-generator said it needed a Perl module, called “Linux::DesktopFiles”. Installed the module and everything went smoothly.

sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'CPAN::Shell->install(q{Linux::DesktopFiles})'

UPDATE 15 Nov 2019: I found another bug when trying to “open terminal here” in Thunar: “Failed to launch preferred application for category TerminalEmulator. Failed to execute child process /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-1/exo-helper-1 (No such file or directory).) Directory exo-1 does not exist.”

Have to install the package name “libexo-1-0”:

sudo apt-get install libexo-1-0

as found here on askubuntu.com.

UPDATE 27 Nov 2019: I found that Shutter was removed from Debian Buster because of an unsecured dependency https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=914183. I have replaced it with Flameshot https://www.ubuntuopenbox.com/apps/flameshot/.

UPDATE 01 Dec 2019:

My right-click Send to » Mail Recipient of Thunar throw a error:

“Fail to execute child process “/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-compose-mail-1” (file or directory not found)”

A quick search turned up that I had the file in the system, just not in the directory it was supposed to be.

$ dpkg -S exo-compose-mail-1
libexo-helpers: /usr/share/xfce4/exo-1/exo-compose-mail-1

So I created a symlink as a workaround and was able to send the attachment again.

sudo ln -s /usr/share/xfce4/exo-1/exo-compose-mail-1 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-1/