said Thierry de Coulon via tde-users:
| On Sunday 31 August 2025 22:20:50 dep via tde-users wrote: | > The install populated /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ with *absolutely | > nothing.* | | Yes, this sounds absurd. Experienced users will know what to do and be | able to edit a previous debian.list, but ppeople new to Debian will be | at a loss how to install anything.
Truly. I was gobsmacked. If I hadn't other machines containing sources.list, I would have been in deep trouble. I mean, I would have been ultimately able to find the stuff I need, but it would have been an unpleasant experience.
Here's another one: Remember when, if you tried to execute a command that requires root privileges, the error would tell you that you needed to be root to do that? Now it's simply "command not found." I discovered this when I tried to run synaptic, figuring I'd get the usual password box. instead, I got command not found, so I did sudo apt install synaptic and was told I had the latest version installed.
| Seems this has to do with a change: | "With Debian 13 (Trixie), APT now uses the deb822 format for managing | sources, replacing the old /etc/apt/sources.list. This change improves | readability, modularity, and security. Instead of a single line per | repo, sources are now structured with key-value pairs in | /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources."
Funny, there's no /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources on the new installs, either. So again we have simplification by over-complication. Are there KDE people now working over at Debian? Or maybe Canonical -- the new arrangement seems designed to drive people to snap or appinage or flatpak.
If they're looking for something to make readable, they should go after the "man" subsystem and leave the rest of us alone.
| Also seems synaptic does not (yet?) use the new format. From what I rad | apt should, but I can't test it.
Can't say for sure. Tried to check just now with Firefox as an example. The new distribution came with Firefox-ESR, which is kind of an abomination, and when I tried to install regular Firefox I was told the package was not found. So I went through the whole dog-and-pony show required to install Firefox:
(https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_install-firefox...)
That does put a file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and now Synaptic shows all kinds of Firefox stuff.
They also deprecated backports. Or something. I read into it a little way and found nothing in unbloated English, no "We've deprecated backports. Here's what you can do instead." (They kind of do, but it's pretty unsatisfactory.)
| I don't yet understand what it means - I'm waiting for MX 25 to come out | and I'll see how it is there. In the mean time it means one should keep | a copy of one's *.list files before installing Trixie.
Yes. I'm beginning to think that installing Debian (maybe all Linuces now) requires two machines, one you're installing to and the other to bail you out when things begin to make no sense. Which they do pretty quickly in the Trixie release.
| One of the reasons why - as far as possible - I usually install a | computer with two systems, so that I only move to the new system when I | know it's working, and can fall back to the old one if necessary (Like | the Japanese, who build a new temple while using the old one...).
Wise, I think.