Debian desktop

Table of Contents

1. Description

Notes about Debian on desktop

2. Download

  1. Download the netinst image: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/
  2. Verify the download: verify-iso-files.html

3. Automatic configuration

See README https://codeberg.org/alan127/ansible-dotfiles

4. Manual configuration

4.1. Non-Free

The apt-file command (from the package of the same name) can be used to find firmware packages

4.2. WiFi

nmtui is a TUI program for NetworkManager (enclosed in package network-manager and a few others)

Debian and Ubuntu modified NetworkManager so that it would not manage any devices listed in /etc/network/interfaces. If you open this file and comment out the lines for the interfaces you want to manage and reboot; NetworkManager will see them. Do not comment out lo

4.3. Install packages

Restore the Dotfiles for the package list, if using Nvidia proprietary drivers make sure to install linux-headers-amd64 beforehand (see Nvidia section) 

sudo apt install $(cat ~/.pkg-debian)

4.4. Firewall

See ufw.html

4.5. Battery

To display low battery notification sooner, edit /etc/UPower/UPower.conf 

UserPercentageForPolicy=true
PercentageLow=30
PercentageCritical=20

sudo systemctl restart upower

4.6. Flatpak

Install the flatpak package and enable Flathub per-user installation of flatpaks 

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

5. AMDGPU

Nothing to do, since packages are already installed as dependencies (or dependencies of dependencies.. can be checked with apt-cache) of packages like steam-installer (which depends on steam-libs:amd64 and steam-libs:i386), mpv, vlc, xwayland or any desktop environment etc.

Since Debian 12 (bullseye) the installer handle installing non-free firmware package like firmware-amd-graphics if needed (see non-free section).

6. Nvidia proprietary driver

6.1. Requirements

Install the kernel headers for the NVIDIA driver to build with 

sudo apt install linux-headers-amd64

6.2. Install the drivers

Ensure non-free components were added to /etc/apt/sources.list before installing the nvidia-driver packages and the necessary firmware 

sudo apt install firmware-misc-nonfree nvidia-driver

6.3. 32-bit Nvidia libraries

After installing the drivers, enabling the 32-bit Multi-Arch is required for Steam 

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Update the list of available packages 

sudo apt update

Install the 32-bit version of the NVIDIA libraries package 

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-libs:i386

7. Steam

7.1. Requirements

Before using Steam, you must ensure you’re using the best drivers for your card, and that you have the necessary 32-bit libraries, as well as proper Vulkan support.

Ensure non-free components were added to /etc/apt/sources.list

7.2. Install Steam

After installing the drivers, enabling the 32-bit Multi-Arch is required for Steam 

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Update the list of available packages 

sudo apt update

Install the steam-installer package 

sudo apt install steam-installer

7.3. User permissions

You must be sure that the regular user that will run Steam games is at least at groups video and audio.

Append the groups with usermod 

sudo usermod -aG audio,video "$USER"

8. References