LMDE 1 will reach EOL on January 1st 2016

The first release of Linux Mint Debian, i.e. LMDE 1 “debian”, will reach End Of Life on January 1st 2016.

If you are using LMDE 1, please upgrade to LMDE 2 “Betsy” by following the instructions at http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2830

Alternatively, you can switch to the following long term support releases, via a fresh installation:

  • Linux Mint 13 “Maya”, supported until 2017.
  • Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” or 17.1 “Rebecca”, supported until 2019.

23 comments

  1. For those of you who haven’t tried LMDE 2 Mate edition yet. GO TRY IT NOW. It is really, really amazing. Super fast, super stable, ZERO issues. This is my new go-to operating system for EVERYTHING. Old people, young people, I’m even using it as a server OS in a couple of cases. Mostly because I’m lazy and had the ISO in my pocket already. It has worked perfectly in that role as well.

  2. if you do go with the manual upgrade,
    then that’s ~1Gb of download(s).

    if you’ve got the bandwidth, then fine,
    else – a clean install of LMDE2 may be more prudent.
    – put that ~1Gb towards the LMDE2 ISO.

  3. I thought the point of a rolling release was that it was easy to upgrade. I know you recommend lmde for more experienced users, but there should be simpler and feel safer than replacing the sources list manually. I am inclined to stick to the static edition for that very reason.

  4. @Alexander: I believe LMDE is no longer “rolling” or even “semi-rolling”, and has be frozen since UP8–so, about April 2014 (feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken)

    Really, what could be simpler than changing the sources.list? I’ve done it many times, and if there’s an error or a typo, “apt-get update” will let you know. 🙂

  5. 1. LMDE stopped being rolling after the UPs have been introduced – it was no longer using Debian Testing repos. That said, Testing isn’t a fully rolling release as well – it gets frozen when the new stable release is being prepared. Sid is more like true rolling release.

    2. LMDE stopped being semi-rolling after UP8 – the only official upgrade path makes it use Debian Jessie repos which don’t get new upstream versions of software, only bugfixes and security patches. Only via enabling backports repo or using some 3rd party repos you can get the new upstream releases.

    For more info, please read the excellent LMDE FAQ here:
    http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=159257

  6. oooooooh will miss the start modprobe messages …….. I love these last messages … but thanks for your tireless work 🙂

  7. I’ve been trying to resote my LMDE-petra(Sausy) but the PPAs no longer exist and the repositories 91.189.91.23 have been taken off line. I’d like to restore my legacy virtual machines under this release but the support community has cut me off. I wouldn’t count on LMDE being around in the future either. Does anyone know where the Petra/Saucy repository is now?

  8. @Lee: Petra is main Mint edition (version 16), not LMDE.

    The repositories have been moved after the end of support:

    deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy main restricted universe multiverse
    deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-security main restricted universe multiverse

    Consider upgrading to Mint 17.x:
    http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=173378

  9. If I have /home on a separate partition can I safely do a fresh install of LMDE2? What’s with the old obsolete userdata created by installed programs there? Is there an easy way to get rid of them?

  10. @Egon
    I have done that, it works. I always stay with Mate desktop. (changing desktops could make problems I think)
    However, to eliminate the cruft, I prefer to make a parallel install (on the same machine), install my favorite programs, fully update, then copy over my data files.

  11. @Lee
    defer to Monsta, he is the expert
    FYI: PPAs are not compatible with LMDE. you can fix it after you break it when you try, but it is not worth the effort.

  12. @peter: Thx for the reply.
    With parallel you mean with a second home (same user)? I think I will give the fresh install a try. Maybe backup all ./ folders in home in the livecd boot first to guarantee a clean setup and copy them back as needed (f.e. firefox).

  13. @Egon
    nope, by parallel I intended creating a new /(root) partition and new /home partition
    install in the new / selecting the new /home
    then install your apps, update.
    copy (not move) data from existing /home to the new /home
    you can copy .thunderbird and .mozilla to to preserve that data too

    now you have LMDE1 intact and LMDE2 installed and very similar.

  14. Just trying the new LMDE. Looking good so far 🙂
    I initially installed LMDE1 partly because of the rolling (like many people I suspect) but I don’t foresee any problems transferring everything to LMDE2.
    How long will LMDE2 be supported for?

    Edit by Clem: Hi Steve, that’s unknown at the moment. It will depend on how long Debian wants to support Jessie. We’ll follow them on that (i.e. we won’t cut support early but we won’t support it once their base reaches EOL, the way LMDE 2 was designed that would not be possible anyway). We’re talking about a slow cycle though, this isn’t a matter of months, but a matter of years.

  15. Whell, i can’t be the only one who thinks that January First of 2016 is too much time, as that is about 6 months away. I personaly would give them until Aguist 3rd to updrade. LMDE 2 has been out long enough and once when the .ISO File hit the servers people should have been downloading it and seeding the torrent files. I don’t see the point in doing this with LMDE as you are downloading a anchent distro that will take GB’s of Data just to get updated and then download even more just to get you where you are, and you repos have a good chance of being screwed up in the process if they have not been all ready. This is not like the LTS’s where upgradeing is common this is a Debian rolling style distro and it just makes more seance to nuke and pave the system as most of your old themes and settings will be useless on the new Cinnamon desktop anyway. This is why LTS’s based on Ubuntu are better as updates are much more easier, there are much more packages, ppa’s, and better support unlike LMDE 2, where you are bouncing between the Debian forums and the Mint forums. I am glade that the Mint team will kill off the old man in the room (LMDE), if only they did that for Mint 13 with its old fart version of Cinnamon. I don’t know who would be dumb enough to still be on the Legacy LTS, and yes it is Legacy as you need to do a a custom respin and ppa it up on software just to make it work on new hardware

    @rhy: I am useing LMDE 2 Cinnamon for my Mothers Laptop and it is the main DVD riping machine for my dvd collection. It was a pain in the ass to get set up do to Debian’s studio repos. How ever if you want software use Linux Mint 17.2 and just make a .sh file that will install your ppa’s and software for you so you can automate it or just make a respin of mint with Relinux (it works on Mint 17.1). It seems that LMDE 2 is at least stable. Also how hard is it to add Nightengale and Pale Moon Web Browsers to LMDE 2? Also what happened to the Midroi Web Browser as it is not in the Mint LMDE repos?

    @Alexander:LMDE has been dead for awhile now. LMDE 2 is a semi-rolling release distro. Not as much as Arch or Ka OS.

    @ Fred Barclay: That sounds right

    Edit by Clem: Hi Jessey, you’re not looking at LTS from the right angle here. Other than a few people interested in particular aspects or non-PAE support, Mint 13 isn’t something people download or install these days. That doesn’t mean it’s not important to support it though. It’s used by a lot of people who installed it when it was released, and many of them installed it for the very reason that it would continue to work well for a very long time. We’re not developing for Mint 13 anymore. When we look at Mint 13 users we don’t look at an audience interested in getting new features, quite the opposite, we’re talking about people who are quite happy where they are. Our job isn’t to make it so everybody runs our latest version, it’s to make it so everybody’s happy with the version they have. So even if we could backport Cinnamon 2.6 (which was just released by the way) to Mint 13, we certainly wouldn’t (and if we did, it would be an opt-in). You can see how that works even in Mint 17.x. We’re not interested in moving 17 users to Cinnamon 2.6. They have a really easy way to stick to 17 and they have a really easy way to upgrade to 17.1 (and 17.2 when it’s released). We support both the case for people to run the latest version and for people to stick to what they’re happy with, and all in all it doesn’t cost us much to do that.

  16. I’m really really glad that Jessey isn’t on the production team. From his comments he’d be an ideal candidate for the sales team at MS!

    Edit by Clem: Hey hey.. there’s no need to be mean (to Jessey or even towards MS).

  17. I am new to Linux. I have been given my Linux computer by one of my grandsons but with no instructions. I have a problem communicating with him as he iives and works in another state. I have been slowly learning bit by bit. My main problem is working out which program does what.
    Is there a set of lessons in Linux that I can do on line???.

    Edit by Clem: Hi Ramon, I’d recommend http://www.linuxmint.com/documentation.php to get started and to have a look at your Administration->”Software Manager” to browse, read descriptions, reviews and screenshots for the most popular software. Also if you’re coming from Windows and wondering what is the equivalent for a particular software, have a look at http://alternativeto.net/?platform=linux. Last but not least feel free to run Internet->Hexchat to connect to the chatroom and ask people there directly whenever you seek answers.

  18. great just great another forced upgrade, well debian still supports debian 7. and i tried running lmde 8 but it runs horrible on my systems not to mention it doesn’t all the way. sometimes it boots but only with a black screen.

  19. Just a weird one I can’t fathom. Since upgrading my LMDE1 – LMDE2 when the screen locks, I have to type my password in TWICE before it lets me back into the system.

    So the system will go into standby. I press a key and it asks me to enter the password, which I do and the machine unlocks, only to immediately re-lock and require the password again.

    Any ideas?

  20. LMDE2 is an improvement and very user friendly distribution. However some important security programs are far from new versions or not present. IN this present age these are must-haves.
    For example the firewall ufw/gufw does not support VPN connection, thus users have to manually disable the firewall everytime vpn connection has to be made. Only the newer ufw based programs 14.10 or newer have this functionality.
    Also it is a pity that LMDE2 does not have an encrypted harddisk yet.

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