(posted when I was 48 years old.)
I took detailed notes during the preparation phase, but they were in an unsaved log entry in an open browser tab that I closed as I rebooted to install Bookworm. So I'm recreating those notes from memory with a little help from my bash history.
I decided today it was time to upgrade from Debian 12, a.k.a. Bookworm, a.k.a. oldstable to Debian 13, a.k.a. Trixie, a.k.a. stable. Only after making that decision did I discover Bookworm hit end-of-life just a couple weeks ago (although LTS will be ongoing for some time). So that confirmed my decision for me.
For those keeping score, I last reinstalled just over two years ago. Anyway, in theory I should have everything important backed up, so the easiest, cleanest thing to do is just wipe my primary drive and do a fresh install. Right? Well, now is a good time to check on that "in theory" thing, since we all know me.
$ type config config is aliased to `/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles.git/ --work-tree=$HOME' $ config status fatal: not a git repository: '/home/prijks/.dotfiles.git/'
Sigh. We do indeed all know me too well. This should be a quick fix, right?
$ git clone --bare https://codeberg.org/prijks/dotfiles ~/.dotfiles.git $ config config core.worktree "$HOME" $ config config status.showUntrackedFiles no $ config reset HEAD
Only took a few git shenanigans to get to where I needed to be.
$ config status On branch main Changes not staged for commit: (use "git add/rm ..." to update what will be committed) (use "git restore ..." to discard changes in working directory) modified: .bashrc modified: .config/kitty/esgeroth.org.conf modified: .config/mpd/mpd.conf deleted: .config/nvim/init.vim modified: .config/sway/config modified: .config/sway/increasevolume.sh modified: .config/sway/launchWST.sh modified: .config/waybar/style.css deleted: .local/bin/firefox-launcher.sh deleted: .local/share/applications/userapp-Firefox-newwindow.desktop deleted: .signature
Yikes.
OK, it is what it is. Let's feel positive instead. Reviewing those modified files, I found some fun things. Like my waybar style.css:
* { font-size: 14px; - font-family: 'Comic Code', monospace; + font-family: 'ChicagoFLF', monospace; }
I've grown so accustomed to seeing it, that I sort of forgot that I found a Chicago clone and set my waybar to use it. It's glorious. I sort of take it for granted, but between my Chicago waybar and Comic Code terminal font, I really love the fonts in my setup.
Then while reviewing the changes in my .bashrc, I went down another rabbit hole. It's been on my mind for some time that I wanted unlimited bash history and also didn't want separate bash sessions to clobber each other's histories. Naturally I am not the only one looking to achieve this, so I found a way of doing so. It's pleasing to cross a wishlist item off the list.
So finally I reached the point of no return and installed Debian 13. Everything mostly went well. I was able to get my dotfiles and restore my Firefox profile and so on. The only thing that's not working is sway. 😭
I put up a good fight. I tried both the radeon and amdgpu drivers. I tried launching from a terminal. I tried my config and the Debian default config. I tried numerous environment variables. Nothing worked.
My gut feeling is maybe it's time for a new graphics card. I bought the current one in 2015. 11 years is a pretty good run for a GPU.
For the time being I'll just live in Gnome. I miss my Chicago waybar font. I tried using gnome-tweaks to set the system font to Chicago, but it was too much. I just want it in the status bar. At least my terminals have Comic Code.
I guess the nuclear option would be to ditch Wayland and use Xorg with i3. Or just talk to Branden about AMD's GPU offerings.
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