Installing Debian sid LXDE

For those of you who are willing to go down the rabbit hole, I hereby present a quick guide to get Debian sid with an LXDE desktop installed reliably on PowerPC based computers.

Quick installation guide

Install an lxde-desktop with the latest sid image:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2023-06-18/debian-12.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso

If you boot into a black screen, follow this page.


Then after reboot make sure that you have ntp installed
apt install ntp
as you need to have the correct time and date. On my old iBook the battery that keeps the date and time correct is dead, so syncing with a time server is needed. You may need to add:
deb [arch=all] http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid main
to the apt sources list with
apt edit-sources
then update
apt update
apt install ntp

then make sure you have the correct time and date

We also want to fix the Home folder:
apt install xdg-userdirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk

Then it is time to edit the apt sources file again:
apt edit-sources
and add the following line:
deb http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports unstable main
apt update
then it will complain about the missing key for debian-ports (outdated needs to be changed, key is old):
gpg --recv-keys 81DCBC61
gpg -a --export 81DCBC61 | sudo apt-key add -

uncomment the DVD/CD deb line as well as the sid repository you just added
apt edit-sources
and then update
apt update

The better way to have the right key is to download debian-ports-archive-keyring and install it with
dpkg -i debian-ports-archive-keyring_20xx.xx.xx
use the correct date

If everything went well you are in sid/bullseye!
cat /etc/debian_version

Reboot and enjoy your Debian sid LXDE.

Please feel free to give comments and corrections to this guide. I will try to make a wiki post out of it later.

Published by admin

Developer of MintPPC

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8 Comments

  1. Great guide, just followed your steps above on a powermac g5 and now waiting on the apt dist-upgrade 😉

    1. I did a fresh installation of Debian Jessie and I noticed that there is something wrong with creating the right directories in the Home folder. I can only see Desktop, but normally it contains folders like Downloads, Music, Documents and so on. Strange. This is not ideal as it will also affect the folders you have in sid. If I install sid directly from a sid installer image, I don’t see this problem.

      1. Just do:
        sudo apt install xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk
        Apparently Jessie does not install these packages by default. These packages take care of the Home folder.

  2. helo i just installed debian 10.0 on titi powerbook, instalation went fine i thinks but it boot directly on the terminal , how do i come to desktop? thanks

    1. actualy the sid didnt work with grub at the end, so i installed the 10,0 buster and it went good throu!

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