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Table of Contents
Sources.list
This is my /etc/apt/sources.list which grew and changed a lot during the past few years. Maybe it'll be helpful for you.
You should—of course—use a Debian mirror that is not too far away from you. The examples below contain the generic mirrors where you have to replace “XX” by your language/country code.
If you use a notebook, make sure to also read these instructions and enable TLP in your sources.list.
Bullseye
sources.list
- sources.list
### Main Sources deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free ### Security Updates deb http://security.debian.org/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free ### Software Updates deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-backports main contrib non-free deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-proposed-updates main contrib non-free
For servers
Although my page is aimed at desktop usage, please don't use the above sources.list on a server. There it should look something like this.
For firmware files (sometimes necessary on servers) you should add the “non-free” section as well.
# Main Sources deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main # (Security) Updates deb http://security.debian.org/ bullseye-security main deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main
Buster
sources.list
As Debian GNU/Linux Bullseye is the current release, I do not recommend to use Buster on the desktop anymore.
For servers
You can still use Buster safely on a server, but you should upgrade before july 2022 as the security support for Buster will end then (unless you run an LTS supported version).
# Main Sources deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ buster main # (Security) Updates deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main #deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
Stretch
The security support for Stretch ended in july 2020, I no longer recommend to make a fresh Jessie install.
sources.list
Because of the by now very old software available in Jessie I do no longer recommend to use it on a desktop at all.
For servers
Although the official support for Stretch ended in july 2020, you can still get security support for it by adding the stretch-lts repository. However, this works only for the i386 and amd64 architectures and will be maintained until june 2022.
# Main Sources deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ stretch main # (Security) Updates deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main #deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian/ stretch-lts main
Jessie and older
Currently you shouldn't use Jessie or older anymore for there are no more security updates. The following sources.list can be used if needed, it contains all (security) updates that were available for Jessie.
# Main Sources deb http://ftp.XX.debian.org/debian-archive/debian jessie main contrib non-free
Older
The sources.list for older distributions looks similar to the Jessie list, just replace 'jessie' with the codename of the respective release.