Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

walter · 2026-03-11 10:20:41

Hi,

I know that a fresh install is the best. But if possible I would just like to do a distro upgrade.

There are these instructions; https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=8969 to base an upgrade path on.

Are there people who did an upgrade? How did that go?

johnraff · 2026-03-12 05:59:10

I have a laptop running Boron. Normally I would make a new partition, install Carbon to that and migrate settings etc over. That's what I did on my desktop machine, but the laptop drive is encrypted which makes it complicated (though not impossible) so I intend to do an upgrade of Boron to Carbon. I expect the instructions for Beryllium to Boron will pretty much work, but eventually I plan to write a Boron -> Carbon version.

Eventually. I'm a bit tied up with other things right now.

If anyone has any advice or warnings, please post!

hhh · 2026-03-13 00:25:43

Since we don't have a tested dist-upgrade, and my test USB drive seems to be suddenly fried and I can't install carbon, I'll suggest...

1) Rename /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list (I think that's the filename) to bunsen.list.bak and run 'sudo apt update'

2) Read and follow, where appropriate... https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/ … ading.html

3) Note that the most notable change is that you no longer run 'sudo dist-upgrade', run 'sudo full-upgrade' instead (though I'm not sure what the difference is)

The manual makes it look more difficult than it is. Reboot, then you can re-enable and update your bl sources (changing them to carbon) and let the fun begin!

walter · 2026-03-13 09:09:58

Thanks. I think I will just try it.

Make back-up of certain things. And just try it. And if it gets messed up I do a full clean install.

johnraff · 2026-03-13 09:28:29

The Beryllium > Boron post you've already found should cover it, if you just change the names appropriately.

unklar · 2026-03-13 09:36:07

hhh wrote:

3) Note that the most notable change is that you no longer run 'sudo dist-upgrade', run 'sudo full-upgrade' instead (though I'm not sure what the difference is)

^Here I still use both commands under 'sid'. It doesn't make any difference.

But it is correct(!)

sudo apt dist-upgrade

or

sudo apt full-upgrade

I just wanted to say.

Last edited by unklar (2026-03-13 09:39:44)

JasonMehmel · 2026-04-17 03:10:34

Hey @Walter: did you try it? How did it go? I'm interested in doing the same. I just loaded Carbon onto a USB to test it out.

I've got so many little fiddly folders and files set up for my workflow, (not to mention an overstuffed hard drive) I want to avoid making a new partition and migrating so much as doing a full upgrade.

JasonMehmel · 2026-04-17 18:47:44

And a call to the wider forum: has anyone else done a successful upgrade from Boron to Carbon on their main machine?

hhh · Yesterday 18:43:44

I can do one later, I'll post back. We're talking X11, right? Not switching to labwc and Wayland.

hhh · Yesterday 19:26:56

Successful upgrade from Boron to Carbon on my main machine? (testing partition)

Step 1) Download the amd64 iso.torrent (I'm on a cheapo Lenovo i3 laptop with integrated Intel CPU and GPU.) sudo cp the iso to USB. Install (total time for me, less than 20 minutes for all of that).

https://ddl.bunsenlabs.org/ddl/boron-1- … so.torrent

That torrent still has 35 seeders, our users are the best.

I love the theming and the ol' skool Debian Installer, enjoy your big fonts! Boron was a solid release (they've all been solid).

2) Reboot into Boron, BL Welcome fails. Disable /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list and update sources.

Upgrade something like 275 packages. Reboot.

The tension is killing me!

Reboot looks good, change /etc/apt/sources.list from bookworm to trixie, apt upgrade (hundreds of packages, should reboot here IMO), apt full-upgrade, another reboot.

hhh · Yesterday 19:42:47

Still a few hundred packages after the upgrade, definitely reboot there. lightdm seemed to reset some things on the reboot. The big moment, full-upgrade. I checked autoremove after this, it wants to remove network-manager, so don't do that.

hhh · Yesterday 19:55:44

So here's where the testing helps...

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list, change boron to carbon, apt update fails with the same keyring error from bl-welcome. Install the new key.

wget https://ddl.bunsenlabs.org/ddl/bunsen-release.asc

sudo cp bunsen-release.asc /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=9041

Update and upgrade, baby, let's see what we got.

hhh · Yesterday 20:05:09

A bunch of xfce4-panel warnings at reboot (from adding new applets in carbon, I think), I chose "Remove" to them all and everything seems fine. I'll have to look at the panel, but it's looking really good! Grub, lightdm-gtk-greeter and the desktop all have new themes, and the apps are trixie, which is quite current for the stability, if you ask me.

You may now delete the key from your Home folder.

hhh · Yesterday 20:07:39

I don't know why apt wants to remove network-manager...

hhh@carbon:~$ sudo apt --purge autoremove
[sudo] password for hhh: 
REMOVING:                       
  cpp-12*                      liborcus-0.17-0*
  gdisk*                       liborcus-parser-0.17-0*
  libabsl20220623*             libpaper1*
  libaio1*                     libpcre3*
  libassuan0*                  libperl5.36*
  libavfilter8*                libplacebo208*
  libavformat59*               libplist3*
  libavif15*                   libpoppler126*
  libayatana-appindicator3-1*  libpostproc56*
  libblockdev-fs2*             libpython3.11-minimal*
  libblockdev-loop2*           libpython3.11-stdlib*
  libblockdev-part-err2*       librecode0*
  libblockdev-part2*           libsdl-image1.2*
  libblockdev-swap2*           libsdl1.2debian*
  libblockdev2*                libssh-gcrypt-4*
  libboost-filesystem1.74.0*   libsuitesparseconfig5*
  libboost-iostreams1.74.0*    libswscale6*
  libboost-locale1.74.0*       libtag1v5*
  libboost-thread1.74.0*       libtag1v5-vanilla*
  libcanberra-gtk3-0*          libtagc0*
  libcbor0.8*                  libtirpc-dev*
  libcolamd2*                  libupnp13*
  libconfig9*                  libusbmuxd6*
  libdirectfb-1.7-7*           libwebrtc-audio-processing1*
  libept1.6.0*                 libzxing2*
  libfilezilla34*              lp-solve*
  libflac12*                   mobile-broadband-provider-info*
  libfuse2*                    network-manager-applet*
  libfuse3-3*                  network-manager-gnome*
  libglapi-mesa*               nm-connection-editor*
  libgspell-1-2*               p7zip*
  libgupnp-igd-1.0-4*          perl-modules-5.36*
  libicu72*                    python3-autocommand*
  libixml10*                   python3-inflect*
  libjim0.81*                  python3-jaraco.context*
  libldap-2.5-0*               python3-jaraco.functools*
  libllvm15*                   python3-more-itertools*
  libmbedcrypto7*              python3-pkg-resources*
  libminiupnpc17*              python3-six*
  libnfs13*                    python3-typeguard*
  libnma-common*               python3-typing-extensions*
  libnma0*                     python3.11*
  libnsl-dev*                  python3.11-minimal*
  libopenh264-7*               zlib1g-dev*

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 88, Not Upgrading: 0
  Freed space: 334 MB
cause
Continue? [Y/n]

Again, don't do it, and don't install nala as an apt front-end as nala will auto-autoremove.

Gotta figure out what dependency has changed.

*edit- I let autoremove run and then installed network-manager-gnome again before rebooting, everything is OK. It's a stable desktop, you should be able to troubleshoot minor issues from it.

Touchpad taps are all enabled and working as advertised, I love this release. We finally got the proper logo, as well (2 font weights).

I'd call it a success, I have carbon upgraded from boron on my laptop, dual-booting with my main install (also trixie, but GNOME). I have changed no configuration files other than apt, yet everything has been newly themed and upgraded (bravo, @johnraff!). I like the default theme (pat myself on the back) with great icons by @Micko01 to make it unique to BL. My laptop fan is quiet as I type this, totally unbothered. It's about as easy as it gets for Debian, and with Openbox as a desktop environment. w00t

Last edited by hhh (Yesterday 20:48:39)

JasonMehmel · Yesterday 21:10:37

Thank you for this play-by-play of the experience, @hhh! Exactly what I was looking for.

I also posted about this on reddit and someone wisely advised I should have separate partitions for /home and for everything else, which probably would make it a bit safer or at least easier; I could install off the USB and my /home files would be fine. It's all a mix now, but I'm going to consider it as I do housekeeping tasks of uncluttering my machine.

Last edited by JasonMehmel (Yesterday 21:14:42)

hhh · Yesterday 21:19:33

Right, my install was low risk, as long as I didn't manage to wipe my main partitions, all good. Use at your own risk, your mileage may vary.

Just to show off how brilliant @johnraff has been with carbon, behold BLOB theme manager by @damo in action. I'm switching to the Yeti theme, apparently it's missing an icon set (note the sage icons in the half-themed panel until it's installed)...

A quick tweak in panel settings to shrink the volume icon to what it is here, done. New login appearance for lightdm gets installed to match, so slick.

hhh · Yesterday 22:51:55

By the way, I always install everything to the one partition under /, it's always worked for me.

hhh · Today 00:25:21

You can see from my scrots, picom isn't working properly (no drop shadows or rounded corners). I replaced the contents of ~/.config/picom.conf with the current raw...

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Bunse … picom.conf

Reboot and everything is much prettier. BLOB change to bark-dark...

So slick.

DeepDayze · Today 01:25:36

So directly upgrading from Boron to Carbon should be pretty slick and pretty painless for the most part. Nice work on Carbon...on to Nitrogen!

#1 2026-03-11 10:20:41

Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#2 2026-03-12 05:59:10

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#3 2026-03-13 00:25:43

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#4 2026-03-13 09:09:58

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#5 2026-03-13 09:28:29

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#6 2026-03-13 09:36:07

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#7 2026-04-17 03:10:34

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#8 2026-04-17 18:47:44

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#9 Yesterday 18:43:44

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#10 Yesterday 19:26:56

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#11 Yesterday 19:42:47

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#12 Yesterday 19:55:44

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#13 Yesterday 20:05:09

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#14 Yesterday 20:07:39

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#15 Yesterday 21:10:37

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#16 Yesterday 21:19:33

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#17 Yesterday 22:51:55

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#18 Today 00:25:21

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

#19 Today 01:25:36

Re: Upgrade from Boron to Carbon?

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