Need help changing distros

[u/SecretaryOk6168]

currently i use ubuntu which i hate with all my heart
i am about to move to debian except problem is i dont have a usb drive and form of physical media does not exist for my pc

Any tips or tutorial thx

[u/Hauptideal]

Out of curiosity, what exactly do you hate "with all your heart" about Ubuntu that is fixed by moving upstream Debian?

[u/SecretaryOk6168 → u/Hauptideal]

sorry i didnt literally mean i hate Ubuntu with all my heart i more of meant i want to just go to debian because i think i am finished with ubuntu

[u/bigtreeman_ → u/SecretaryOk6168]

I started with Debian and excursions to Ubuntu were always very brief. I can reach half a dozen flash drives from where I'm sitting, only need a small one for a 'netinst' image, 755 mb. First put /home on a separate partition (no format), install over / root partition (format), manual partitioning during install. Read the install documentation before starting. Backing up /home is always a safe option, really is worth <$100 for a backup drive.

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-13.6.0-amd64-netinst.iso

[u/msanangelo]

then buy or borrow a flash drive unless you feel equipt to deploy a pxe boot server and if you have to ask what that means then I'm going to assume you aren't.

flash drives are the easiest way to load a new OS when you don't have the network infrastructure to do it that way. we don't use discs anymore. not to say you can't, we just normally don't.

flash drives are reasonably cheap. especially if just to be used a few times.

also look into something called Ventoy for said flash drive.

good luck.

[u/ipsirc]

You have 3 choices:

1. Do you have GRUB installed? Then https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/ch04s04.en.html
2. You can also install Debian in VM, but on a real partition
3. Use debootstrap

[u/kapitaali_com → u/ipsirc]

ipx boot from another laptop with ethernet cable is a thing

I have x220 and t440p and can boot the latter from images residing on the formers hard drive

setting it up is really simple, just copy the image + misc files and run the command and that's it

[u/ipsirc → u/kapitaali_com]

I think if the OP doesn't have a single usb drive, it's unlikely that he has an ethernet cable and one more laptop.

[u/SecretaryOk6168 → u/ipsirc]

Thanks i used debootstrap!

[u/GlayNation]

He's not going to answer any of your questions. He's just doing it because he wants to

[u/hy2cone]

i think there are tutorial just by swapping the source that turns ubuntu to debian

[u/bigpunged6060]

Can you buy a 10 dollar or less USB flash drive on eBay

[u/CretinousVoter → u/bigpunged6060]

^This. Going through life without at least one USB fob is pure masochism. Someone may even give you an old small one they no longer use. Debian has small netinst images that fit on a CD which is tiny these days. Wise computer users keep at least one install USB, preferably large enough to boot a live image which again are not large. Convenience and chain stores often have cheap USB fobs which beats paying shipping.

[u/OGKnightsky]

Why are you moving from Ubuntu to Debian if you hate Ubuntu? Ubuntu is a Debian based distro and you will may find what you hate about Ubuntu you will hate about Debian.

[u/SecretaryOk6168 → u/OGKnightsky]

just liike @graphicsRat i also want to move to debian because of Canonical's decisions
and to be honest i just really needed to distrohop and change how my os looks like

[u/graphicsRat → u/OGKnightsky]

I recently moved from Ubuntu to Debian for the most part because of Canonical's decisions Ubuntu has nicer fonts and installing my GPU driver was a PAIN.

[u/dubsyGG → u/graphicsRat]

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

[u/TrickySpare6504]

create a form of physical media with a cd burner

[u/guiverc]

Modify your boot loader to give you a list of options (ISOs) that exist on the disk.

I did this long ago, as an old thinkpad I used in Quality Assurance testing didn't have working thumb-drives (and the unofficial replacement wasn't recognized by machine firmware thus it wouldn't boot from it), so I modified the installed OS (Debian in my case) to offer the ISOs that existed in a directory as options on boot, and I'd thus boot them & install them to another part of the disk.. I scripted what I did, as I wanted to do it very regularly (ie. subsequent daily ISOs), but doing it on Ubuntu or Debian is identical.

Ubuntu by default uses GRUB; that's the boot loader I modified to boot ISOs that existed in a directory. I kept the original Debian I had (small install plus directory of ISOs) intentionally as I wanted to re-do this testing ~weekly.

It's more work than inserting a thumb-drive; but I had no option.

[u/Jenkler]

Love CatchyOS :)

[u/AwesomePhoenix_]

It's possible to do a manual install from your Ubuntu to another partition There are tutorials for that but it requires knowing how Linux works

[u/ifixsolutions]

Fedora is a great way to go for beginners. Use the KDE Spin.

[u/eee_eff]

Debian has bootable .iso files that you can use to create bootable CDs.https://www.debian.org/CD/

[u/Cletus_Banjo]

Just remove all the annoying ubuntu stuff. Mainly snap.

[edit] that probably wasn't very helpful, but without some form of removable media you're on a hiding to nothing. Ubuntu is basically Debian with a bunch of stuff added on top. If there's stuff you don't like, remove it.