Upgrading Debian

I’m upgrading from Debian 12 to Debian 13.

The last four times I tried this, things went less “smooth system upgrade” and more “summoning an ancient demon through SSH.” Applications broke, the server cried, the logs started speaking in tongues, and I came dangerously close to moving into rescue mode permanently.

Luckily, I had a consistent backup. Was the snapshot old? Yes. Did it work? Also yes. And in Linux terms, that basically counts as divine intervention.

Since then, I’ve been avoiding another attempt the way you avoid touching a sparking power outlet.

So if this site goes down for a few hours, now you know why. It wasn’t a hacker attack, network instability, or Mercury in retrograde.

It was me, armed with too much confidence and an open terminal.

And as my friend Emmanuel Santiago, may he rest in peace, used to say:

“If it works, it’s a new life. If it doesn’t, remember me.”