Log009 - Debian 13

#linux #debian #homelab #beginners

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📅 Date: 2025-08-14 🔧 Tools: USB with Debian 13

How It Started

It all started when I realized that my system, even after removing the GUI, was still heavy. It was a great experience troubleshooting the issues that came after deleting the GUI along with a bunch of variables and caches.

I used sudo apt --purge and ended up losing SSH, drivers, and a bunch of other things. I managed to fix most of them, but the system was already a mess.

So today, I rebooted and installed a fresh Debian 13 (light) on my server.

The Problem

Removed almost all network components.
Deleted drivers, especially ath10k_pci (internet-related).
Made a big mess in the file system.
Had trouble with a 5G Wifi connection — Debian 12 wouldn’t let me use my 5Gb internet because it wasn’t friendly with my drivers.

The Fix

Most file system issues were solved after spending a lot of time cleaning things up. I created one main directory for everything and built a tree with manuals and notes inside it.
The network was trickier — I had to use a USB stick, find the right driver manually, download it, and then set up wpa_supplicant & wpa_passphrase to create the first connection. After that, I installed Network Manager.
The 5G issue wasn’t completely solved. I replaced my firmware with a newer one, which gave me a 5G connection, but the speed was only 15 Mb/s.
In the end, I decided to completely erase the system. First, I created a tar -czf backup of the main directory and saved it to an external drive. Then I installed Debian 13 — now I’m building my environment from scratch, starting with a clean 1.4 GB base.

What I Learned