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Installation

Choosing a base distro

OhMyDebn installs on top of an existing Debian-based distro: Debian 13, or a supported derivative like Linux Mint 22, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 7, Kali Linux (Rolling), Ubuntu 24.04/26.04, Pop!_OS 24.04, Devuan 6 (Excalibur), LCOS, MX Linux 25, or Raspberry Pi OS. If you already have a favorite, start there - see the sections below for any distro-specific notes.

If you don't have a favorite, we recommend Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition on x86_64 hardware. Mint develops the Cinnamon desktop, so it ships a newer version of Cinnamon than Debian 13 does, and it adds a friendly installer, a driver manager, and multimedia codecs out of the box. Linux Mint is only available for x86_64, so on ARM hardware start with Debian 13 or Raspberry Pi OS instead.

Installation with Linux Mint Cinnamon

  1. Download the latest Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition ISO image from https://linuxmint.com/download.php and install it.

    Tip

    If your hardware is very new and the standard ISO won't boot or is missing drivers, use the Linux Mint HWE ISO instead - it's the same Mint with a newer kernel for hardware enablement. Otherwise, stick with the standard ISO as Mint recommends, since proprietary drivers and third-party modules (NVIDIA, Broadcom, VirtualBox, etc.) may have limited support with newer kernels. See Hardware Notes for tips on specific machines.

  2. In your new Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop, download the installation script: 

    curl -LO https://ohmydebn.org/install.sh

  3. Once you have reviewed install.sh and the rest of the source code, you can run the install script as your normal non-root user: 
    bash install.sh

Our installer will detect Mint and continue on with OhMyDebn installation. It will also disable a few Mint-specific autostart apps (Update Manager, System Reports, Welcome Screen, Warpinator, and Sticky Notes) that either duplicate something OhMyDebn already provides (Warpinator vs. our LocalSend integration) or just add unrequested noise on first login - you can always re-enable any of them from Cinnamon's Startup Applications settings.

Installation Options

By default, the installation script leaves existing packages like Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice in place. The installation script supports the following options:

  • --power-user - removes optional apps that ship in your base distro (Firefox, LibreOffice, etc.) and installs a curated set of power-user extras: Virtual Machine Manager, Brave Origin, GIMP, Podman, keepassxc-minimal, rclone, openssh-server, pdftk-java, rsync, ethtool, traceroute, lshw, shellcheck, and iperf3 (keepassxc-minimal is skipped on Ubuntu 24.04, Linux Mint 22, and Pop!_OS 24.04, which don't have it). It also enables the screen magnifier. On Kali Linux, Firefox is left in place even with this option since Kali doesn't ship an alternative browser by default.
  • --skip-upgrade - skips the full upgrade of every package that the installer normally runs near the end, and nothing else. This makes a first install faster on a test VM, but a fresh ISO can be months behind on security fixes and nothing else applies them until the next ohmydebn-update, which does upgrade everything. Not recommended for a machine you'll keep.
  • --yes - skips every confirmation prompt for unattended installs (for example, scripted or automated provisioning). Everything the prompts warn about still happens; this only removes the pause to read them, so make sure you understand those warnings before using it.

Example: 

bash install.sh --power-user

If you didn't use --power-user during installation but want to apply that same profile later, you don't need to reinstall - just run this from a terminal on an already-installed system: 

ohmydebn-power-user-install
On an already-installed system, it removes only the optional apps your distro came with. Apps that only come from the OhMyDebn menu (AI tools, VPNs, other browsers and so on) are kept. Some of your distro's apps, such as LibreOffice, Wireshark and Remmina, are in the OhMyDebn menu too, and those are removed even if you installed them from the menu. It lists exactly which apps it will remove and asks before changing anything.

Alternative installations

Linux Mint Debian Edition 7

Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 7 is based on Debian 13 and our installer allows for installation on LMDE 7.

Debian 13 Live Cinnamon

If you prefer vanilla Debian, start with the Debian Live 13 Cinnamon ISO image on x86_64 hardware. Download it from https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/ and install it. Reboot into your newly installed Debian 13 Cinnamon and then run our installer as shown above.

Debian 13 Minimal

Instead of starting from a Debian Live 13 Cinnamon ISO image, an alternative is to start from a Debian 13 minimal netinst installer on x86_64 or ARM64 hardware. Once the Debian netinst installer completes, reboot into your new installation and then start our installer as shown above. It will automatically install the necessary Cinnamon desktop packages and continue on with OhMyDebn installation. Once installation is complete, reboot and enjoy your new OhMyDebn desktop!

Kali Linux

Kali Linux (Rolling) is also supported. Once you're connected to the Internet, run our installer as shown above and it will detect Kali and continue on with OhMyDebn installation.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and 26.04 LTS (on x86_64 hardware) are also supported. Once you're connected to the Internet, run our installer as shown above and it will detect Ubuntu and continue on with OhMyDebn installation. The default browser, Brave Origin, installs from Brave's own repository there just as on Debian. If you install Chromium as an optional browser, note that it's only available as a snap on Ubuntu, so that's how OhMyDebn installs and configures it there - functionally equivalent, though its Appearance settings currently can't follow your OhMyDebn theme's dark/light mode automatically due to a snap packaging limitation.

Pop!_OS 24.04

Pop!_OS 24.04 is based on Ubuntu 24.04 and is also supported on x86_64 hardware. Once you're connected to the Internet, run our installer as shown above and it will detect Pop!_OS, install the Cinnamon desktop alongside Pop's own COSMIC desktop, and leave Pop's package sources exactly as they are.

Pop!_OS uses COSMIC's own login screen, which starts COSMIC unless you choose otherwise. After the installer finishes, log out, choose Cinnamon from the session list on the login screen, and log in. The login screen remembers your choice from then on.

As on Ubuntu, the optional Chromium browser is only available as a snap. Pop!_OS doesn't include snap support, so installing Chromium adds it.

Devuan 6 Excalibur

Devuan is Debian without systemd, and Devuan 6 (Excalibur) is based on Debian 13. Download it from https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan, install it with whichever desktop the Devuan installer offers, and run our installer as shown above. It will detect Devuan, install the Cinnamon desktop alongside whatever the ISO shipped (XFCE by default), and leave your Devuan package sources exactly as they are, since replacing them with Debian's would pull systemd back in.

A few things work differently without systemd:

  • Cinnamon becomes the default login session. Devuan's SLiM login manager has no session menu, so if you want a different desktop for a single login, press F1 at the login screen.
  • There is no background timer to check for new OhMyDebn releases, so you won't get update notifications. Check for updates yourself from the OhMyDebn menu (Update > OhMyDebn) or with Ctrl + Super + U, as described in Updating.
  • Suspend, Restart, and Shutdown in the System menu, plus the SSH and Remote Desktop server status windows, use Devuan's own tools instead of systemd's. Everything else in OhMyDebn works the same.

LCOS

LCOS (the Lunduke Computer Operating System) is built on Devuan 6 Excalibur, so everything in the Devuan section applies. Run our installer as shown above and it will detect LCOS and continue on with OhMyDebn installation. Two LCOS-specific notes:

  • LCOS already ships Brave Origin, OhMyDebn's default browser, so OhMyDebn uses that copy and adds nothing.
  • LCOS uses the LightDM login manager. OhMyDebn makes Cinnamon the default session for anyone who hasn't logged in yet, but LightDM remembers each user's last session, so if you've already logged into XFCE, pick Cinnamon once from the session menu on the login screen and LightDM will remember it from then on.

MX Linux 25

MX Linux 25 is based on Debian 13, and our installer treats it just like Debian. Install MX with any of its desktops (Xfce, KDE Plasma, or Fluxbox) and run our installer as shown above. It installs the Cinnamon desktop alongside the one MX shipped and leaves MX's own package repository in place. MX Linux is only available for x86_64.

MX offers each desktop with either systemd or sysvinit. Both work:

  • With systemd, OhMyDebn works exactly as on Debian 13.
  • With sysvinit, OhMyDebn works as on Devuan: there's no background timer to check for new OhMyDebn releases, so check for updates yourself from the OhMyDebn menu (Update > OhMyDebn) or with Ctrl + Super + U.

MX uses the LightDM login manager. OhMyDebn makes Cinnamon the default session, but LightDM remembers each user's last session, so if you've already logged into MX's own desktop, pick Cinnamon once from the session menu on the login screen and LightDM will remember it from then on. If you turned on automatic login when installing MX, log out once to reach the login screen and pick Cinnamon there.

Raspberry Pi OS

Raspberry Pi OS is based on Debian 13 and runs on Raspberry Pi hardware as well as on regular x86_64 PCs and virtual machines. Once you're running it and are connected to the Internet, you can run our installer as shown above.

Our installer switches Raspberry Pi OS's login to Cinnamon, which takes effect after a reboot. Once the installer is complete, reboot and enjoy your new OhMyDebn desktop!

Tip

On Raspberry Pi hardware, we recommend a Raspberry Pi 5 with SSD and at least 4GB RAM for best results.

If you are running an older Raspberry Pi or the desktop otherwise feels sluggish, consider disabling desktop effects. Instructions can be found in the Desktop Effects section.