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Installation

Installation with Debian Live 13 Cinnamon ISO image

For the quickest and easiest installation, the best option is to start with the Debian Live 13 Cinnamon ISO image on x86_64 hardware. If for some reason that doesn't work for your use case, see the alternative installation options below.

  1. Download the Debian Live 13 Cinnamon ISO image from https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/ and install it. Reboot into your newly installed Debian 13 Cinnamon and the default desktop should look like this: debian-cinnamon screenshot
  2. In your Debian 13 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

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 on the base Debian 13 Cinnamon ISO (Firefox, LibreOffice, etc.) and installs a curated set of power-user extras: Boxes, Brave Origin, Claude Code, GIMP, OpenCode, Podman, keepassxc-minimal, rclone, openssh-server, pdftk-java, rsync, ethtool, traceroute, lshw, shellcheck, and iperf3. 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.
  • --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

Alternative installations

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!

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.

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.

Raspberry Pi

Tip

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

The default OS for Raspberry Pi is Raspberry Pi OS and the latest version is based on Debian 13. Once you're running this version and are connected to the Internet, you can run our installer as shown above. It will automatically update /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf to log into our Cinnamon desktop. Once our installer is complete, reboot and enjoy your new OhMyDebn desktop!

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.