Under construction: Version: 2023-11-05(Sun)
More context: >Here<
I take notes as I do things. Otherwise I forget what I did. This page is a summary of notes to myself. Maybe it will be useful to somebody else.

How did you install Debian on an Afterburst VPS?

Always up to date

At Afterburst we rebuild our available operating system images weekly, to ensure that you always have the latest updates installed from the instance the system boots.

  Debian versions available

     Debian 10 Buster
     Debian 9 Stretch
      Debian 8 Wheezy

  Looking for another version?

  We'll gladly add additional versions for you given an ISO image.

I didn't understand this and so I asked a qustion...

Why is Debian 10 the available install option? I have Debian 12 on the laptop I am typing on. Debian 10 is years old and nearly obsolete. I hope it's not too old to upgrade, but I am annoyed that I even have to do that. (Tomorrow)

We're in the process of evaluating a couple of options for moving away from the current control panel SolusVM. Creating and maintaining SolusVM installation templates takes quite some effort, so we've put that in the back seat for now while we're looking toward migrating to another control panel system.

Until then, we've loaded modern OS installers into the system - Debian 12 included -- which can be used to install in the same way as on a bare metal system (run through the installer UI instead of a two click install).

This page has some description of the SolusVM control panal: https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9974/48/how-to-manage-your-vps-with-solusvm-for-kvm/

SolusVM ( Solus Virtual Manager ) is robust GUI-based VPS management solution from Plesk.

 Reboot      Shutdown                   Boot    Reinstall    VNC    Log
 Power Off   Reconfigure Networking    Rescue

  Settings CDRom Drivers Hostname Clock Root/Admin Password VNC
    Password Network API Statistics

Choose CDRom, there is a long dropdown menu with about 64 options among which are Debian 10, 11, 12 x86_64 Netinstall.

Password was displayed just once during install. I changed it immediately.

apt install emacs — fails with "Unable to fetch some archives maybe run apt-get update"

Against security advice I did this
     apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change
apt install emacs --- now works!!

This page had step-by-step instructions that worked
https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-upgrade-from-debian-10-to-debian-11/

Don't try to upgrade more than one step at a time. In other words, don't try to go from version 10 directly to 12. Upgrade 10 only to 11,

The keyboard is crazy. To get a double quote (") type an at-sign (@).

Reinstall vps.server.com (209.222.4.146) Root/Admin Password: ????????????????

login; passwd;
adduser kwright
apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change
apt install emacs
@fcs26$ ssh-keygen -f "/home/kwright/.ssh/known_hosts" -R "fcx1"
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get autoremove
apt-get clean
shutdown -r now — (reboot)
cd /etc/apt
cp sources.list sources.list.bak
emacs sources.list
Replace "buster/updates" with "bullseye-security",
and "buster" with "bullseye".
apt-get update -y
apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs
apt-get full-upgrade
shutdown -r now — (reboot)


2023-11-01 update In addition to the buttons described above, the Afterburst SolusVM page now has this:

Row of buttons under icons:

Settings  CDRom  Drivers  Hostname  Clock "Root/Admin Password"
 "VNC Password"   Network   API    Statistics

APIC  ACPI  VNC  PAE   Tablet Input Device

Other menus:

Boot Order   Network Card   Disk Driver   VNC Keymap