Debian
Sid
rolling release

Switch to rolling release

Debian Unstable branch is always called Sid.

1. Get all current packages up-to-date.

$ apt update
$ apt upgrade

2. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list.

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian sid main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

3. Perform full (dist) upgrade.

$ apt update
$ apt -y full-upgrade

4. Optionally clean up unused files and package cache.

$ apt autoremove

$ apt clean

5. Restart and boot into the new system.

Additional system configuration

Add Christian Marillat's deb-multimedia repo.

/etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://deb-multimedia.org sid main non-free

Add Testing release sources and set preferences for APT Pin-Priority.

/etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian sid main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free

/etc/apt/preferences

Package: *

#Pin: release n=sid

Pin: release a=unstable

Pin-Priority: 1000

Package: *

Pin: release a=testing

Pin-Priority: 100

In the (rare) event that any Sid package becomes problematic, install the Testing version of the package until it gets fixed in Sid. There are two methods to install:

(a) Resolve dependencies using the default target Sid branch.

$ apt install packagename/testing

(b) Resolve dependencies using the fallback Testing branch.

$ apt -t testing install packagename

Old packages archive
http://snapshot.debian.org

Improve appearance by downloading and installing Linux Mint theme and icon packages.

$ dpkg -i mint-themes_*.deb

$ dpkg -i mint*icons*.deb

Bootloader and ramdisk

Update grub configuration after editing /etc/default/grub.

$ update-grub

Regenerate initrd image if ever needed (add -v for verbose).

$ update-initramfs -u