sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list did bring the text editor, (labeled 'GNU nano 8.4'), but it was blank, no list. When I went to close it, it said, "There is still a process running in this terminal. Closing the terminal will kill it." I waited at least 5 minutes, then closed it. (I was using the X in the upper corner. Next time I checked what the ^ stood for, and exited the proper way; Ctrl+X.)
(So I have 'nano', and it's not the same as the GNU Project text editor named "Text Editor", which is the only one listed in the 'Software' app, under 'Installed'. Search for 'nano' and the app acts as though it doesn't exist. It looks like 'nano' does more things, while 'Text Editor' is a notepad type, light, word processor.)
So I figured, since after the 'modernization' running '$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list' brought 'cat: /etc/apt/sources.list: No such file or directory', the one I must need to run with 'sudo nano' is '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources'.
The readout is :
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
Suites: trixie trixie-updates
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: https://security.debian.org/debian-security
Suites: trixie-security
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
# Modernized from /etc/apt/sources.list
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
Suites: trixie
Components: main non-free-firmware
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
[End of text from 'nano']
I decided the one thing I felt comfortable doing, after looking up the 'cp' command, and '.bak', is making the backup.
Having read : "Options for Safety: To avoid overwriting existing files without warning, you can use the -i (interactive) option...This will prompt you before overwriting original_file.bak if it exists."
Just in case .bak files are ever created automatically, I added the '-i' :
sudo cp -i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources.bak
typed in password, pressed Enter. It didn't say anything more than it was ready to accept the next command. I wasn't sure if maybe I hadn't hit one of the keys strongly enough while typing the password, so I repeated the process and this time it asked whether to overwrite. I typed 'no', wondering if just 'n' would've been correct.
I don't know where the .bak file is. It's not anywhere in the 'Files' app. I searched 'find where a .bak file is saved? debian', and used 'find / -name "*.bak"'. That brought a surprisingly long list, a lot from LibreOffice, and a lot that say 'Permission denied'. So .bak files are automatically created. I never consciously made one. Anyway,
/etc/apt/sources.list.bak
and
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources.bak
were on the list.
That's all I'm up to doing at the moment.
(So I have 'nano', and it's not the same as the GNU Project text editor named "Text Editor", which is the only one listed in the 'Software' app, under 'Installed'. Search for 'nano' and the app acts as though it doesn't exist. It looks like 'nano' does more things, while 'Text Editor' is a notepad type, light, word processor.)
So I figured, since after the 'modernization' running '$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list' brought 'cat: /etc/apt/sources.list: No such file or directory', the one I must need to run with 'sudo nano' is '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources'.
The readout is :
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
Suites: trixie trixie-updates
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: https://security.debian.org/debian-security
Suites: trixie-security
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
# Modernized from /etc/apt/sources.list
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
Suites: trixie
Components: main non-free-firmware
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
[End of text from 'nano']
I decided the one thing I felt comfortable doing, after looking up the 'cp' command, and '.bak', is making the backup.
Having read : "Options for Safety: To avoid overwriting existing files without warning, you can use the -i (interactive) option...This will prompt you before overwriting original_file.bak if it exists."
Just in case .bak files are ever created automatically, I added the '-i' :
sudo cp -i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources.bak
typed in password, pressed Enter. It didn't say anything more than it was ready to accept the next command. I wasn't sure if maybe I hadn't hit one of the keys strongly enough while typing the password, so I repeated the process and this time it asked whether to overwrite. I typed 'no', wondering if just 'n' would've been correct.
I don't know where the .bak file is. It's not anywhere in the 'Files' app. I searched 'find where a .bak file is saved? debian', and used 'find / -name "*.bak"'. That brought a surprisingly long list, a lot from LibreOffice, and a lot that say 'Permission denied'. So .bak files are automatically created. I never consciously made one. Anyway,
/etc/apt/sources.list.bak
and
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources.bak
were on the list.
That's all I'm up to doing at the moment.
Statistics: Posted by TechTerrorized — 2025-12-29 01:36