Fast Forward

Installation

Installing Debian

We currently don’t provide any installer images with Fast Forward. Therefore you need to install Debian first, see the installation guide for more information.

It’s required that you have a correct configuration of the Debian repositories (of course, contrib, non-free and non-free-firmware are optional):


sudo sh -c 'cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources << EOF
# /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources

Types: deb
URIs: https://deb.debian.org/debian
Suites: trixie trixie-updates
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
PDiffs: no
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

Types: deb
URIs: https://deb.debian.org/debian-security
Suites: trixie-security
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
PDiffs: no
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
EOF'

If you don’t use any other repositories, you can remove your old sources.list


sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list~
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

Choose your Upgrade Method

Debian systems can be upgraded with Fast Forward by any of these recommended methods:

  • Method 1: Feeling lucky using the yolo.sh script.

  • Method 2: Doing everything automatically using the debian-fastforward package.

  • Method 3: Doing everything manually.

It does not matter which method you choose as all instructions below result in the same configuration.

Method 1: YOLO Install for Vibe System Engineering 🤙

Shortest version (without checking cryptographic signature)


wget -q https://deb.fastforward.debian.net/debian-fastforward/project/install/yolo.sh -O - | /bin/sh -

Longer version (with checking cryptographic signature)


wget https://deb.fastforward.debian.net/debian-fastforward/project/install/yolo.sh
wget https://deb.fastforward.debian.net/debian-fastforward/project/install/yolo.sh.sig


sudo apt install --yes --no-install-recommends gnupg debian-keyring
gpg --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg --verify yolo.sh.sig


./yolo.sh


rm -f yolo.sh
rm -f yolo.sh.sig

Method 2: Automatic Upgrade

Systems installed with Debian 13 (trixie) or newer are directly upgradeable with Fast Forward.


wget https://apt.fastforward.debian.net/archive/debian/debian-fastforward/20250601-1/debian-fastforward_20250601-1_all.deb
wget https://apt.fastforward.debian.net/archive/debian/debian-fastforward/20250601-1/debian-fastforward-pgp-keys_20250601-1_all.deb
wget https://apt.fastforward.debian.net/archive/debian/debian-fastforward/20250601-1/debian-fastforward-ssh-keys_20250601-1_all.deb
wget https://apt.fastforward.debian.net/archive/debian/debian-fastforward/20250601-1/debian-fastforward_20250601-1_amd64.changes


sudo apt install --yes --no-install-recommends debian-keyring devscripts gnupg
dscverify --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg debian-fastforward_20250601-1_amd64.changes


sudo dpkg -i debian-fastforward_20250601-1_all.deb debian-fastforward-pgp-keys_20250601-1_all.deb debian-fastforward-ssh-keys_20250601-1_all.deb


rm -f debian-fastforward_20250601-1_all.deb
rm -f debian-fastforward-pgp-keys_20250601-1_all.deb
rm -f debian-fastforward-ssh-keys_20250601-1_all.deb
rm -f debian-fastforward_20250601-1_amd64.changes

If you don’t see any Debconf configuration dialogs, you may have a too high Debconf priority configured. In this case run a package reconfigure.


sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow debian-fastforward

After enabling the repositories, upgrade your system.


sudo apt full-upgrade --update --yes
sudo apt autopurge --yes

To finish the upgrade, rebooting the system is recommended.


sudo reboot

Method 3: Manual Upgrade

If you prefer doing everything manually, here’s an example on how to manually upgrade a Debian 13 (trixie) system with Fast Forward.


sudo apt install --yes --no-install-recommends ca-certificates gnupg debian-keyring wget


sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys

sudo wget https://deb.fastforward.debian.net/debian-fastforward/project/pgp/fastforward-debian-13-trixie-signing-key.pub -O /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg
sudo wget https://deb.fastforward.debian.net/debian-fastforward/project/pgp/fastforward-debian-13-trixie-signing-key.pub.sig -O /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg.sig

gpg --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-maintainers.gpg --verify /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg.sig
sudo rm -f /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg.sig

sudo gpg --import /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg
sudo rm -f /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg
sudo gpg -o /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg --export 2BDDB08FA13971B749E4A221F93CF7F4CEBEC933


sudo sh -c 'cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-fastforward.sources << EOF
# /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-fastforward.sources

Types: deb
URIs: https://deb.fastforward.debian.net/debian-fastforward
Suites: trixie-fastforward trixie-fastforward-security trixie-fastforward-updates trixie-fastforward-backports
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
PDiffs: no
Signed-By: /usr/share/debian-fastforward/pgp-keys/deb.fastforward.debian.net.gpg
EOF'


sudo sh -c 'cat > /etc/apt/preferences.d/debian-fastforward.pref << EOF
# /etc/apt/preferences.d/debian-fastforward.pref

Package: *
Pin: release n=trixie-fastforward
Pin-Priority: 990

Package: *
Pin: release n=trixie-fastforward-security
Pin-Priority: 990

Package: *
Pin: release n=trixie-fastforward-updates
Pin-Priority: 990

Package: *
Pin: release n=trixie-fastforward-backports
Pin-Priority: 990
EOF'


sudo apt full-upgrade --update --yes
sudo apt autopurge --yes


sudo reboot