I had an old HP Pavilion lying around. I have named it Neelathamara. When I opened it to check if it had any old photographs, I found that it was powered by Debian 11.
The Wi-fi was not working. Hence, I decided to try to fix the issue with Google Gemini.
After finding success with fixing the Wi-fi I got more adventurous. I decided to upgrade the OS from Debian 11 to Debian 13. I used Gemini to do that as well. It did the upgrade from Debian 11 to Debian 12. So, I decided to continue to upgrade from Debian 12 to Debian 13. After that I asked Gemini how I could remove unnecessary files from Debian 11 and Debian 12 installations.
At this time, I don’t know how it removed the apt-package manager. This was the manager that the OS uses to install other software and programmes that the OS used.
At this time, Gemini just gave up and asked me to do a fresh install of Debian 13. It said this would fix all the issues. Neelathamara had a mind of its own. It refused to boot the USB.
Frustrated, I posted on social media on X, Mastodon, and Bluesky:
“I had a perfectly working version of Debian 11 on an old laptop. I upgraded it to Debian 12 using Terminal. No issues. I upgraded it to Debian 13 using Terminal. No issues.
I was advised to remove unnecessary packages. While doing that it removed the apt package.
ISO from disk is not working because my laptop is not seeing it.
I am probably at my wit’s end. Yet, I continue.”
I got a reply on X,from @KunalGautam.
Network working? If yes, wget apt package, then dpkg -i it. Otherwise, download package on pendrive and dpkg -i it
I did not understand what he suggested exactly. But, I posted what he asked me to do into Gemini. I also told Gemini that I wanted to install Debian and not Linux Mint. It asked that I tether my phone’s hotspot for use as my laptop’s internet.
It finally got the point and in about an hour or so, I was on Debian 13.