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As example I don't know is Debian Buster and Focal Fossa (20.04) compatible? How to check it? What are another moments of cross compatibility?

What should to know a newcomer who wants to use Debian repositories in Ubuntu?

PDD
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  • No; Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was the 2020-April release and is made up of packages from Debian sid, Debian testing, and possibly some Debian stable, but also packages from further upstream. Debian old stable (Buster; Bullseye is current stable) is from a different year with a different software stack. Some packages may align perfectly; but the majority will not - thus result is dependency hell unless you're very careful, pin & do your homework pre-install, and monitor it from then on (ie. a maintenance burden) – guiverc Jul 21 '22 at 10:40

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Simple answer: You shouldn't.

Don't mix repos from different distributions - they might have different dependencies.

Instead, either uses PPAs, or manually install Debian packages (that you have carefully curated and ensured dependency compatibility).

Anything else will probably not end in a good way.

If you really need to use Debian repos, you should use Debian.

As an example, I've manually installed and used Nano from the Debian sid (unstable) repo for the last 2 years without any issues at all. The dependencies check out, and this ensures I have the latest Nano version available as a .deb package, instead of being stuck with the Ubuntu LTS version. Also, this is fairly harmless and easy to rollback if anything unexpected should happen.

Artur Meinild
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    Thank you! I didn't care for it thinking that dependencies weren't a big problem. Also, I didn't distinguish between PPA and Debian thinking they were compatible by default since Ubuntu is a fork (?). Now I decided to look for a package in PPA and I found it. As a newbie, I often search for packages through google and it gives guides mentioning Debian repositories. That's why I created this question. You set me on the right path. – PDD Jul 21 '22 at 10:48
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    That's good to hear. Good luck! – Artur Meinild Jul 21 '22 at 10:51
  • Artur, what about security reasons and random PPA's (from unverified maintainers)? What is a most right way to find chromium PPA as example? Without snap? – PDD Jul 21 '22 at 11:08
  • First way I go to https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/web/chromium-browser but there is transitional snap and sources. – PDD Jul 21 '22 at 11:26
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No; Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was the 2020-April release and is made up of packages from Debian sid, Debian testing, and possibly some Debian stable, but also packages from further upstream.

Debian old stable (Buster; Bullseye is current stable) is from a different year with a different software stack. Some packages may align perfectly; but the majority will not - thus result is dependency hell unless you're very careful, pin & do your homework pre-install, and monitor it from then on (ie. a maintenance burden)

If you're asking the question, you're not ready to fix the problems that are likely to occur, if not at first, but sometime into the future (ie. aforementioned maintenance burden; ensuring changes haven't occurred or fixing the mess after they've happened)

guiverc
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  • Thank you very much for the details. I have been using Linux for 2 years now but I still live with habits from my Windows days. – PDD Jul 21 '22 at 10:56
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    FYI: I often write that I consider Debian & Ubuntu as equivalent and drop-in replacements for each other; which is easy given how close they are - but they never align. I'm using Debian bookworm right now, yet many packages here are behind my Ubuntu kinetic system, others however are actually ahead, whilst the majority are almost identical!. It's easiest for my chosen release for both given both are development, but even these don't align. LXQt in Debian bookworm is equivalent to Lubuntu 21.04 that's EOL; Debian's experimental has what Ubuntu kinetic has had for weeks – guiverc Jul 21 '22 at 11:07
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    Why -- it's the Lubuntu devs that are currently pushing upstream the LXQt desktop (from Ubuntu) so they're (Debian & Ubuntu; Ubuntu being ahead for two releases now) both back in ~sync as much as possible.. The Lubuntu team has a DD (Debian developer), a DM (Debian maintainer).... but never assume they're always in sync; they are only for parts of the repositories but never it all. – guiverc Jul 21 '22 at 11:10
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    If a non-Lubuntu/non-LXQt example is needed, my Ubuntu jammy box received grub 2.06 in 2021 & I briefly had issues with it there.. Weeks passed, and it wasn't until the following year that grub 2.06 finally reached Debian, and I discovered issues again on my Debian box; enough weeks that I couldn't recall exactly what the fix was without searching online to confirm... Debian maybe upstream of Ubuntu in a huge percentage of packages, but to assume that applies for all (without checking) will just lead to problems... – guiverc Jul 21 '22 at 11:19