--- title: '005. Oracle Cloud Always Free Instance Ubuntu -> Debian Conversion' url: 'https://prozak.org/005-oracle-cloud-always-free-instance-ubuntu-greater-than-debian-conversion' markdown: 'https://prozak.org/005-oracle-cloud-always-free-instance-ubuntu-greater-than-debian-conversion.md' date: '2025-03-23' description: 'Instructions to reinstall an existing VPS from Ubuntu to Debian. Applies to Oracle Cloud, Digital Ocean, among others' taxonomy: category: - self-hosting tag: - cloud - self-hosting archives_month: - mar_2025 archives_year: - '2025' --- # 005. Oracle Cloud Always Free Instance Ubuntu -> Debian Conversion [ Blog Posts ](https://prozak.org/) 005. Oracle Cloud Always Free Instance Ubuntu -> Debian Conversion 23 *Mar* #### [005. Oracle Cloud Always Free Instance Ubuntu -> Debian Conversion](https://prozak.org/005-oracle-cloud-always-free-instance-ubuntu-greater-than-debian-conversion) [cloud](https://prozak.org/tag:cloud) [self-hosting](https://prozak.org/tag:self-hosting) **Motivation.** During 2016, [Oracle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Cloud) started a public services of cloud IaaS, PaaS, etc., Component of their adoption strategy includes an assortment of "Always Free" resources available to service account owners. Leaving aside the [Philosophical](https://web.archive.org/web/20250704162025/https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/11fyt1b/whats_with_the_stigma_behind_oracle/), [ownership](https://web.archive.org/web/20250704162025/https://www.reddit.com/r/oraclecloud/comments/14qbvkw/whats_the_catch_in_free_forever_tier/) and [open source](https://web.archive.org/web/20250704162025/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/08/oracles-java-lawsuit-undermines-its-open-source-credibility/) concerns from the community, these [Always Free](https://web.archive.org/web/20250704162025/https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm) resources still provide a great testing and learning ground for #homelab and #selfhosting. When creating an always free compute instance in Oracle Cloud, the standard Operative Systems include Oracle Linux, Redhat, Almalinux, Ubuntu, among others. These options are plenty and fit most use cases, however, due to personal preferences, you may want to use [Debian](https://debian.org) instead. **Core Objective** Modify an existing Oracle Cloud Compute Instance (Virtual Machine) to run Debian 11, 12 or 13 as Operative System. **Required Tools** - Oracle Account - Get your Free trial [here](https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/) - Existing Oracle Compute Instance with Ubuntu 20.04-24.04 (Not Minimal) - Existing Oracle Compute Instance with Internet Allow access in Oracle Network - Instructions Log in to your existing Instance through SSH, default Image user account is "ubuntu" ``` ssh ubuntu@ ``` Confirm Internet Access ``` curl ifconfig.co/country ``` Output of this command should be the Country of location of your Compute Instance Download the Debi Reinstallation script. This works for both Ampere and AMD/Intel Instances ``` curl -fLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bohanyang/debi/master/debi.sh ``` Reference: [GitHub - bohanyang/debi: Reinstall your VPS to minimal Debian](https://https//github.com/bohanyang/debi)Reinstall your VPS to minimal Debian. Contribute to bohanyang/debi development by creating an account on GitHub. Execute the script ``` chmod a+rx debi.sh sudo ./debi.sh --version XX ``` This script can install Debian 10, 11, 12, 13. You shouldn't use 10 anymore, but in case you want to, it's possible. Note: If your SSH Access Pub Key is already publish to Github, you can prepare your Debian Installation with it as installation process. ``` sudo ./debi.sh --version XX --authorized-keys-url https://github.com/USERNAME.keys ``` The default account that will be created will be "debian" you will be asked by a password. The script will download all the boot partition and initiate a net install of Debian, this process may take 5-10 minutes Once completed, Login through SSH to your modified Compute Instance, using the "debian" account, with either password or SSH Keys configured. Recommended Post Install Steps: 1. Create a different administrative account 2. Confirm that the allocated Space and Memory remains as configured layout with df -h, free -h, etc. 3. Configure proper Sudo permissions 4. deluser "debian" account 5. Implement your preferred hardening settings. 6. Update OS installation and features, apt-get update/upgrade **Results** By following these steps, your existing Ubuntu Oracle Compute Instance will run [Debian](https://debian.org) on your preferred version, instead of Ubuntu. [ Next Post](https://prozak.org/006-why-selfhosting-should-be-preferred) [Previous Post ](https://prozak.org/004-run-emby-server-as-a-different-user) #### Related Posts - 80 [010. 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