Setup the contrib and non-free Debian repositories

The default Debian installation only provide software from the “main” repository. In order to have access to all Debian software, contrib and non-free repositories must be configured. This howto describe an automated process to enable the contrib and non-free repositories in Apt.

This howto is tested on:

• Debian 6.0 Squeeze
• Debian 7.0 Wheezy
• Debian 8.0 Jessie
• Debian 10.0 Buster

Installation

Detect if sudo is available (“command” is used if not):

cmdProxy='command'
command type -f 'sudo' &>'/dev/null' && cmdProxy='sudo'

Install the required software:

${cmdProxy} apt-get install 'lsb-release'

Detect the distribution version name:

debianVersion="$(command lsb_release -cs)"

Detect the currently used download mirror:

mirror="$(awk "/^deb[ \t].*[ \t]${debianVersion}[ \t].*main[\t ].*/ { print \$2; exit }" '/etc/apt/sources.list')"

Add the contrib repositories to Apt configuration, if needed:

command egrep -qr "^deb[\t ].*[\t ]${debianVersion}[\t ].*contrib" '/etc/apt/sources.list'* \
    || ${cmdProxy} tee "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/contrib.list" \
            <<< "# Debian non-free repository.
deb ${mirror} ${debianVersion} contrib
deb-src ${mirror} ${debianVersion} contrib

deb http://security.debian.org/ ${debianVersion}/updates contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ ${debianVersion}/updates contrib"

Add the non-free repositories to Apt configuration, if needed:

command egrep -qr "^deb[\t ].*[\t ]${debianVersion}[\t ].*non-free" '/etc/apt/sources.list'* \
    || ${cmdProxy} tee "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/non-free.list" \
  <<< "# Debian non-free repository.
deb ${mirror} ${debianVersion} non-free
deb-src ${mirror} ${debianVersion} non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ ${debianVersion}/updates non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ ${debianVersion}/updates non-free"

Update the list of available packages:

${cmdProxy} apt update

Bibliography

• The Debian Administrator’s Handbook.
• Linux Bible.
• Linux Pocket Guide: Essential Commands.