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Installing KiCad 7 on Debian 12 (Bookworm)

The basic procedure is to install KiCad version 6 from the default repository, then add the bookworm-backports repository and install KiCad 7.

First, install KiCad version 6 from the default bookworm repositories:

sudo apt install kicad

Now, edit /etc/apt/sources.list as root:

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

Append this line to the end of /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports main contrib non-free-firmware non-free

Update apt and install kicad 7 from the backports repository:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install kicad/bookworm-backports

When KiCad is launched now (e.g. from the Desktop menu), it should be version 7 that runs.