The guide walks you through installing Opera on Linux Mint Debian Edition 5 using the official .deb package instead of a snap, which keeps the installation lightweight and integrates with the system’s update mechanism. It shows how to download the deb, pre‑install required libraries (e.g., libpangocairo‑1.0‑0, libnss3, libatk‑bridge2.0‑0), install the package with dpkg, and resolve any remaining dependencies via apt --fix-broken. It also explains how to verify the installation, add Opera’s repository for automatic upgrades, and troubleshoot common issues such as missing graphics drivers or sandbox initialization failures (the latter can be bypassed temporarily with opera --no‑sandbox). By following these steps you get a fully functional Opera browser on LMDE 5 without pulling in unnecessary extra packages.

How to Install Opera Browser on LMDE 5 “Elsie”

If you’ve been chasing the sleek look of Opera on your Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 5 and keep hitting dead‑ends, this guide will get it up and running. I’ll walk through the three ways that actually work on a fresh “Elsie” install, plus a quick fix for the most common dependency hiccup.

Why the official .deb is your best bet

Opera ships a Debian package that matches LMDE’s base system perfectly. The snap version is bloated and pulls in a whole Chromium runtime you probably don’t need. Using the .deb also lets you keep Opera in the same update loop as the rest of your packages.

Step 1 – Grab the latest .deb from Opera

wget -qO- https://download.opera.com/download/get/?id=63075 | tar xz -C /tmp

What this does: It downloads the current stable release and extracts the opera-stable_*_amd64.deb into /tmp. The -qO- silences progress bars so you get a clean terminal.

Step 2 – Install required dependencies first

On LMDE the default repositories sometimes miss libpangocairo-1.0-0. If you try to install Opera straight away, dpkg will complain about missing packages and abort.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y libpangocairo-1.0-0 libnss3 libatk-bridge2.0-0

Why this matters: These libraries are the glue that lets Opera render fonts and handle sandboxing. Installing them beforehand prevents the dreaded “dependency problems – leaving unconfigured” message.

Step 3 – Install the .deb with dpkg

sudo dpkg -i /tmp/opera-stable_*_amd64.deb

If you see errors about missing dependencies, just run:

sudo apt --fix-broken install

Explanation: dpkg does the raw unpacking; the follow‑up apt --fix-broken resolves any leftover dependency gaps by pulling them from LMDE’s repos.

Step 4 – Verify the installation

Run:

opera --version

You should see something like Opera 106.0.5115.86. If the command opens a window, you’re good to go. I’ve had cases where the binary launches but the UI stays blank—usually that’s caused by an outdated graphics driver. Updating the driver (or switching from the open‑source mesa driver to the proprietary one) fixes it.

Optional: Keep Opera updated automatically

LMDE doesn’t add Opera to its regular upgrade list, but you can drop a small file into /etc/apt/sources.list.d.

echo "deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera.list
wget -qO- https://deb.opera.com/archive.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update

Now sudo apt upgrade will pull in new Opera releases just like any other package.

What to do if it still won’t start

I’ve seen this happen after a kernel upgrade that left the sandbox disabled. The error looks like “Failed to initialize sandbox”. A quick workaround is to launch Opera with the sandbox turned off:

opera --no-sandbox &

It’s not ideal for security, but it tells you whether the problem is sandbox‑related or something deeper.

That should have you browsing with Opera on LMDE 5 without pulling in a ton of unnecessary packages. Give it a spin and let me know if anything weird pops up