OK, I solved my problem. I had to adopt and adapt an excerpt of the ConTeXt Standalone instructions for Ubuntu. This is a bit weird, since LMDE is not based on Ubuntu at all. Conversely, Ubuntu sure is derived from Debian.
Here is the complete recipe:
sudo mkdir /opt/context
sudo chown $USER -R /opt/context
rsync -av rsync://contextgarden.net/minimals/setup/first-setup.sh .
sudo mkdir /var/cache/context
sudo mkdir /var/cache/context/texmf-cache
sudo chmod 777 /var/cache/context/texmf-cache
Change the value of
"/var/cache/context/texmf-cache", save and close.
So far, this was all pretty standard procedure. Now comes the Debian-specific bit.
Open the following file in your favourite editor:
sudo nano /etc/bash.bashrc
At the end of this file, add the following lines in this specific order:
Leave out the "-64" if you are using a 32-bit system.
Save and close, then issue the following commands at the prompt:
sh ./first-setup.sh --modules=all
mtx-context | ConTeXt Process Management 0.60
mtx-context | main context file: /opt/context/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/context.mkiv
mtx-context | current version: 2013.09.09 19:45