Debian i386 installation reports

Overview

Some Debian i386 installation tests on real non-amd64-capable i386 hardware.

Command to reduce screenshot size: for i in sub/*.jpg; do convert "${i}" -scale 50% -quality 60 "$(basename "$i")_downscaled.jpg"; done

Command to assemble screenshots: { find -type f -name '*.jpg' | sort | while read -r line; do printf '<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,%s" alt="%s"/><br/>\n' "$(base64 < "$line" | tr -d "\n")" "$line"; done; } > html.html

Debian 10 buster (stable)

debian-live-10.7.0-i386-lxde.iso

https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianCD/ReleaseTesting/Buster_r7

Test Number	1105a
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.7.0-i386-lxde.iso
ISO SHA-256	c9dfac9e9461df6967fd79b43220277cbf53185cd91cf962d76401b8e497dc2d
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image
	- Install using DI (simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
	- Could not test Calamares (too little memory)
X-Hardware	masysma-4
X-Date	2020/12/21

• Run Live
• Unable to start Calamares
• Install using Debian-Installer

debian-live-10.7.0-i386-standard.iso

Test Number	1106d
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.7.0-i386-standard.iso
ISO SHA-256	d2f1a740c25158a9dda58e0d060efccf077074a0a799efb7a0143727f9c2076a
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image
	- Install using DI (simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
X-Hardware	masysma-4
X-Date	2020/12/21

• Run Live
• Install using Debian-Installer

Test Number	1106d
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.7.0-i386-standard.iso
ISO SHA-256	d2f1a740c25158a9dda58e0d060efccf077074a0a799efb7a0143727f9c2076a
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image
X-Hardware	masysma-6
X-Date	2020/12/21

• Run Live

debian-live-10.8.0-i386-lxde.iso

https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianCD/ReleaseTesting/Buster_r8

Test Number	1105ac
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.8.0-i386-lxde.iso
ISO SHA-256	f96122a9844b9fd40c73c288b7e642e1b68fc1b89435cd8303ab7f236ec978e7
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (a)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/02/06

• Install using Calamares
• During installation, Calamares window turned black. Might have been fixable by resize (only noticed after the installation was already complete).
• Reboot after install would not commerce after two [ENTER] and two minutes of waiting, foced reboot with [ALT]-[SYSRQ]-[B]
• Debian Installer works as expected.
• Run Live
• Install using Debian-Installer

debian-live-10.8.0-i386-kde.isoo

Test Number	1105abc
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.8.0-i386-kde.iso
ISO SHA-256	a5ce901837fb125573d3252d3bf27359a07a0b367189b5932e331170f8326686
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Install using DI (a, masysma-2)
	- Start Live Image (b, masysma-6, fails on masysma-2)
	- Install using Calamares (c, masysma-6)
X-Hardware	masysma-2, masysma-6
X-Date	2021/02/07

Tests on masysma-2

• Install using Debian-Installer
• d-i runs as expected, afterwards, system boots to GUI with black screen and non-default X11 cursor. No further GUI is coming up. Expected: Login screen.
• Cursory attempts like # systemctl stop sddm and then $ startx resulted in the same outcome.
• Start Live Image – mostly the same outcome. However, upon pressing the power button, a dialog opens (see screenshots).

Tests on masysma-6

• Start Live Image
• Greeted with a graphical lock screen that can be unlocked by password live.
• Install using Calamares
• Throughout the installation, after certain periods of time, the screen will blacken (except for the cursor which remains movable). This seems to be related to the lock screen because it can be mitigated by killing process kscreenlocker_greet.

debian-live-10.9.0-i386-lxqt.iso

https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianCD/ReleaseTesting/Buster_r9

Test Number	1106ac
Claim	PASSWD
Image	debian-live-10.9.0-i386-lxqt.iso
ISO SHA-256	31a84b7f93cf0fef2f4d25c7bc1544b24b002390e817f40864196830b49e06bc
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (a)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/03/27

Tests on masysma-2

• Live image works just fine (LXQT does a decent job on the old hardware!)
• Black window during installation with Calamares (known to happen)
• After installation sddm flashes shortly but does not come up. Manual startx brings LXQT up fine. The problem of the display manager not working could also be observed on KDE images of the previous point release, but at that time, it was not possible to bypass the issue with startx.

debian-live-10.9.0-i386-lxde.iso

Test Number	1105ac
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.9.0-i386-lxde.iso
ISO SHA-256	7548c2e4ae54dfb6c44f225a696128a8e084b044edd361faafe1ff5979723adf
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (a)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/03/27

Tests on masysma-2

• Installed system does not present GUI loading screen

debian-live-10.9.0-i386-standard.iso

Test Number	1106a
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.9.0-i386-standard.iso
ISO SHA-256	201c55b7e736352c6477ad4e10d10c68fd8b5c4c22172d77e3c3d39f21c9c873
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (a)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/03/27

debian-live-10.9.0-i386-mate.iso

Test Number	1103abc
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.9.0-i386-mate.iso
ISO SHA-256	2e265536b7ad8d9afe837b6440d57c6f31012675bc8d048b56d585adb0194290
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Install using DI (a, no network, btrfs, encrypted!)
	- Start Live Image (b)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/03/27

Tests on masysma-2

• Disk not ejected upon live image shutdown.

debian-live-10.10.0-i386-lxqt.iso

https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianCD/ReleaseTesting/Buster_r10

Test Number	1106ac
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.10.0-i386-lxqt.iso
ISO SHA-256	74cf0ea5273c05723001a02011878db5fdac9974b8b8d869578c01032e5f4aa2
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (a)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/06/19

Test on masysma-2

• Calamares black window during installation (known issue for this machine)
• Starting the GUI on the installed system requires sudo systemctl stop sddm; startx (known issue for this machine). This is irrespective of installation method (d-i, calamares same behaviour)

debian-live-10.10.0-i386-standard.iso

Test Number	1106d
Claim	PSSED
Image	debian-live-10.10.0-i386-standard.iso
ISO SHA-256	709008483d13688d9ec4682fb3f4b71491011fa7b6b659ccd10c91081d9d6ca2
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image
	- Install using DI (simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/06/19

debian-live-10.10.0-i386-lxde.iso

Test Number	1105ac
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-10.10.0-i386-lxde.iso
ISO SHA-256	fe3577e65bdc229e4909f6ccf0c82400d08414e0b38e00056a1ab677b4a85b9d
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (a)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/06/19

Debian 11 bullseye (testing)

debian-bullseye-DI-alpha3-i386-netinst.iso

Test Number	(unassigned)
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-bullseye-DI-alpha3-i386-netinst.iso
ISO SHA-256	62e43e3835fdc2f996201f8aef336827bfb7a7c8a2158290f8ee1c1e4efd12e0
Install Mode	Text
Disk	simple disk: single fs
FileSystem	ext4
Desktop	None
Net	Enabled
Language	Locale: en_US.UTF-8 / Keyboard: de
Arch used	i386
Boot method	BIOS
Hardware	masysma-6
Comments	boot from real CD, non-expert install
X-Date	2020/12/21

• Run Installer

Debian 11 bullseye (stable)

https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianCD/ReleaseTesting/Bullseye_r0

debian-live-11.0.0-i386-lxqt.iso

Test Number	1106abc
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-11.0.0-i386-lxqt.iso
ISO SHA-256	2b7d42a63f384f8f95d0742f3d53d21ce3f5cc161750176536cc2910a08bd34c
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (b)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/08/14

Test on masysma-2

• Calamares installer black window during installation (known issue)
• Test 1106c debian-live-11.0.0-i386-lxqt.iso On live system without “localization support” I used setxkbmap de, then in Calamares installer configured keyboard for German layout. When entering the user creation screen the keyboard layout was back to a QUERTY layout (most likely US). After booting into the new installation, keyboard layout is correctly set to German.

debian-live-11.0.0-i386-lxde.iso

Test Number	1105abc
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-11.0.0-i386-lxde.iso
ISO SHA-256	5a1104fb3ad9632373dfeb8b705b6899fb35f1711941a646e8cfe9eef599af07
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (b)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/08/14

Test on masysma-2

• Calamares installer black window during installation (known issue)
• This time not tested with setxkbmap de and this way it works.

debian-live-11.0.0-i386-standard.iso

Test Number	1106a
Claim	PASSED
Image	debian-live-11.0.0-i386-standard.iso
ISO SHA-256	26cd4e2205e5e1674e5881a0e27f610c05ccf2e8380ff0b627100c03f079c9c3
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (b)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
X-Hardware	masysma-2
X-Date	2021/08/14

Test on masysma-2

• Worked as expected

debian-live-11.0.0-i386-cinnamon.iso

Test Number	1104abc
Claim	mixed results
Image	debian-live-11.0.0-i386-cinnamon.iso
ISO SHA-256	e7a32a7b62189b4eaba31de2f2bd31c20a43e7abcf78825d472fcc25607311b5
Boot method	BIOS
Test Details	- Start Live Image (b)
	- Install using Calamares (c)
	- Install using DI (a, simple ext4 + Network IPv4 DHCP eth)
X-Hardware	masysma-6
X-Date	2021/08/14

Test on masysma-2

• 1104bc: Failed – Entire screen black after splash screen finishes. DVD is rotating wildly but no visible progress occurs after >30min. Mouse pointer vanishes (?) and does not appear again despite the screen turning on (black) upon mouse movement.

Test on masysma-6

• 1104bc: Failed – System does not present a usable GUI: It showed the GUI but could not interactively be used - had to wait > 10min for the menu to become responsive at 100% CPU load on the machine. It might be due to the low amount of RAM or due to missing graphics accelleration which could explain the exessive CPU usage. Most likely this is a problem with the old systems rather than the image itself.
• 1104a: passed

Machines

Note: syssheet output was obtained before doing the clean installs described before.

Ma_Sys.ma 2 (masysma-2)

hp Compaq d530 CMT

┌─────── System Sheet Script 1.2.6, Copyright (c) 2012-2020 Ma_Sys.ma ─────────┐
│ linux-fan (id 1000) on screen                   Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) │
│ Linux 4.19.0-14-686                                                     i686 │
│ 07.02.2021 12:56:35                                                masysma-2 │
│ up 9 min,  4 users,  load avg: 0.25, 0.56, 0.42                  377/994 MiB │
│ 1 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz                                          │
├────────────────────────────────── Network ───────────────────────────────────┤
│ Interface                      Sent/MiB  Received/MiB                Address │
│ enp5s2                                0           127       192.168.1.109/24 │
├─────────────────────────────── File systems ─────────────────────────────────┤
│ Mountpoint                     Used/GiB        Of/GiB             Percentage │
│ /                                     8           143                     6% │
├─────────────────────────────────── Users ────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Username     MEM/MiB            Top/MEM      CPU          Top/CPU   Time/min │
│ linux-fan         39            systemd     0.4%            tmux:          0 │
│ systemd-tim+       3    systemd-timesyn       0%  systemd-timesyn          0 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

/proc/cpuinfo

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 15
model           : 3
model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
stepping        : 4
microcode       : 0xc
cpu MHz         : 2793.129
cache size      : 1024 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 1
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fdiv_bug        : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 5
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc pebs bts cpuid pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips        : 5586.25
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 128
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

Ma_Sys.ma 4 (masysma-4)

┌─────── System Sheet Script 1.2.1, Copyright (c) 2012-2018 Ma_Sys.ma ─────────┐
│ linux-fan (id 1000) on rxvt-unicode-256color    Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) │
│ Linux 4.19.0-5-686-pae                                                  i686 │
│ 21.12.2020 20:39:29                                                masysma-4 │
│ up 3 min,  1 user,  load avg: 1.16, 1.25, 0.55                   129/429 MiB │
│ 1 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz                                    │
├────────────────────────────────── Network ───────────────────────────────────┤
│ Interface                      Sent/MiB  Received/MiB                Address │
│ enp2s0                                0             0       192.168.1.111/24 │
│ wlp6s2                                0             0                        │
├─────────────────────────────── File systems ─────────────────────────────────┤
│ Mountpoint                     Used/GiB        Of/GiB             Percentage │
│ /                                    14            34                    44% │
├─────────────────────────────────── Users ────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Username     MEM/MiB            Top/MEM      CPU          Top/CPU   Time/min │
│ root             238            glances     8.6%          glances          0 │
│ www-data          33            apache2       0%          apache2          0 │
│ linux-fan         32            systemd      14%             bash          0 │
│ messagebus         4        dbus-daemon     0.2%      dbus-daemon          0 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

/proc/cpuinfo

processor   : 0
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 6
model       : 13
model name  : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz
stepping    : 8
microcode   : 0x20
cpu MHz     : 1600.000
cache size  : 2048 KB
physical id : 0
siblings    : 1
core id     : 0
cpu cores   : 1
apicid      : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fdiv_bug    : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe bts cpuid est tm2
bugs        : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips    : 3192.11
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

Ma_Sys.ma 6 (masysma-6)

┌─────── System Sheet Script 1.2.1, Copyright (c) 2012-2018 Ma_Sys.ma ─────────┐
│ linux-fan (id 1000) on rxvt-unicode-256color    Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) │
│ Linux 4.19.0-6-686                                                      i686 │
│ 21.12.2020 20:37:32                                                masysma-6 │
│ up 6 min,  1 user,  load avg: 0.86, 1.03, 0.64                  230/1002 MiB │
│ 1 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1500MHz                                    │
├────────────────────────────────── Network ───────────────────────────────────┤
│ Interface                      Sent/MiB  Received/MiB                Address │
│ eth0                                  0             0       192.168.1.129/24 │
├─────────────────────────────── File systems ─────────────────────────────────┤
│ Mountpoint                     Used/GiB        Of/GiB             Percentage │
│ /                                    19            35                    57% │
├─────────────────────────────────── Users ────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Username     MEM/MiB            Top/MEM      CPU          Top/CPU   Time/min │
│ root             149           libvirtd     6.9%  updatedb.mlocat          0 │
│ linux-fan         32            systemd      11%             bash          0 │
│ messagebus         4        dbus-daemon       0%      dbus-daemon          0 │
│ ntp                3               ntpd       0%             ntpd          0 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Test Procedures

Live CDs

• Boot from actual DVD-ROM.
• Check if a (G)UI opens on the live CD.
• Try to run a webbrowser (firefox/w3m) and open https://masysma.lima-city.de

Installation

• Manual partitioning (ext4 for root + swap)
• Create user linux-fan and set root password.
• Use local Debian mirror
• Install “standard system utilities”, and “SSH server” tasks, install Laptop task on laptops [if asked for].
• The install is successful, if login works after installation and vim can be installed and run to edit file /etc/apt/sources.list.