On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 11:16:00AM +0200, Christian Britz wrote: > Hello dear Debianists, > > if a new system has at least basic hardware support by the kernel > provided by the Debian installer, you can solve many hardware problems > by installing a newer kernel from backports after the system setup. > > Is there a solution for the case where the installer kernel is too old > for core components like storage system support? Is there a way to use > the installer itself with a backports kernel? > > Regards, > Christian > -- > http://www.cb-fraggle.de >
This is a hard one: the kernel, initial ram disk and firmware are all fairly closely aligned in the install medium. If you can get through much of the installer with the d-i kernel: You may be able to drop down to a shell in the target environment - edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add the backports repository. At the end, just before you exit - drop to the target shell once again and apt install the new kernel and newer firmware. Rerun the grub-install step just to check - then exit. As you reboot, so the backports kernel should be first. If graphics card configuration/firmware is an issue: text mode expert install may well help - the text mode install tries to find compatible VESA modes. In some sense: this is the issue of very new hardware - for any distribution - and there's no good clear answer. Debian - on a two year release cycle now, more or less - is at least ahead of Red Hat where the distribution may have to be kept stable in kernel version and ABI but current for ten years afterwards. All the very best, as ever, Andy Cater
