Debian GNU/Linux

Debian GNU/Linux is an open source Linux operating system build from scratch by a team of talented developers and hackers who wanted to create an alternative to existing Linux distributions, such as Slackware. Dubbed “The Universal Operating System,” Debian GNU/Linux is used as a base for hundreds, if not thousands, of Linux distributions, including the world's most popular free operating system, Ubuntu Linux.

Distributed primarily as installable-only ISO images

It is distributed as network install images or installable-only CD or DVD ISO images, supporting the 64-bit (amd64, kfreebsd-amd64, ia64), 32-bit (i386, kfreebsd-i386), Armel, Armhf, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, s390, s390x, and MIPSel architectures.

Multi-arch ISO images are also available for download, but they only support network installations. Recent versions of the operating system are distributed with the KDE, Xfce and LXDE desktop environments.

Live CDs are available separately, as well as Rescue CDs

The project also provides Live CD images, which support only the 64-bit and 32-bit architectures, and can be used to test or install Debian with the KDE, GNOME, Xfce or LXDE desktop environments. Standard and Rescue CDs are also available for download on the official website, for anyone who wants to use a stable Debian base when dealing with various system administration and maintenance tasks.

Includes a wide-range of open source apps

Besides the default applications that are part of the GNOME, Xfce, KDE or LXDE desktop environments, Debian GNU/Linux also includes many other third-party apps for editing files, watching video streams, listening to music files, as well as numerous other essential core libraries and development packages.

Not a bleeding-edge Linux distribution

Unfortunately for some of us, Debian GNU/Linux is not a bleeding-edge Linux distribution. Instead, it is a very stable operating system that includes over 37,500 well tested packages, and precompiled software that can be easily installable. However, Debian GNU/Linux is the perfect operating system for those who want to deploy stable, reliable and powerful machines to their customers or friends.

What is new in this release:

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.

What is new in version 9.4.0:

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.

What is new in version :

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.

What is new in version 9.2.1:

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.

What is new in version 9.2.0:

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.

What is new in version 9.1.0:

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.

What is new in version 9.0.0:

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.

What is new in version 8.7.1:

• Important changes in this release of the installer:
• check-missing-firmware (in hw-detect) was updated to look at the kernel logs to determine which firmwares might be missing. This fixes the longstanding regression in this area compared to the Wheezy release (#725714).
• Artwork was updated to use the new "Lines" theme by Juliette Belin.
• Due to a change on the linux kernel side, the "---" separator is now used instead of the historical "--" one to separate kernel parameters from userland parameters. This makes it possible for user-params to do its job, and copy e.g. console="..." settings where they're expected in the installed system.
• On the i386 architecture, the 486 kernel flavour was renamed to 586 since it was determined that 486 hadn't been supported in a long while.
• Other changes in this release of the installer:
• brltty:
• Update autostart rules with newer devices.
• Fix auto-starting at-spi and orca in XFCE and LXDE.
• choose-mirror: Update the mirror list (this includes dropping cdn.debian.net).
• debootstrap: Add support for Debian stretch and Ubuntu vivid.
• debian-installer: Update documentation of required minimum disk size.
• efibootmgr: Better handle unreadable boot variables (#768880).
• espeakup:
• Fix spelling keystrokes and char-by-char echo (#767595).
• Fix spelling capital keystrokes (#770753).
• grub2: Add support for forcing an extra copy of grub-efi to the removable media path /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOT$ARCH.EFI (#767037, #773092, #773004).
• grub-installer:
• Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• Add extra support for forcing installation to the EFI removable media path (#767037).
• Add support for grub-installer/bootdev=default (#759737). To be used with caution!
• libdebian-installer: Recognise the new ignore_uefi flag from partman-efi.
• linux: Add ".0" to the kernel version string (#742226, #745984).
• netcfg:
• Add support for /etc/network/interfaces.d/ (#770078).
• Fix missing bounds check on nameserver array iteration, leading to a crash when 4 (or more) nameservers are available (#768218).
• partman-crypto: Add support for preseeding passphrases (#656710). To be used with caution!
• partman-efi:
• Set the "esp" flag for the ESP System Partition (#768788).
• Warn the user if we've booted in UEFI mode but we seem to have only non-UEFI existing OS installations - give them the option to switch the installer to non-UEFI mode from this point forwards so they don't break potential dual-boot setup (#763127).
• Force umask for /boot/efi in mount options (#770033).
• Only display "Force UEFI installation" dialog for x86 (#773311).
• partman-md: Fix mdadm.conf generation (#763073).
• win32-loader:
• Disable "Download Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as stable" as this won't be possible in Jessie.
• Drop now-redundant desktop selection (#762478).
• Avoid dll dependency issues (#772898).
• Hardware support changes:
• debian-installer:
• Add hd-media support for the armhf platform.
• Add scsi-modules to the cdrom flavour on ppc64el to be able to access the CD-ROM drive.
• Add grub.cfg to x86 netboot mini.iso for use on EFI systems (#762618).
• Add virtio-modules udebs to more arm images.
• Provide a PXE bootable grub.efi in the netboot flavour for amd64 and arm64.
• linux:
• [armhf] Add udeb modules to support video and keyboard for imx6 (#770635).
• [i386] Rename 486 flavour to 586 for udebs (#768288).
• [armhf] add chipidea usb host driver to usb-modules for i.MX6.
• [armhf] Add mtd-modules udeb.
• [armhf] Add Exynos5 disk/usb/nic modules to udebs.
• [armhf] Backport BananaPi device tree files (#763897).
• udeb: Add pata_rdc to pata-modules (#633128).
• partman-base: Improve detection of bootloader area, for Freescale and AM33XX systems (770666).
• u-boot:
• [armhf] Add Bananapi target.
• Enable A10-OLinuXino-Lime, A20-OLinuXino-LIME, Cubieboard2, and Cubieboard2_FEL targets (#762383).
• Disable efikamx and efikasb targets.
• Add nitrogen6q support to u-boot-imx.
• Add support for the Arndale board (#763186).
• Build FEL variants for all sunxi platforms.
• Localization status:
• 75 languages are supported in this release.
• Full translation for 19 of them.