Fresh install of Debian on L14

Ok this may be an incredibly stupid question (I’m pretty new to linux) but m trying to install a fresh copy of Debian 10 on my L14 and when booting to a USB drive, once selecting the install I get a bunch of purple lines at the top of the screen as if its trying to use the incorrect screen resolution at which point I get stuck. Has anyone experienced something similar and has a workaround?

I did hunt down another thread referring to an install of version 11 which as I’m aware hasn’t been released yet.

Any help would be fantastic.

It’s been ages since I was installing Debian from scratch. That said, this is what I would do:

  1. Get a daily build of debian installer (this installs debian testing, that is 11 as of now (2021-08-02). You may download mini.iso from there.
  2. Follow instructions from the debian installer manual on how to use that mini.iso image.

Not suprprised Debian 10 installer is giving erros, as reportedly Librem 14 needs newer kernel than the one used by said installer.

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I had the same issue installing Debian 11. I was not able to get 10 to work, likely because the kernel is too old, as @Dwaff mentioned.

In order to get past the purple/blueish (something) lines, @MrChromebox said I had to make sure the i915 kernel module was loaded early. Which I found out means putting i915 in /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and then running update-initramfs.

Unfortunately I don’t know how to do this during the installation process, maybe others do.

Hopefully in newer Debian versions this module will be automatically added to the early list due to better hardware detection.

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Thanks guys I managed to boot into Debian 11 from the mini.iso and run an install after splitting the drive to two partitions 1 for Debian which is encrypted and the other for later use. After the install I’ve restarted and run into all kinds of issues with the librem key and bios updates so I went through and resigned all the keys, updated everything it asked and changed the boot, but now it just shows “+++ Found verified kexec boot params” I’ve restarted and its runs through the normal “pureboot” sequence till it goes through the

******normal boot: /bin/gui-init
unable to locate /boot files on any mounted disk

it goes on to verify HOTP and attempts to boot then I get the same “+++ Found verified hexec boot params” and that’s where the process comes to a halt.

This particular approach on how to manually partition your drive couldn’t end up well! As GUI login screen is your first goal rather use automated partition (during install phase, review it how it is done afterwards and only if not pleased make new partition scheme for you, repeat installation with manual partition scheme of yours) of the whole (new) SSD as from now on stable releases of Debian 11 “bullseye” (for amd64) are available for download (and install). I’d choose full DVD one based on Debian-Installer, but Debian 11 “live install” images with Calamares Installer might be good choice to start with (easier ones for testing it on Librem 14). And please note that this worth to try guide wasn’t tested from my side as I don’t have Librem 14.