Debian-Installer errata

Errata for Stretch Alpha 7

This is a list of known problems in the Stretch Alpha 7 release of the Debian Installer. If you do not see your problem listed here, please send us an installation report describing the problem.

Wired Ethernet non-functional on certain arm-based systems
The version 4.5 of the Linux kernel (included in the Stretch Alpha 6 release) introduced a regression in the stmmac/dwmac Ethernet driver (#823493). This results in non-working wired ethernet on a number of systems whose Ethernet controller is based on the stmmac/dwmac design, which includes but is not limited to the following systems: various Olimex A20-Olinuxino models, LeMaker Banana Pi and Banana Pro, Sinovoip Banana Pi M1, Cubietech Cubieboard2 and Cubietruck, LinkSprite pcDuino3.
Status: Should be fixed in the Stretch Alpha 7 release.
GNOME may fail to start with some virtual machine setups
It was noticed during Stretch Alpha 4 image testing that GNOME might fail to start depending on the setup used for virtual machines. It seems using cirrus as an emulated video chip is fine.
Status: Being investigated.
Booting with grub from an XFS /boot partition fails
Grub might have trouble to boot from an XFS partition due to a feature it doesn't support yet (#802138). At this point, it is recommended to use a separate /boot partition with a different filesystem, which the installer will likely suggest in a later version. The need for this separate partition should disappear once proper support is implemented in grub.
Status: Should be fixed in the Stretch Alpha 5 release.
Desktop installations may not work using CD#1 alone
Due to space constraints on the first CD, not all of the expected GNOME desktop packages fit on CD#1. For a successful installation, use extra package sources (e.g. a second CD or a network mirror) or use a DVD instead.
Status: It is unlikely more efforts can be made to fit more packages on CD#1.
Theme used in the installer
There's no Stretch artwork yet, and the installer is still using the Jessie theme, which might be confusing (#793125).
Status: Worked around in Stretch Alpha 3.
Boot menus in multi-arch image
The boot menus of the multi-arch image suffer from some regression: Rescue menus are missing for the 32-bit flavours (#793118).
Status: Fixed in Stretch Alpha 2.
Encrypted installation failures
A regression in partman-crypto makes it impossible to perform encryption installations where settings are not set through preseeding (#793643).
Status: Fixed in Stretch Alpha 3.