How to install a stable system with a backport kernel

[Alex King <alex@king.net.nz>]

I need to install a stable system, but with a kernel from backports (or 
testing).  I am using netboot.

The system needs drivers from a more modern kernel than what's in stable to 
access its disks.

Currently the only way I can see to install this system is to use another (non 
debian installer) method, such as fai or installing a testing system on a small 
partition and using that to debootstrap the system I want.  For various reasons 
both are not ideal.

Here are some ways I can think of to solve this problem:

1. Use an installer compiled with a backport kernel.  This does not exist to my 
knowledge, but if anyone can point me to a netboot.tar.gz that does this I would 
be happy.

2. Use the testing installer, but pass --release stretch or --release 
stretch-backports to the installer.  This does not work, the installer complains 
it can't find kernel modules.  Even if booted with an appropriate monolithic 
kernel (I tried), this doesn't work.

3. Run the testing installer, but swap the release to stretch at the start of 
the install the base system stage.  Any hints on how to do that?  I see the 
following in choose-mirror.postinst:

# If a -support udeb is available for the selected release, install it
# This will mostly be used to preserve backwards compatibility with stable
if db_get mirror/codename && [ "$RET" ]; then
       anna-install $RET-support || true
fi

But it seems using the net installer, there is no way to run with a --release 
that is not the same version as the installer. Perhaps we need a 
--installer-release and --target-release?


All ideas welcome.

Thanks,

Alex