On Mon, 18 Jan 2021, Marc Haber wrote:
My understanding is that the live images are primarily intended for the typical "live system" use-case descended from things like Knoppix (boot machine from USB stick or optical media; use machine with OS from RAM, USB stick or optical media; shut down machine; no trace is left), with permanent installation via Calamares being considered somewhat experimental.
Ah indeed. My comment was a more abstract observation: if you can run the installer in a more familiar environment it is easier for users. I did not intend to say anything about the current state of any package or team.
I remember installing Debian once from a live image because the only network I had available was using 802.1x. Must have been a rather painless experience, since I don't remember much trouble about it.
I've also used it a couple of times. The only worry I have is that I end up with an installation that is different from d-i installations in some subtle way that will cause me to hit some weird bug in the future. I had similar problems with virt-install. I had to add all sorts of extra hacks to produce installations that were as identical to manual installations as possible.
https://lindi.iki.fi/lindi/debian10/server has my notes on how to do this with a server and https://lindi.iki.fi/lindi/debian10/ is an attempt to do it for desktop as well. Basically I first installed debian manually. Then I automated it and tweaked preseed and a custom shell script until the filesystem difference was minimal.