Bug#1036358: release-notes: Debian 12 expected to be last release w/ installer for i386
Ansgar <ansgar@43-1.org> writes:
> On Fri, 2023-05-19 at 15:03 +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote:
>> My plan is therefore to ship i386 installer images
>> for bookworm as normal (including bookworm point releases going
>> forwards), but to disable those builds for testing/trixie
>> ~immediately after the release.
>
> I suggest to already document this in the release notes for bookworm,
> possibly in Section 2.1 (Supported architectures) or a subsection in
> Section 5 (Issues to be aware of for bookworm).
I suspect few would re-read 2.1 on upgrade... but is release-notes is
the best place to document what new installs can use? (maybe doesnt
matter as there wont be any new installs!)
> Maybe something along these lines:
>
> +---
> | Debian 12 is expected to be the last Debian release providing
> | full support for i386. Debian 13 will only partially support
> | i386 and no longer provide installation media for i386.
> |
> | We recommend hosts still running the i386 port to be upgraded
> | to amd64. Legacy i386 software can be run using multi-arch,
> | chroot environments or containers.
> +---
We already have a bit about i386 now meaning i686, but i think OK to
keep separate as that one is bookworm, and this is for the future
Adding links to explain jargon and adding markup: im hope ive got the right
arch-related entities right here...
<section id="i386-loses-full-support-from-trixie" arch="i386">
<title>
Bookworm is the last Debian release with full support for &arch-title;
<!-- i assume ok to capitalise 'B'ookworm here? saying 'Debian
bookworm' looked unneccessary -->
</title>
<para>
The next release, trixie, will not have full support for the
&architecture; architecture, for example there will be no official
installer. <!-- i assume people would object to saying that i386 is deprecated? -->
</para>
<para>
Debian recommends converting systems using the &architecture;
architecture to the 64-bit
PC architecture (known as <literal>amd64</literal>) before bookworm
becomes unsupported: <!-- any link to instructions to convert?
could make the work 'converting' a link to the amd64 installer if
nothing else ? -->
most computers manufactured since 2000<!-- AFAICS --> can use
<literal>amd64</literal>.
</para>
<para>
You can still run legacy 32-bit software on 64-bit systems using <ulink
url="&url-wiki;SystemVirtualization">containers</ulink>
<!-- did we use 'virtual machines' instead of 'containers' elsewhere? -->
or in <ulink
url="&url-wiki;Multiarch/HOWTO">multi-arch</ulink>
<ulink url="&url-wiki;chroot">chroots</ulink>.
</para>
</section>
(but shld use the &url-wiki; entity for wiki links)
Perhaps https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=995397 (Xen no
longer supports 32-bit Xen PV guests) also relevent to the last para.
Reply to: