FAQ

What architectures are supported?

  • Jessie supports: i386, amd64, armel and armhf.

  • Stretch supports: i386, amd64, armel, armhf and arm64.

  • Buster supports: i386, amd64, armel, armhf and arm64.

Additionally, a few packages will not be supported in the LTS version of the release, primarily some web-based applications which cannot be supported for the additional timeframe. The tool ‘’check-support-status’’ from the package debian-security-support helps to detect such unsupported packages.

What about architectures other than i386/amd64/armel/armhf/arm64?

Those architectures are currently not supported by the Debian LTS team. If you have computers using those architectures you should always use the latest stable release of Debian.

The LTS team supports architectures that provide value to classes of users interested in LTS support. Currently this means that the architecture must have significant server deployments or must be used in big (desktop) deployments.

How much resources does the LTS team have?

The work is handled by volunteers and by paid contributors. The latter rely mainly on sponsorship collected through Freexian. Freexian’s reports show how much hours are sponsored and what has been done during those hours.

What is the time frame for LTS?

See dates on the Wiki main page.

Who will provide updates for LTS?

The release will not be handled by the Debian security team, but by a separate group of volunteers and companies interested in making it a success (with some overlap in people involved). Companies using Debian who are interested in aiding this effort should contact the mailing list debian-lts.

Where can bugs be reported?

Please report bugs that you found in the packages to the debian-lts mailing list. The bar for severity will be raised (minor issues will no longer be fixed).

Who fixes security issues with packages in backports?

Support for backports is entirely volunteer based and does not fall under those things which paid contributors are funded to maintain under LTS. As a result, backports for a given release are closed after 3 years so as to not overload (volunteer) backport maintainers with the responsibility of maintaining their backports for 5 years.

Can unattended upgrades be used on LTS after it stops being oldstable?

UnattendedUpgrades should work, but you should make sure that all your installed packages are supported. If you want to know how to check if packages get updates, see #what-architectures-are-supported for details. To get more informations about updates for packages from the backports, see the previous question on who fixes security issues in backports.

How can I install LTS now?

See https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Installing.

Where are past LTS releases archived?

See also debian-lts thread.

There are also further updates through ELTS.

I have another question about LTS. Whom can I ask?

Besides this website, you can join the debian-lts mailing list or join #debian-lts on IRC.