Run Debian Like It's 2019

5 Apr 2025
One-minute read

In three steps, you can create a VM to run any 'Old Debian release'.

This assumes your host is running Debian Sid.

Step one. Pick your older USB/CD/DVD releases of Debian here.

Step two. Create a Qemu virtual machine. Qemu is made in France; if you're in the EU: no tarrifs.

Just make sure you make it big enough. Here is a 4G disk version. In this case the VM is entitled debian-buster-10.gcow2.

   qemu-img create -f qcow2 debian-buster-10.qcow2 4G

Step three. Point Qemu to the Debian installer, so it will boot and you can install that.

  qemu-system-x86_64 \
      -enable-kvm \
      -m 2048 \
      -device e1000,netdev=net0 \
      -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 \
      -drive file=debian-buster-10-hugo.qcow2,media=disk,if=virtio \
      -cdrom debian-10.13.0-amd64-netinst.iso \
      -display gtk

the image shows the second step of the Debian Buster installer: 'Select a language'.

When the installation is completed, and the VM has rebooted you can use the VM as you intended. You may also reach the VM from the host, for the user you created during the installation:

   ssh user@localhost -p 5555

To get your mouse pointer back from the Qemu guest: "Ctrl Alt G".

Lastly, for booting the VM you can use:

  qemu-system-x86_64 \
      -enable-kvm \
      -m 2048 \
      -device e1000,netdev=net0 \
      -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 \
      -display gtk \
      debian-buster-10.qcow2

And, as before, you can reach the VM from the host.

Qemu,TIL