Skip to content

Install Debian 12 on Dell Wyse 3040 Thin-Client

This guide will walk you through the process of installing Debian 12, ensuring a reliable and flexible operating system for your projects.

Download Debian 12

Download the latest Debian 12 image for your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client from the official Debian website.

Create a Bootable USB Drive

Create a bootable USB drive using the downloaded Debian 12 image. You can use tools like Rufus on Windows or dd on Linux/Mac to write the image to the USB drive.

Using dd on Linux/Mac

  1. Identify the USB drive using lsblk or diskutil list.
  2. Unmount the USB drive with umount /dev/sdX or diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX.
  3. Write the Debian 12 image to the USB drive using dd. Replace /dev/sdX or /dev/diskX with your USB drive identifier. 
    sudo dd bs=4M if=debian-12.8.0-amd64-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdX; sync
  4. Eject the USB drive with eject /dev/sdX or diskutil eject /dev/diskX on Mac.

BIOS/UEFI Settings to Boot from USB Drive

Before installing Debian 12 on your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client, you need to change the BIOS/UEFI settings to boot from the USB drive.

  1. Insert the bootable USB drive into your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client.
  2. Power on your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client.
  3. Press the F2 key repeatedly during boot to enter the BIOS/UEFI settings.
  4. Navigate to the General > Boot Sequence tab using the arrow keys.
  5. Enable the USB Storage Boot option. (In my case, it was UEFI: SanDisk Cruzer Micro 8.02, Partition 1.)
  6. Change the boot order to prioritize the USB drive.
  7. Click Apply and Exit to save the changes and reboot.
Dell Wyse 3040 BIOS/UEFI Settings
Dell Wyse 3040 BIOS/UEFI Settings

Boot from USB Drive and Install Debian 12

  1. Your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client should now boot from the USB drive.
  2. Choose the Graphical Install option to start the Debian 12 installation process with a graphical interface. Debian 12 Graphical Install
  3. Choose your preferred language, location, and keyboard layout.
  4. Enter the hostname for your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client. (In my case, I used dell-mainsail.) Debian 12 Hostname
  5. Enter the domain name if required. (You can leave it blank if not needed.) Debian 12 Domain Name
  6. Set the root password for your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client. Debian 12 Root Password
  7. Create a new user account for your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client and type in the friendly name for the user. (In my case, I created a user named klipper.) Debian 12 User Account
  8. Set the username for the new user account. (Just press Enter to use the same username as the friendly name.) Debian 12 Username
  9. Set the password for the new user account. Debian 12 User Password
  10. The next step is the Disk partitioning. This will be a little bit tricky because of the limited internal storage of the Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client. In the first step, you need to choose Guided - use entire disk for a simple pre partitioning setup. Debian 12 Disk Partitioning
  11. Select the disk to partition. (In my case, it was MMC/SD Card #1 (mmcblk0) - 7.8 GB MMC H8G4A?.) Debian 12 Disk Selection
  12. Choose the partitioning scheme. (I selected All files in one partition (recommended for new users) for simplicity.) Debian 12 Partitioning Scheme
  13. Now, you will see a summary of the disk partitioning. Here we need to make some changes to optimize the storage usage. Select the ESP partition and press Enter. Debian 12 Disk Summary
  14. Delete the ESP partition by selecting Delete the partition and then Delete. Debian 12 Delete ESP Partition
  15. Repeat the same process for all other partitions, until you have only free space left. Debian 12 Disk Summary After Deletion
  16. Select the free space and press Enter, then choose Create a new partition to create a new partition. Debian 12 Create New Partition
  17. Choose the partition size for the first partition. Here we will create a small partition for the boot files. I choose 100M for the boot partition. Debian 12 Partition Size
  18. In the next step, choose the partition location. Select Beginning to create the partition at the beginning of the free space. Debian 12 Partition Location
  19. Now you have to set the first partition. This will be the boot partition. Use the following settings:
    • Name: EFI
    • Use as: EFI System Partition
    • Bootable flag: on After setting the partition, press Done setting up the partition. Debian 12 Partition Type
  20. Now, you will see the new partition created. Select the free space again and create a new partition for the root filesystem. Choose Create a new partition and set the partition size. I used the remaining space for the root partition. Then you should see a summary of the disk partitioning for the root partition. Debian 12 Create New Partition
  21. At least, select Done setting up the partition to finish the disk partitioning. If it looks like the following image, you can continue with the installation with the Finish partitioning and write changes to disk. Debian 12 Disk Summary After Partitioning
  22. In the next step, you will get a warning, that you have not created a swap partition. You can select No to continue without a swap partition. Debian 12 Swap Partition
  23. Confirm the changes to write the partitioning to the disk. Debian 12 Write Changes to Disk
  24. After the partitioning is completed, the installation of the base system will start. At some point, you will be asked to configure the package manager location. Choose your preferred Debian archive mirror. Debian 12 Package Manager
  25. In the next step, you can choose the Debian archive mirror itself. Debian 12 Archive Mirror
  26. The last step to configure the package manager is to set the HTTP proxy information. You can leave it blank if you don't use a proxy. Debian 12 HTTP Proxy
  27. Configure the popularity-contest package if you want to participate in the Debian user experience improvement program. (I chose No.) Debian 12 Popularity Contest
  28. Choose the software to install. I deselected all options except for the SSH server and standard system utilities. Debian 12 Software Selection
  29. The installation of the base system will continue. After the installation is complete, you will see this Display.
    IMPORTANT: Do not reboot your system yet. You need to install the bootloader manually. Debian 12 Base System Installation
  30. To install the bootloader, click on Go Back, then select Execute a shell and click Continue. Debian 12 Execute a Shell
  31. Before you see the shell, you will see this dialog. Click Continue to proceed. Debian 12 Execute a Shell Warning
  32. The shell will open. Type the following commands to check the disk name to mount the EFI partition. 
    mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/boot/EFI/BOOT
touch /mnt/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
exit
    Debian 12 Shell Commands
  33. With a last click on Continue, the installation will be completed. Now you the system will reboot.
  34. Remove the USB drive from your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client.
  35. During the boot up, you should hit F2 again to enter the BIOS/UEFI settings and change the boot order to boot from the internal storage.
  36. Enter the BIOS/UEFI settings and navigate to the General > Boot Sequence tab. Enable the Boot Sequence debian and change the boot order to prioritize it to the top. Dell Wyse 3040 Boot Sequence
  37. Save the changes with Apply and Exit to reboot your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client.
  38. Debian 12 should now boot from the internal storage of your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client and you should see the console login screen. Debian 12 Desktop
  39. Congratulations! You have successfully installed Debian 12 on your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client.

Additional Steps

After installing Debian 12 on your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client, you can further customize the system to suit your needs. Here are some additional steps you can take:

Install sudo and Add User to sudo Group

  1. Log in to your Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client with the root account you created during the installation.
  2. Install the sudo package using the following command: 
    apt update
apt install sudo
  3. Add your user account to the sudo group to grant administrative privileges: bash usermod -aG sudo your_username

After completing these steps, you can log in with your user account via SSH and perform administrative tasks using sudo.

Reduce Boot Time with changing wait time in GRUB

Open the /etc/default/grub file with a text editor and change the GRUB_TIMEOUT value to 1. This will reduce the boot time significantly.

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Change the following line: 

GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
to 
GRUB_TIMEOUT=1

Save the file and update the GRUB configuration with the following command: 

sudo update-grub

Fix issue with reboot and shutdown

The Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client has an issue with HSUART DMA, which can cause problems during reboot and shutdown. To fix this issue, you have to add some lines to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf. To do this, open the file with a text editor: 

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
and add the following lines: 
blacklist dw_dmac_core
install dw_dmac /bin/true
install dw_dmac_core /bin/true
Save the file with Ctrl + S and exit the editor with Ctrl + X. To apply the changes, you have to execute the following command: 
sudo update-initramfs -u

Now you can shut down and reboot the system without any issues. To test the changes, you can execute the following command: 

sudo poweroff
after the system is powered off, you can start it again with a press on the power button.

References