diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f78e78a..b753402 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,26 @@ for 1.0.0 have something to be assembled from.
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+## 1.0.3
+
+Two Arch-isms in the installer, both of which only a Debian machine could find.
+`deploy/lxc-install.sh` had never been executed — it was reviewed and
+syntax-checked, which is not the same claim — and running it is what found them.
+
+- Fixed: **`deploy/install.sh` could not create its virtualenv on Debian**, and
+  so `deploy/lxc-install.sh` could not finish. It called bare `python`, which is
+  Python 3 on Arch — the machine this was written and only ever run on — and
+  does not exist on Debian at all unless `python-is-python3` is installed. The
+  LXC bootstrap installs `python3`, so the install aborted at the virtualenv
+  step with the service user, the bind mount and the clone already made. It now
+  calls `python3`, which is right on both.
+- Fixed: the service account was created with `--shell /usr/bin/nologin`, which
+  is where Arch keeps it and where Debian does not. Nothing invoked it — `sudo -u`
+  execs directly and systemd's `User=` never reads a shell — so the account
+  worked either way, but it was created pointing at a file that was not there.
+  Now `/usr/sbin/nologin`, which is correct on Debian and resolves on Arch too,
+  since Arch's `/usr/sbin` is a symlink to `bin`.
+
 ## 1.0.2
 
 - **The documentation moved to the [wiki](https://git.houmeres.sk/Houmeres/LLeMbas/wiki).**
diff --git a/deploy/install.sh b/deploy/install.sh
index bb62287..ce116bb 100755
--- a/deploy/install.sh
+++ b/deploy/install.sh
@@ -95,9 +95,13 @@ fi
 echo "== service user =="
 # --system: no ageing, no mail spool. Home under /home, not /var/lib, so the
 # venv and database sit on the larger volume.
+#
+# `/usr/sbin/nologin` is Debian's path and works on both: Arch keeps `nologin`
+# in /usr/bin, but its /usr/sbin is a symlink to bin, so the Debian spelling
+# resolves there while the Arch one does not resolve on Debian at all.
 if ! getent passwd "$SERVICE_USER" >/dev/null; then
   sudo useradd --system --create-home --home-dir "$HOME_DIR" \
-       --shell /usr/bin/nologin --comment "LLeMbas" "$SERVICE_USER"
+       --shell /usr/sbin/nologin --comment "LLeMbas" "$SERVICE_USER"
 else
   echo "   user $SERVICE_USER already exists"
 fi
@@ -120,8 +124,13 @@ else
 fi
 
 echo "== virtualenv =="
+# `python3`, not `python`. On Arch -- the machine this was written on and the
+# only one it had ever run on -- `python` is Python 3 and the bare name worked.
+# On Debian it does not exist unless somebody installed `python-is-python3`, so
+# the LXC bootstrap aborted here, after the service user, the bind mount and the
+# clone were already in place. `python3` is correct on both.
 if [[ ! -x "$VENV/bin/python" ]]; then
-  sudo -u "$SERVICE_USER" python -m venv "$VENV"
+  sudo -u "$SERVICE_USER" python3 -m venv "$VENV"
 fi
 sudo -u "$SERVICE_USER" "$VENV/bin/pip" install --quiet --upgrade pip
 # The extras a deployment gets. `search` because DuckDuckGo is the default web
diff --git a/src/lembas/__init__.py b/src/lembas/__init__.py
index 9fa4e24..cb530f2 100644
--- a/src/lembas/__init__.py
+++ b/src/lembas/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """LLeMbas - a Middle-earth themed web UI for OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoints."""
 
-__version__ = "1.0.2"
+__version__ = "1.0.3"