WIFI not working, Debian 10, Fujisu Siemens Laptop

[debonite]

I hope I am not cross posting, this is the first time I have ever posted on any forum. It is all new to me. I am inexperienced with WIFI, it normally just works from the GUI with little effort from me.

My problem, which I have been working on for the last three days, is with an old Fujistu Siemens Amilo Pro, model V3405 WL2. I am running a live version of Debian 10 and I find that WIFI does not work as I expect.

Yet, WIFI works with Puppy Linux on the same laptop. (Tahr V6)

On my Acer netbook, WIFI works with Debian 10 live correctly. The Acer is from about 2008. Wicd Network Manager scans for the WIFI access points and allows me to choose the cell I want to use.

On the Fujisu Siemens it just gives me an non-cooperative WIFI network not available message. No amount of wrestling with Wicd Network Manager makes any impression on the WIFI system. On the other hand, connecting to the wired network works correctly.

If Puppy can make WIFI work and Debian can't, could this be some small point I am missing?

I am using 32 bit software in all of this.

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

[arochester]

What is the output from the command

Code: Select all

lspci |grep Network

and

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lsusb

?

Can you Copy and Paste the result here please?

[sunrat]

If Puppy can make WIFI work and Debian can't, could this be some small point I am missing?

Yes the small point is called Debian Free Software Guidelines - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_Fr ... Guidelines
Debian won't ship software which is not free and open source so you won't get proprietary software like drivers in a standard Debian installation. There is a separate non-free repo from which you can install many of those.
Puppy, Ubuntu, and other distros ship with some non-free stuff so that is why some devices work ootb.

Post the info requested by arochester for further help.

[debonite]

Apologies for taking so long.

I am between two computers trying to resolve this problem.

Sorry arochester, I can't post anything as yet, except to say that lsusb refused to work until I installed usbutils, and lspci refused to give me anything but error messages despite using sudo.

In desperation, I opened the laptop and photographed the wireless module. Would it help if I posted its details.

Thank you, sunrat, for the link to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, I am beginning to think that this might be a driver issue.

Will work towards posting the results of lsusb and lspci.

Thank you.

[RU55EL]

Thank you, sunrat, for the link to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, I am beginning to think that this might be a driver issue.

Probably not a driver issue, probably a missing firmware issue.

The output from lspci and lsusb will help identify what firmware Debian needs to run the hardware.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

lspci refused to give me anything but error messages despite using sudo

Well post the error messages then. And lspci doesn't need sudo for the information we want.

probably a missing firmware issue

^ This.

[arochester]

That Fujitsu came with an Intel wifi. If the wifi has not been changed the firmware for that might work.

Can you connect TEMPORARILY by cable? Or tether a mobile phone to your laptop?

You need to ensure that your sources list includes contrib and non-free Follow the example in the wiki. https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList Scroll down to "If you also need the contrib and non-free components, add contrib non-free after main. For example, for Debian 10/Buster:"

Install the firmware iwlwifi. The wiki is here https://wiki.debian.org/iwlwifi

Reboot to make it identified..

[debonite]

It works! Although it might be a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, I downloaded the "+non-free" image and got it going straight off. So, WIFI is now working correctly.

Arrochester, thank you for your posting. I understand it and will look into it in the future. I know that I should have given you more information and better postings, but your postings have led me to a solution, for which I am grateful. I was able to connect temporarily by cable and it did work but it was at the expense of disconnecting my desktop computer. Also, I fiddled around with adding contrib non-free after main as you said, but did not manage to get iwlwifi working correctly. I think I was the the problem here.

Thank you to sunrat, your posting prompted me to look further with better understanding.

For the time being, I will use it as it is in its working state and then go over the iwlwifi wiki. Something for me to learn.

I don't know how to close this case, but I will do when I find out.

Kind regards